The country is looking up to Bengal to “resist the anti-people measures of the BJP regime”, a farmer leader from Singhu told a Calcutta rally on Thursday.
“Bengal and Punjab are the cradle of revolutionaries, having contributed most in India’s freedom struggle. Punjab has already launched a full-scale protest against the black farm laws. The protests are spreading across the country. Now, if Bengal throws its full weight behind these protests, the BJP regime will have no place to hide,” said Rajinder Singh Deep Singh Wala, a leader of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha is the joint platform of farmers’ organisations spearheading the movement against the new farm laws.
The farm laws will ultimately hit the middle class, Singh said.
“It is absolutely wrong to assume the new laws will only affect farmers. They will affect two-thirds of the population dependent on the PDS (public distribution system). The middle class will also not be spared. So, it is the duty of every section of the society to protest against these black laws,” Singh told the audience.
“From farm laws to rising fuel prices, the condition of the working-class population has seldom been so challenging in the country,” he added.
Singh, who hails from Deep Singh Wala village in Faridkot, Punjab, has been camping at the Singhu border near Delhi for over three months.
He was among the SKM leaders to have called out “pro-Khalistani” groups’ attempts to “sabotage” the Republic Day tractor rally. “Since then, my wife and I have been receiving several abusive messages and threats on social media from the pro-Khalistani groups. The irony is, my own government is also branding me an anti-national,” Singh told this newspaper.
Bengal, and every other state, should take part in the protests because the contentious farm laws “not only undermined farmers but were detrimental to the food security of millions of Indians”, he added.
The 38-year-old, who represents the Kirti Kisan Union, one of the many organisations in the SKM, was on a one-day visit to Calcutta. On Thursday afternoon, he was the star speaker at a rally called under the banner of a “Forum to save the Indian Constitution and the state of West Bengal from Fascist Forces”.
The rally was held near the headquarters of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation near Esplanade.
“According to the new law, the government will not intervene unless the price of potato and onion increases by over 100 per cent. Say, the price of onion is now Rs 60 per kilo. It can shoot up to Rs 110 per kilo. But the government will do nothing. You will have two options, either burn a hole in your pocket or stop eating onion,” he said.
The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, implies that the government could impose limits on hoarding only if there is a 100 per cent increase in the retail prices of horticulture produce, such as fruits and vegetables, or 50 per cent in the retail prices of non-perishable items such as cereals, pulses or oil.
Singh said more leaders from the SKM would visit Calcutta in the coming days, as Bengal gears up for the polls. “They will tell people to vote for anyone but the BJP,” said Singh.
