By Ananya Sharma
“Our points remain the same…, one day the government will fulfil our demand”
New Delhi: Even as they prepared to attend the scheduled meeting called by Union Agriculture Minister Narender Singh Tomar for further talks tomorrow, the protesting farmer leaders today called for a ‘Bharat Bandh‘ on December 8 to press for their demand to repeal the new farm laws and a new Minimum Support Price (MSP) Act.
The farmers’ protest entered the ninth day today. Bhartiya Kisan Union General Secretary Dharmendra Malik told globalbihari. com, “Today we did our meeting in the noon at 12 and there we decided that Bharat Bandh on December 8”.
When asked about what points they will discuss in tomorrow’s meeting with the Central ministers, he said the points will “remain the same as earlier that we want proper law on MSP and Government should take back all the bills”.
To a question on what if their talks tomorrow end in a stalemate, he said, “From our end we will try our best. Rest we will see what happens. One day government will agree with us and will fulfil our demand. “
BKU General Secretary HS Lakhowal said at Singhu Border that the farmers will also go ahead with their plans to burn the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi across the country tomorrow.
In the meantime, after former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal returned his Padma Vibhushan yesterday to express his solidarity with the farmers, today novelist Dr Jaswinder Singh returned his Bhartiya Sahitya Akademi Award and former national boxing coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu too announced of returning his Dronacharya award to show his support to the farmers.
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) President Manjinder Singh Sirsa informed through a series of tweets that the DSCMC had sent a legal notice to Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut on Friday and wanted an apology for her offensive tweets to defame the protesting farmers, and for her derogatory tweet calling the aged mother of a farmer as a woman available for ₹100. “We demand an unconditional apology from her for her insensitive remarks on farmers protest,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, The Editors’ Guild of India today issued a Media Advisory on the news coverage of the ongoing farmers’ protests in the national capital. The Guild said it was concerned about the news coverage of the farmers’ protests wherein certain sections of the media were labelling them as “Khalistanis”, “anti-nationals”, and “other such terms to delegitimise the protests without any evidence or proof”. The EGI stated that “this goes against the tenets of responsible and ethical journalism. Such actions compromise the credibility of the media”. The EGI advised media organisations to display “fairness, objectivity, and balance in reporting the farmers’ protests, without displaying partisanship against those who are exercising their constitutional rights to express themselves. Media shouldn’t be complicit to any narrative that derogates dissent and stereotypes protestors based on their attire and ethnicity”.
