Farmers protesting at the Ghazipur border in Delhi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers on Wednesday engaged in scuffle here. According to details available with India TV, farmers attacked BJP workers as they arrived here to welcome Amit Valmiki. Valmiki was recently appointed as secretary of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit.
Visuals show that farmers vandalised vehicles of BJP workers with rods and had a scuffle with the saffron party supporters. The scuffle broke out on the flyway.
Meanwhile, the Bhartiya Kisan Union has alleged that BJP workers gathered at the Ghazipur flyway and raised slogans against farmers’ agitation. The union accused the saffron party of trying to defame agitation by provoking violence.
Farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been protesting against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. They have alleged that these laws will end the mandi and MSP procurement systems and leave the farmers at the mercy of big corporates, even as the government has rejected these apprehensions as misplaced.
The government and farmer unions have held 11 rounds of talks so far, the last being on January 22, to break the deadlock and end the protest.
Talks have not resumed following widespread violence during a tractor rally by protesting farmers on January 26. Notably, the Supreme Court has already put on hold the implementation of the laws till further orders and has set up a committee to find solutions, and it has already submitted its report.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has appealed to protesting farmers to end their agitation, saying the government is ready to resume talks on the provisions of three legislations, which were enacted in September last year.
