6 days Ago
Talks between the Punjab government and Samyukta Kisan Morcha leaders to discuss farmers’ demands broke down midway on Monday with farmer leaders claiming a “livid” chief minister Bhagwant Mann “walked out of the meeting in a huff without any provocation”. Following the meeting, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) leaders announced to go ahead with their call for a week-long sit-in in Chandigarh starting March 5. Mann, on his part, said his doors are always open for talks with the farmers, but inconvenience and harassment of the public in the name of agitation should be avoided.
The state government had invited the SKM leaders for a meeting with the chief minister at the Punjab Bhawan here ahead of their planned protest. Speaking to mediapersons, the SKM leaders lashed out at Mann for “walking out” of the meeting without any provocation, saying such behaviour “ill behoves” a chief minister. According to Joginder Singh Ughrahan, president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ughrahan), the discussions with the CM were going on smoothly.
“After discussions on 8-9 out of the 18 demands took place, Mann said he had an infection in his eye for which he needed to go,” he said. “The CM then asked us about our plans for the March 5 protest, to which we replied that the discussions were pending and we will take call on our plan to protest after that,” said Ughrahan, adding that the CM got upset and left the meeting asking us to resort to the protest. “Farm bodies have held several meetings with the Punjab chief ministers from time to time in the past but never such unpleasant scenarios have arisen.
Today, we felt left down and insulted. We have decided to stick to our plan of protest from Wednesday (March 5). The government may stop us using force but our decision is final,” adds Ughrahan, announcing meeting in Ludhiana on March 4 to finalise the protest plan.
Farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal even accused the chief minister of trying to threaten the farmers. Rajewal called it “regrettable” that a person holding the chief minister’s chair would “challenge” the farmers to “go ahead with their programme on March 5”. “Nothing happened that could have provoked him,” he said, adding that such a behaviour doesn’t behove a chief minister.
According to Buta Singh Burjgil, BKU (Dakounda) chief, two cabinet ministers, Gurmeet Singh Khudian and Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, also followed the CM and left the venue. He claimed that Mann told SKM leaders that if they went ahead with their March 5 sit-in call, the discussions on demands held during the meeting will not be considered. After the meeting, Mann said he appealed to all the farmer leaders not to block roads or squat on railway tracks, as such actions cause inconvenience to the people.
In a statement, Mann said the government is always ready to resolve the issues pertaining to various sections of society through negotiations, and causing trouble to the common man through rail or road blockades must be avoided. Mann also said that though protest is the democratic right of the farmers, they should also think the huge loss it may cause to the state. Traders and industrialists have been ruing that due to the frequent road and rail blockades (in Punjab), their businesses have been ruined, Mann said, as he appealed to the farmers to avoid such tactics that create discord in the society.
Though the state government is with the farmers, the demands of the food growers concern the Union government, Mann said. “But it was unfortunate that the farmers still wanted to protest in the state for no reason related to the Punjab government,” he added..
