The Samyukta Kisan Morcha has accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to orchestrate a shift in the epicentre of the farmers’ movement from Delhi’s borders to Haryana by constantly provoking agitating peasants in the latter state.

Given that Haryana is the state most invested in the movement against the Centre’s new farm laws after Punjab, there have been frequent face-offs with the administration as farmers have been boycotting or gheraoing events attended by leaders of the BJP and ally JJP, triggering sporadic clashes and arrests.

The latest face-off was at Tohana in Fatehabad district on Thursday after farmers protested outside the residence of JJP legislator Devender Singh Babli.

Matters have escalated and farm leader Rakesh Tikait, who has emerged as a face of the movement after a reluctant start, is now sitting on a dharna at the Tohana toll, demanding the release of the farmers arrested for the incident. Tikait, too, had alleged on Thursday night that the Centre was conspiring to shift the movement to Haryana.

Stating that the gherao of Babli was one in a series of episodes where farmers are being provoked into action and then arrested, Yudhveer Singh of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait) announced on Friday that since the Haryana government likes to imprison people, Rakesh Tikait and BKU (Haryana) leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni will lead farmers to the Tohana city prison on Saturday for a “jail bharo” agitation.

“This will not be a one-day programme but we will continue to do this. Let us see how much space they have in their jails,” Yudhveer Singh said while addressing the media after a meeting of the SKM general body at the Singhu border protest site.

The SKM is an umbrella outfit of 40 farm unions spearheading the movement against the three new laws.

Chaduni said that while farmers would continue to boycott or gherao BJP and JJP leaders in Haryana, this would be restricted to the politicians’ public appearances for official programmes, not when they are out on personal engagements.

As for the protests along Delhi’s key borders of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur, the SKM leadership maintained that there was no question of going back after having come this far and staying for over six months now.

Upset with the manner in which the government is once again trying to weaken the movement using state power in Haryana, the SKM has decided that batches of farmers from the state will proceed to the three borders keeping in mind Covid protocols.

The new protest action in Haryana notwithstanding, the SKM will continue with its plan to observe Saturday — June 5 — as “Sampoorna Kranti Divas” in memory of Jayprakash Narayan’s call for Total Revolution given on this day in 1974. For the protesting farmers, this is now a “black day” as it was on June 5 last year when the Modi government had introduced the three farm laws as ordinances in the midst of the pandemic.