Farmers camped at Delhi’s Singhu, Tikri, and Ghaziabad borders will march in victory today as they return to their homes in Punjab and Haryana following a 15-month uprising that forced the centre to repeal three disputed farm laws.
Farmers are gradually dismantling their makeshift camps along the border as the agitation comes to a close. Farmers withstood the elements as well as labels like “terrorists” and “khalistanis.” They’ll assemble for a few ceremonies before setting out on their trek home.
It has been learned that special arrangements have been made along the highways to greet the farmers as they return home on tractors.
The triumph march was supposed to take place yesterday, but it was postponed after a devastating chopper crash in Tamil Nadu killed 13 people, including Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat.
Farmers stood entrenched at protest sites after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the three laws will be repealed, citing other demands such as a legal guarantee on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the removal of prosecutions filed against protesting farmers.
They indicated their intention to return only when the centre delivered a written proposal on the outstanding requests to the Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s five-member committee, which is leading the agitation.
The government has decided to set up a committee to decide on the MSP problem. The committee will be made up of government officials, agriculture specialists, and Kisan Morcha representatives. The government has also agreed to dismiss all police cases against farmers, including stubble-burning complaints and those brought by Haryana and Uttar Pradesh cops in response to protester skirmishes.
The centre has announced Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have granted in-principle consent, while Punjab has already made an announcement, in response to the Kisan Morcha’s demand for compensation for the deaths of 700-plus farmers during the protest.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah engaged with farmer representatives over the phone to discuss unresolved issues, prompting the centre’s proposal.
With the farmers having returned home after pushing the government into a climdown, attention has shifted away from the protest sites along the Delhi-Punjab border and toward the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
All eyes will now be on the impact of the farmers’ movement, as well as the merciless measures to suppress it, on the outcome of these elections, particularly in strategically critical Uttar Pradesh, where four protesting farmers were allegedly driven over by the son of a Union Minister.
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