Nearly 1,000 farmers from Odisha are ready to leave for Delhi on January 15 to join the ongoing protest against the farm laws and the “cold-blooded murder” of their brethren who have been camping in the open on the outskirts of the national capital in the chilly winter.
The Odisha farmers have started a door to door campaign to collect funds to defray the cost of their journey to Delhi.
Earlier, more than 50 farmers from Odisha had joined the protests in Delhi and then returned back home to mobilise others for the cause.
Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan convener Akshay Kumar told The Telegraph: “Cold-blooded murder is taking place in Delhi. Farmers are dying in the chilly winter and they are also committing suicide. Is it not cold-blooded murder? But the Centre is yet to take a conclusive decision to repeal the farm laws which are meant to serve only the interests of corporates. They are adopting a thakao (tire out) and bhagao (drive out) policy against the protesters. More and more farmers from different parts of the state are going to join the agitation till the goal is achieved. We all are planning to go to Delhi by bus and other vehicles as there is every chance of being detained en route during a train journey.”
“From today (Monday) onwards, camps are being organised in different parts of the state to mobilise the farmer leaders to join the stir. In order to sustain the movement, a campaign was launched today to collect funds from farmers. Farmers willing to go to Delhi will be requested to contribute
Rs 2,000 for their 15-day stay in Delhi. Those who are not going to Delhi will be asked to contribute according to their capacity for the thousands of farmers who are protesting in Delhi,” he added.
Ahead of the journey to Delhi, nearly 5,000 farmers will congregate here on January 15 to lodge their protest against the farm laws.
“Earlier the Naveen Patnaik government had opposed the farmers’ entry into the city. However, this time we are hopeful that the state government will allow them to gather,” he said.
Alleging that the Narendra Modi government has usurped the powers of the state on farm related issues, Kumar quoted historian and writer Ramachandra Guha’s article “In poor health” that appeared in this newspaper on Saturday. “As Harish Damodaran has pointed out, since the Constitution clearly places both ‘agriculture’
and ‘markets’ on the state list, on these matters, ‘the Centre can encourage, incentivise, persuade and cajole states. However, it cannot legislate on its own. Nonetheless, through a creative (mis)interpretation of an item in the concurrent list which covers trade and commerce in foodstuffs, the Centre had these bills passed, through the dubious procedure in Parliament described above, and without consulting the states at all,” he said.
He added: “We want that MSP should be legalised and farm laws which are in favour of the corporates should be repealed immediately.”
All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee state convener Suresh Panigrahi also quoted Guha’s article and said: “Consider the manner in which the farm bills were ‘passed’ through the Rajya Sabha, with the deputy-chairman of the House, Harivansh, violating all the rules and norms of Parliament by refusing to allow actual voting, and making the bills into law on the basis of his own sense of the House.”
“We are against the farm bills. Many farmers are already camping in Delhi and more will join them despite the chilly winter,” he said.
Farmer Damburu Soren, who joined the farmers’ rally in Delhi and is now camping near Gwalior with his friends, said: “There is ‘josh’ (excitement) among the farmers in Delhi. Despite the chilly winter, they are quite enthusiastic and upbeat. I met farmers from across the country. They have come from everywhere, from Kerala to Haryana. We the farmers from the eastern part of the country, including Bengal and Jharkhand, are also participating. The number of farmers will swell further after January 15 once the winter becomes less severe.”