Thousands of farmers celebrate repeal of laws on 1st anniversary of protest
Thousands of farmers at Singhu, Tikri, Ghazipur and other border sites of Delhi today, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the protests, celebrated the repealing of the three controversial agricultural laws, better known as the farm laws.
Today morning, hundreds of farmers, on tractors bedecked with lights and posters and loudly playing Punjabi and Haryanvi songs, and flaunting colourful turbans, sunshades and long beards, and twirling moustaches, rolled through the Simghu border protest site on the Haryana-Delhi border to mark one year of protests against the three controversial agricultural laws, and celebrate the recent repealing of them by the Union government.
They danced on tractors, distributed sweets and hugged each other, and the celebration was almost like a festival.
Today is also Constitution Day, celebrated to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution in 1949, and that called for added celebration.
“November 26 also marks the Constitution Day of India – It is befitting that seventy-two years since then, with another historic movement India stands at the cusp of the fulfillment of the goal of social democracy envisioned by Babasaheb Ambedkar,” Samyukta Kisan Morcha said as part of its statement.
Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) is a farmers’ collective which is spearheading the protest for the withdrawal of the three agricultural laws and a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP).
Thousands of them have been flocking to the site over the last few days, buoyed by the government’s announcement of repealing of the three laws, to mark the completion of one year of a dogged protest that saw a long dusty patch of the Delhi-Karnal road between Delhi and Sonepat turn into a makeshift town with bamboo huts and all the basic amenities one could think of.
Children and elderly, men and women, carried flags of their farmer unions and raised slogans of victory, ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ and ‘Mazdoor Kisan Ekta Zindabad’ amid passionate non-stop beating of drums.
The attendees included businessmen, lawyers and teachers among others, who belonged to families of farmers.
At the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in Ghazipur too, hundreds of farmers in tractors arrived. Many brought along vegetables, sacks of flour and lentils, spices and cooking oil on their tractor-trollies, saying they have come prepared for a long haul.
Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), the influential farmers’ union from western Uttar Pradesh, has been leading the charge at the Ghazipur border over the past one year. It is part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha.
