Tear gas shells and water canon fired as farmers clashed with police Delhi-Punjab borders even as Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar urged them to call off the protest and come to table for dialogue on December 3.
The authorities showed a tad bit of relent by allowing some of the agitating farmers to enter New Delhi and stage protest to oppose the three new farming laws which the farmers have apprehension about. The farmers fear the new laws may herald the end of Mandi system and maximum support price for their crops.
Police made heavy arrangements by deployment of hundreds of personnel, riot police and all the entry routes to the national capital. The roads were blocked with barbed wire, cement blocks and sand laden trucks parked in the middle.
Akhil Bharatiya Kisaan Mahasangh cast apprehension on laws that they may be left at the mercy of big-corporations or the government may phase out the Mandir system and MSP for their crops. However, it’s important to mention here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already categorically refuted all such claims and assured the farmers that the Mandi system and MSP aren’t going anywhere. The new laws just give farmers the freedom to sell their products outside the Mandi into the open market to big retailers and will invite investment and modernization in the largely backward agriculture sector of the nation. But, these assurances couldn’t placate farmers from Punjab and other Congress-ruled states.
