The Farmers Protest is a year-long protest that is not in the headlines in the mainstream media, except some, but the unity among farmers remains, and after one year of protest, the government announced it will take back the farm bills on which the farmers resisted. When the government of India came up with three ordinances related to agriculture, which have infuriated the farmers of the nation for more than a year. The three farm acts were passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020. The farmers of Punjab and Haryana were out on the streets to protest against three ordinances since then. There were a number of incidents such as the Farmers’ 2021 Republic Day Protest, the Lakhimpur Kheri Violence, and the lynching of an alleged desecrater by Nihangs that resulted in hundreds of farmers’ deaths during these rallies.
The Bhartiya Kisan Union and other farmer organisations sought permission from the Haryana government for a protest rally against these ordinances, which were denied by the BJP-led government in view of the corona virus. But the farmers didn’t pay heed to the government and a rally of more than a hundred farmers was organized. Along with the tractors, they came on the roads and raised slogans like “Save the Farmers, Save the Mandis”. Some dubbed the rally the “tractor protest” because it was organised while sitting on tractors. In some places, the situation turned violent and it was alleged that the farmers were being lathi-charged by the police.
On January 26, 2021, farmers, along with their tractors, held a farmers’ parade in Delhi. There were about ten thousand farmers at the rally. The protesters deviated from the pre-sanctioned routes permitted by the Delhi police, resulting in clashes with the police. Later, protestors reached the Red Fort and installed union flags and a religious flag on the mast on the rampart of the Red Fort.
Finally, on November 19, 2021, the union government decided to repeal the bills, and both houses of Parliament passed the Farm Laws Repeal Bill on November 29, 2021.
Now it’s been a year since the farmers protested against the Centre’s three farm laws. Farmers have been camping at three border points with Delhi-Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur for the last 12 months. The acts have been described as “anti-farmer laws” by many farmer unions and politicians from the opposition. The farmers have also demanded the creation of a Minimum Support Price (MSP) bill. The MSP demand is only to ensure that corporations can not control the prices.
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Syed Khalid Niyazi Shah is an author at The Chenab Times.
