Farmers to send Pak agri-import samples to BJP leaders

Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh (RKM), the coalition of farmer organisations behind the 10-day Gaon Bandh since June 1, said it would intensify its agitation in coming days by resorting to several innovative means of protest, including despatching sugar imported from Pakistan to prominent BJP leaders, its leaders said here on Tuesday.

“We will send BJP ministers, MPs and MLAs in the country 1 kg of milk, vegetable and sugar imported from Pakistan on June 8,” RKM leader Shiv Kumar ‘Kakkaji’ told mediapersons.

This decision was taken at a meeting of RKM core committee members, which also decided to distribute milk to government hospitals in different parts of the country free of cost on June 7.

The meeting, which saw participation by leaders of various Bharatiya Kisan Union (right wing) factions, also claimed that the strike has had a major impact in many States in across the country.

Remembering Mandsaur

Apart from continuing with their stir, the farmers plan to hold meetings across the country on Wednesday to pay tribute to six farmers who were killed in police firing in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, on June 6 last year.

The RKM, however, plans to stay away from a meeting scheduled to be addressed by Congress party president Rahul Gandhi in Mandsaur on Wednesday, Kakkaji said.

Instead, the organisation is planning to hold a meeting to pay tribute to the martyrs on June 8 in Mandsaur, in which Modi baiters such as Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Pravin Togadia are expected to participate.

The leaders also said the agitating farmers across the country would observe a fast on June 9 and called for a hartal on June 10, which would be the concluding day of the current protest.

“We are appealing to traders across the country to support farmers by downing shutters for a day,” Kakkaji said.