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PM Modi says govt continuously trying to resolve farmers issues
through talks
Addressing an all-party meeting for the smooth conduct of the Budget Session, the prime minister said the Centre’s proposal on the three new agriculture laws still stands. HiIndia Newsdesk
HiIndia Newsdesk
President, PM pays tribute to Gandhi on his death anniversary HiIndia Newsdesk The nation on Saturday remembered Mahatma Gandhi on his 73rd death anniversary with President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the country in paying homage to the Father of the Nation. President Kovind, Vice President Naidu, Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, among others, also paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat in Delhi. Gandhi was shot dead on this day in 1948 by Nathuram Godse. His death anniversary is observed as Martyrs’ Day. “On behalf of a grateful nation, my humble tributes to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi who embraced martyrdom this day. We should adhere to his ideals of peace, non-violence, simplicity, purity of means and humility. Let us resolve to follow his path of truth and love,” he tweeted. Groups chanting “goli maaro…” attacked farmers at the Singhu border on Friday, demanding they vacate the protest site because they had “insulted” the national flag on Republic Day, as policemen stood watching. One of the men in the group had the Tricolour crumpled up in his fist as he charged towards the farmers. The men, who claimed to be Singhu residents, wielded sticks and threw stones at the protesters, who have been sitting on a peaceful dharna on Delhi’s borders for two months to seek the repeal of three new farm laws. “They are not locals but hired goons. They were throwing stones and petrol bombs at us. They attempted to burn down our trolleys also,” quoted farmer Harkirat Mann Beniwal, 21, as saying. The attack came a day after farmers at Ghazipur thwarted an eviction attempt. A group claiming to be locals chanted slogans against the protesters at Tikri too. The chaos during the Republic Day tractor rally, when some protesters clashed with police and a group hoisted the Nishan Sahib and a peasant union flag on an empty flag pole at Red Fort, had eroded public support for the movement and demoralised the farmers.
97, but ready to take a bullet
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday told leaders of various political parties that his government has been continuously trying to resolve the issues raised by protesting farmers through talks, sources said. Addressing floor leaders of various political parties at the customary all-party meeting convened by the government for the smooth conduct of the Budget Session, the prime minister said the Centre’s proposal on the three new agriculture laws still stands, the sources said. Citing the prime minister’s address at the virtual meeting, they said Modi told the leaders that Tomar was just a phone
call away for protesting farmers and the agriculture minister had conveyed the same to farmer leaders earlier this month. The all-party meeting is convened for the government to put forth its legislative agenda before political parties. Leaders from various parties flag issues they wish to raise during the meeting. At Friday’s meeting, various leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad of Congress, Sudip Bandyopadhyay of Trinamool Congress, Balwinder Singh Bhunder of Shiromani Akali Dal and Vinayak Raut of Shiv Sena raised the issue of protesting farmers, sources said.
Groups chanting ‘goli maaro…’ attack farmers at Singhu border HiIndia Newsdesk
A man hurls stones at the farmers protesting at the Singhu border as policemen stand by.
Unlike his two sons, Ilam Singh has never been in the army. Now, at the age of 97, he is ready to take a bullet. “Pehli goli hum khayenge, lekin ab yeh andolan nahin rukega agar krishi kanoon wapas nahin liya (I shall take the first bullet, but this movement will not stop until the farm laws have been repealed),” the Jat farmer from Muzaffarnagar told reporters at the Ghazipur protest site at 2am on Friday. He and many other protesters were up at that unearthly hour in the biting cold because a build-up of security forces had triggered rumours of an impending attack on the gathering of 50,000 people. However, the government reinforcements were withdrawn on Friday morning. “Kal hum ghabra gaye theh sarkar ki chalaki se, aaj hum jyada taqat ke sath yahan baithe hain (Yesterday, the government’s tricks scared us but today we are sitting here with more determination),” Ilam said. He was referring to the propaganda in the electronic media about the farmers “insulting the national flag” on Republic Day, when a group from the tractor rally had stormed the Red Fort and hoisted the Sikh pennant Nishan Sahib.
“They are not locals but hired goons. They were throwing stones and petrol bombs at us. They attempted to burn down our trolleys also,” quoted farmer Harkirat Mann Beniwal, 21, as saying. But the heavy-handed action at Ghazipur border, where the administration cut off water and power supply and ordered the protesters to vacate, and Friday’s attack at Singhu where the so-called locals chanted the slogan “goli maaro… (shoot them down)” that was the clarion call for the Delhi riots last year have angered the farmers, instead of cowing them down, and infused new energy into the movement. These have also encouraged farmer union leaders to name the RSS-BJP as the villains. Union leader Yudhveer Singh said: “We do not need lectures on nationalism from those who had refused to hoist the national flag at their headquarters till some years ago. Farmers send their children to the border to fight and have received their bodies draped in the Tricolour.”
