Jagraon, February 11
Complete unity among various farmer unions and their cadres was at display at the kisan mahapanchayat that got under way at Grain Market here on Thursday.
Farmers sit on trucks at the kisan mahapanchayat at Grain Market in Jagraon. Tribune photo: Himanshu Mahajan
Senior leader of SKM and chief of BKU-Rajewal Balbir Singh Rajewal was the keynote speaker at the rally.
He said even though the agitation had commenced from Punjab but now it was no longer confined to borders of this state.
“Not only most of the states but the entire global community is watching the farmers’ stir keenly and repressive action of Modi government against peacefully protesting farmers is also being debated across the world,” he said, adding that for the first time in history as many as 40 organisations of farmers had come on a single platform to fight for their rights.
Murder convict to farmer protests leader: How people power propels Manjit Singh Dhaner
The Punjabi farmer-activist was twice pardoned under public pressure.
11 Jan, 2021
Not long ago, farmer-activist Manjit Singh Dhaner, 64, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case. Today, he is a free man, leading the farmer protests from pillar 805 at Tikri on Delhiâs border.
Dhaner, senior vice president of the farmer association Bharti Kisan Union Ekta Dakaunda, was twice pardoned in spite of the Supreme Court upholding his sentence.
For 47 days starting in September 2019, over 3,000 people sat outside the Barnala jail, where Dhaner was lodged, during the day, and about 500 of them slept in tents at night. They were served langar, rain or shine. The protest, mobilised by 42 farmer unions under the umbrella of Sangharsh Committee for Manjit Dhaner, forced Punjabâs government to accede to their demand to pardon the leader, not once but twice.