Farmers to hold rally in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan today, MVA may join

Farmers leaders have said as many as 50,000 farmers are expected to join the rally scheduled at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Sunday, a day ahead of Parliament’s Winter Session.

They also plan to bring the ashes of the farmers, who died in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on October 3, and immerse them in the Arabian Sea.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait told news agency ANI farmers have also planned a ‘Kisaan Majdoor Mahapanchayat’ where they will discuss their demands for all farm-related issues including demand for all crop minimum support price (MSP), implementation of the Swaminathan report, unemployment and other issues.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra is also expected to join the rally to pay tribute to the lost lives.

“On November 28, we will support the farmers’ rally which is to be held in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan. However, no political person will share the stage,” Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik said while addressing a press conference earlier this week.

Eight people, including four farmers, died in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri when a speeding SUV—allegedly driven Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish—rammed into a group of farmers protesting against the three new farm laws in front of UP’s deputy chief minister (CM) Keshav Prasad Maurya and subsequent violence in October.

The Centre has said that the bill to repeal the three contentious farm laws will be tabled on the first day of the upcoming Parliament session. Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar is expected to introduce the bill in Lok Sabha on Monday, which was approved by the Union cabinet earlier this week.

Meanwhile, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) suspended its November 29 tractor march to Parliament and said it will hold a meeting next month to decide its future course of action.

The farmers’ body had earlier said it will not end the stir until the contended farm laws are repealed and all their demands are met.

The three laws – the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act – were given assent by President Ram Nath Kovind on September 27, 2020, just days after both houses of Parliament passed them unanimously.