New Delhi:

The Congress on Friday called on the Bharatiya Janata Party to respond proactively to protesting farmers’ demands about a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price, or MSP, and warned the government, “Do not allow the farmers of this country to face a situation like Manipur”.

The opposition party also slammed the government for taking the time out to watch a movie – on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, members of his cabinet, and MPs attended a screening of ‘The Sabarmati Report‘, a movie about the 2002 train-burning incident in Gujarat’s Godhra.

“The Modi government has time to watch movies but does not have time to listen to demands of farmers. Prime Minister Modi should talk to the farmers without delay and immediately pass a law on MSP… this is the demand of the Congress,” party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

“The Congress party is with the farmers,” Mr Surjewala said, also taking the opportunity to throw a jab over the extent of security deployed to stop the farmers and the India-China border crisis

“If the three-layer security which has been put in place for the farmers in Haryana had been put in place on the Chinese border, then China would not have occupied the Indian border,” he said.

The reference to, and warning about, Manipur was stark. Nearly 300 people have been killed since ethnic violence broke out between the Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur in May 2023.

The Congress and other opposition parties have been fiercely critical of the handling of the crisis by BJP, which is also in power in Manipur, and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this issue.

The BJP has not yet responded to this round of attacks by the Congress.

The Manipur warning came on a day when a group of 101 farmers began a ‘Dilli chalo’ march to press home a list of nearly five-year-old demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP.

READ | 8 Farmers Injured In Tear Gas Shelling, Protest March Over MSP Halted

The march, from Shambhu on the Haryana-Punjab border, began at 1 pm but ran immediately into fortified, multi-layered police barricades across National Highway 44.

In the clashes that followed, police fired tear gas shells to disperse the protesters. Eight people were injured, and two others seriously wounded, according to farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher.

Visuals shared by news agency IANS showed chaotic scenes at a police barricade across National Highway 44. In the 73-second video white tear gas smoke enveloped protesting farmers.

Ambala, Haryana: Police fired tear gas shells at the protesters pic.twitter.com/3sCa9haqT5

— IANS (@ians_india) December 6, 2024

As the video pans out, rolls of barbed wire can also be seen and the gassed farmers are seen pulling back. An elderly farmer, affected by the tear gas, is attended to by fellow-protesters.

Beaten back for the day, the farmers said they would not admit defeat but would give the government 24 hours to reach out to them with a proposition to address their concerns.

The farmers – lakhs of whom have been protesting since September 2020, when the Modi government passed three farm law that were severely criticised and later rolled back – also lamented the action taken against them. “Modiji cannot justify the actions against us. We are deeply hurt.”

“If our protest is allowed inside Delhi… I will ask, ‘Why are we treated as enemies?’ Punjabis and Haryanvis saved the country from hunger,” Pandher said.

Shortly before the march began, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told Parliament the Narendra Modi government is committed to purchasing farmers’ produce at MSP.

“I want to assure the House… all produce of farmers will be purchased at Minimum Support Price. This is the Modi government and (we will) fulfil Modiji‘s guarantee,” Mr Chouhan said, also taking the opportunity for a dig at the Congress, referring to his “friends from the other side”.

“…they said, on record, they cannot accept the MS Swaminathan Commission recommendations… especially on paying 50 per cent more than cost price,” he said, declaring the government is already buying paddy, wheat, jowar, soyabean at 50 per cent over cost of production from three years ago.

Today’s protest was meant to press home farmers’ longstanding demands for a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price, waiver of farm loans, and protection from increased electricity tariffs.

NDTV Explains | Centre’s 5-Year MSP Plan, And Why Farmers Are Not Convinced

The demand for legal backing for MSPs – which refers to a priced fixed by the government to protect farmers from a steep fall in crop prices; for example, during a bumper crop when prices plummet – a has been a core ask of protests that began in September 2020.

MSPs, however, have no legal backing, meaning the government is not obliged to buy, for example, 10 per cent of a farmer’s paddy crop at the floor price. And it is this that the farmers want changed.

With input from agencies

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court has asked tough questions of the Haryana government after a High Court order this week directing the re-opening of the Shambhu border crossing, which has been locked down since February to block farmers protesting the centre’s agricultural policies from marching on Delhi.

“How can the state block a highway? It has a duty to regulate traffic… we are saying ‘keep the border open, but also control it,” the top court said Friday afternoon in oral observations on the matter.

In a humorous but telling moment, the two-judge bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan asked the state’s lawyer if he travelled by road, and specifically the highway.

“I think you travel by road…” Justice Kant asked, to which the lawyer replied, “Yes.”

“So you (too) must be facing trouble…” the judge shot back.

The state had appealed a section of the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order, which directed a judicial inquiry into the death of farmer Shubhkaran Singh, 22. Mr Singh – one of thousands who had marched to Shambhu (on the Punjab-Haryana border) after talks broke down, and were met with fortifications of barbed wire, shipping containers, and cement barricades – was allegedly shot dead.

READ | High Court Orders Removal Of Barricades At Shambhu Border

The war zone-like blockades set up by the state stopped the army of farmers but also halted all traffic on the highway, which is one of the key roads leading into the national capital.

The High Court on Wednesday directed the highway to be re-opened within a week “on an experimental basis”, noting the number of farmers camped at the site had dwindled to a few hundred. “Both states shall endeavour to ensure the highway at Shambhu border is restored…”

Both states were also directed to take “effective steps to enforce law and order” at Shambhu and along the highway, “… if protesters do not remain within limits set down by the state”.

Faced with the High Court’s order, the Haryana government then moved the Supreme Court, and was promptly asked, “Why does the state want to challenge the order?”

The Supreme Court also reminded the ruling BJP that “farmers are citizens”, and suggested authorities, should they face mass protests in the future, ensure a measure of consideration.

“Give them food and good medical facilities. They will come, raise slogans and go back…”

Farmers’ Protests In February

In early February around 200 farmer unions – an estimated one lakh farmers from neighbouring Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh – began moving towards Delhi in a replay of the 2020/21 protests, in which dozens died and the city was blockaded and cut-off for months.

First visuals of clashes between the farmers and police from Shambhu, which is around 200 km from Delhi, showed outnumbered cops dropping smoke bombs from drones to disperse the farmers.

NDTV ARCHIVES | Farmers Try To Cross Punjab-Haryana Border, Tear Gas Used

Videos also showed farmers, with scarves wrapped around their faces, jumping concrete barriers to push aside metal barricades, and war zone-like scenes with green fields shrouded in smoke and gun fire (from tear gas guns) in the background. In one video farmers are throwing stones at the police.

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