The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella organisation of various farmers’ outfits, organised protests across the country on Saturday by burning the copies of the three farm laws introduced by the Centre a year ago.

The SKM said that though the Centre claimed that the laws will be beneficial to the farmers, it is proved beyond doubt that they bring disasters in the farm sector.

The SKM said its call for protests got tremendous response from farmers in the country.

“It was on June 5, 2020 that the Narendra Modi government brought in three anti-farmer agricultural laws as Ordinances, under the cover of Covid. These were laws that were never demanded by farmers, but these were brought in undemocratically in the name of farmers. Since then, there have been massive protests across the country. From November 2020, the agitation has been led by SKM,” the leaders of the SKM said in a joint statement.

‘Warning to the Centre’

“These protests were a warning to the Centre that there will only be an intensification of resistance in the coming days. Reports have come in from various States like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh that protests took place,” the statement added.

In many places, BJP leaders’ houses and offices were gheraoed.

“This happened not just in States adjacent to Delhi but in Karnataka and other States too,” they claimed. Farmers assembled at the residence of Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Choutala and burnt copies of the Acts.

On Sunday, SKM will hold events to remember the six farmers of Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh who were killed after police opened fire at their protests in 2017.AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said the Centre should shed arrogance and repeal the three laws.

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