Farmers protesting against the Centre's three farm laws decided on Sunday not to shift to the Burari ground in the national capital and stay put at the Delhi borders.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on Saturday appealed to the farmers to shift to the Sant Nirankari ground in Burari that was offered to them for peaceful protests and said the Centre was ready to hold discussions with them as soon as they move to the designated place.
But thousands of farmers continued to protest at the Singhu and Tikri borders on the fourth consecutive day on Sunday.
“We have decided that we will stay put at the Delhi borders. We will not go to Burari,” Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda) president Buta Singh Burjgill said over the phone.
The decision was taken by representatives of several farmers organisations, he said.
Farmer leader Harmeet Singh Kadian, who is the president of BKU (Kadian), too said that the protesters would not shift to the Burari ground.
Reacting to the Union home minister's appeal, Kadian told reporters near the Singhu border that the Centre should not impose any condition for holding talks with the farmers. “We do not want any pre-condition. We want a meeting TO be held without any condition. We are ready for talks,” Kadian said.
More farmers were likely to join the protesters at the Delhi borders soon, a farmer leader said.
The All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh and various factions of Bharatiya Kisan Union had given the call for the “Dilli Chalo” march.
Farmers protesting against the Centre's three farm laws have expressed apprehension that these will pave a way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big corporates.
The Centre has invited several Punjab farmer organisations for another round of talks in Delhi on December 3 amid efforts by various sections of the ruling establishment to label the agitation as “Khalistani” and “Congress-sponsored”.
“Haryana chief minister M.L. Khattar should make up his mind first. One moment he says Khalistani elements are involved. The next moment he says Amarinder Singh is behind it. Is Amarinder a Khalistani?” Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh asked on Saturday.
He referred to a video clip in which an angry farmer is heard saying that if Indira Gandhi could be targeted, who was Modi. The same clip, which seemed to represent the personal rant of an anguished individual, was cited by the BJP’s IT cell chief, Amit Malviya, too.
While police in Haryana and Delhi, which both report to BJP governments, have moved heaven and earth to stop the farmers from marching to Delhi — digging up highways, firing tear gas shells, putting up barbed wire fences, blocking roads with trucks and firing water cannons at the protesters, a large number of whom are elderly — the party’s leaders have attempted to malign the farmers by linking them with “Khalistanis”.
On Saturday, hundreds of farmers from BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh arrived at the state’s Ghazipur border with Delhi to join the agitation for the repeal of the farm laws, forced through Parliament by the Modi government.
Farmers came from Madhya Pradesh too, another BJP-ruled state, besides Congress-ruled Rajasthan. In Haryana, BJP ally JJP gave the lie to Khattar’s statement that only Punjab’s farmers were protesting when it issued a statement saying: “During the past two days, farmers, especially those from Haryana and Punjab, are marching to Delhi in support of their demands. Thousands of farmers are on roads to keep their views before the government….”