Samyukt Kisan Morcha suspense over agitation continues

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha meeting on Wednesday remained inconclusive as farmers' leaders were still deliberating on the future course of agitations near Delhi's borders. The decision is likely to be taken at the December 4 meeting.

After a meeting at the Singhu border, the SKM said in a statement that the BJP government should stop attempts to divide farmers. It also appealed to farmers and the media not to believe reports that the protests were winding down. The SKM hinted that it's ready to propose senior farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal's name for the MSP committee. Another name could be of an agriculture expert from Punjab.

"The laws have been repealed. The government won't bring the electricity bill and has said stubble burning won't be criminal. The government has approached us for forming an MSP committee. We can keep fighting on issues like MSP, Swaminathan Committee report and others. But everyone needs to go home now," Jamhoori Kisan Sabha general secretary KS Sandhu told ET. "There are issues of loan waiver with the Punjab government too and we will fight for that also." JKS is one of the 32 unions from Punjab in SKM.


"There is a growing consensus among unions from Punjab that the movement should continue now in different forms and protest should end at borders," Kirti Kisan Union VP Rajinder Singh Deepsinghwala told ET. "A nationwide movement is needed for the MSP guarantee and these things would be decided in the SKM meeting." BKU's Rakesh Tikait, who is protesting at the Ghazipur border, said: "No farmer is going back until the government makes a law on MSP. The SKM is united and the protest will continue."

BKU Ekta Ugrahan chief Joginder Singh Ugrahan, who is protesting at Tikri border, said SKM would take a decision on December 4 and that would be accepted by all. He added if the government withdrew the cases filed against farmers and formed an MSP committee, farmers were willing to go. "Why would we sit here then ," he told ET.