A meeting of the general body of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella organisation of about 500 farmers’ outfits, has decided here on Friday to start campaigning against the BJP in the Assembly elections to five States. The meeting also decided to hold protests across the country against an alleged conspiracy to arrest farmers’ leaders linking them with the NewsClick case.
The meeting decided slogans against the BJP to be used during the election campaigns. This includes ‘Corporate hatao, BJP ko sabak sikhao aur desh bachao (Remove the corporates, teach the BJP a lesson and save the country)‘. The leaders of the SKM told the presspersons after the meeting that they would campaign in all election-bound States with these slogans to defeat the BJP candidates. They also warned that the protests will be strengthened if the Centre continues to ignore the promises made to the farmers at the time of withdrawing the farmers’ protests against the three farm laws two years ago.
Senior SKM leader Hannan Mollah said the Centre is dragging the farmers’ movement into the NewsClick case in a conspiratorial manner. “We will burn the FIRs filed against the NewsClick journalists on November 6. We consider this FIR as an attack against freedom of the press and the farmers’ movements. They are trying to arrest farmers’ leaders by linking them with the UAPA case against NewsClick journalists,” Mr. Mollah said.
He maintained that the Centre has not fulfilled the demands of the farmers, such as removing Minister of State Ajay Mishra Teni from the Council of Ministers for his alleged attempts to instigate his son, who is accused of killing four farmers and one journalist at Lakhimpur Kheri. “The general body meeting expressed anger at the delay in fulfilling the promises made to us,” Mr. Mollah said.
