Farmers’ collective Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which had spearheaded the yearlong protest that forced the Narendra Modi government to repeal the three contentious farm laws, on Monday extended support to the struggle against Agnipath and called for a protest on June 24.

According to the SKM, farmers are directly affected by the government’s decision to introduce this form of contractual recruitment for the armed services as many of their children have been waiting and training for recruitment that has been held up since 2019. Throughout the farmers’ struggle, the SKM had maintained that “a jawan is a farmer in uniform”.

Calling for peaceful protests, the SKM coordination committee — at a meeting in Karnal on Monday — termed Agnipath as “anti-military, anti-farmer and anti-national”, maintaining that “when the central government is bent upon destroying the spirit of the slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”, it is the duty of the farmers’ movement to stand shoulder to shoulder with the jawans in this struggle”.

Stating that most of the soldiers are from farmer families, the SKM in a statement said: “Army job is tied to the honour and economic strength of lakhs of farmer families. It is a matter of shame for the country that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who started his victory campaign by rallying ex-servicemen with the promise of ‘One Rank One Pension’, has now launched this scheme of ‘No Rank No Pension’. The huge cut in regular recruitment in the army is a betrayal of the farmer sons who had cherished the dream of serving in the army for years.”

Further, they see an attempt to punish states most active in the farmer protest through the decision to shift to an “all India, all class” recruitment scheme.

“It is not a coincidence that in this scheme, recruiting under the rule of ‘All India All Class’ will result in the biggest reduction in recruitment from the very areas where the farmers’ movement was more active. This government, stunned by its defeat at the hands of the farmers’ movement, has another ploy to take revenge on the farmers,” the SKM leadership noted while urging all its members to organise peaceful protests at the district, tehsil or block headquarters on June 24.