With no word from the Centre, protesting farmers at the Punjab-Haryana border have been attempting to march to Delhi to demand a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP). The Haryana Police on Sunday fired tear gas shells to prevent the farmers, who have united under the banners of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political), from crossing over to Haryana and marching towards Delhi. In an interview, KMM’s 49-year-old coordinator Sarwan Singh Pandher speaks about the police action, the importance of the MSP, and why the government must listen to farmers, among other issues. The KMM is an umbrella organisation of 101 farmer unions. Excerpts: * What are the key issues in the protests at Shambhu and Khanauri borders? MSP for all crops is the main demand as it will prevent the exploitation of farmers who go to markets to sell their produce. The Centre has announced MSP for 22 crops but they need to ask themselves whether they are giving it for the entire stock. In Punjab and Haryana, they claim a majority of farmers cultivate wheat and paddy, which the Centre procures at MSP. But they keep talking of diversification. How will the farmer diversify if there is no legal guarantee on MSP for other crops? For the first time, farmers faced problems in paddy procurement and tardy lifting too and had to sell their crops by reducing the price by Rs 200-300 per quintal. This is sending out a message that MSP on 100% of paddy produce also may not be a possibility in the future. Look at the fate of cotton farmers. The area of cultivation has fallen to an all-time low of 90,000 hectares in Punjab as the crop was frequently hit by pests while the Cotton Corporation of India purchased only a fraction of the produce on MSP. * Recently, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar lent support to farmers and even Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan spoke about MSP in Parliament … We are thankful to Vice-President Dhankhar for speaking in our support and understanding our woes. On behalf of the KMM and the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political), we wrote to him to express our gratitude. We also sent him a list of demands and urged him to tell the Union government to hear us out. Chouhan said in the Rajya Sabha that the Centre would purchase all crops on MSP. This proves they have not been doing it till now. That is why we are protesting. They need to take us seriously now. * Aren’t farmers risking their lives as they are facing tear gas and water cannons? In February, one farmer lost his life while a few others lost their vision. The gathering in February was huge. This time, only a dedicated group of farmers is marching towards the border on foot. They are disciplined and unarmed and all they want is to reach Delhi as the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) does not seem bothered. With the Haryana Police using force, they stand exposed as in February they said they would not allow tractors but would allow us to proceed on foot. Now, they are not allowing us on foot. Are we not citizens of India who can go to Delhi? * How many meetings have you had with Union Ministers? We had four meetings, on February 8, 12, 15 and 18, with Union Ministers in Chandigarh in the presence of Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann but have not heard from them since. On February 18, the Centre proposed to purchase five crops — maize, urad, masoor, arhar, and cotton — on MSP for five years but our fight is for a legal guarantee on MSP for all crops. Hence, we rejected that proposal. We are open for talks but the Centre also must put one foot forward. We wonder why the PM cannot talk to the farmers directly. * What is the update from the Khanauri border? Our senior leader Jagjit Singh Dallewalji, the coordinator of the SKM (non-political), has begun his indefinite hunger strike, which entered its 13th day on Sunday. The Punjab Police whisked him away on the intervening night of November 25 and 26 and forcibly admitted him to Ludhiana’s Dayanand Medical College and Hospital. But he started his hunger strike at the hospital and was discharged on November 30. He has been at the border since and has lost 9 kg. * What is the Punjab government saying? The Punjab government seems to be hand-in-glove with the Centre. Earlier, they got Dallewal forcibly admitted and now they are allowing the Haryana government to erect barricades in Punjab. They also sent prohibitory orders issued by the Ambala district administration to many farmer union leaders.
