Ahead of PM’s rally, protesting farmers head to venue

Chandigarh : Hours ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first election rally in Punjab’s Patiala on Thursday, hundreds of protesting farmers, who have assembled at the Shambhu border since February 13, have started moving towards the PM’s venue to lodge their protest.

The PM will campaign in support of BJP candidate Preneet Kaur.

The farmers, under the banners of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political), have been demanding the release of three farmers who were arrested by Haryana Police during the ‘Delhi Chalo’ protests at the Shambu border.

The farmers from Punjab and Haryana have assembled at Shambhu -- the boundary between Punjab and Haryana -- and other border points to mark the completion of 100 days of the ongoing protest to press the Centre to accept their demands, which includes a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

Farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal has said farmers will show black flags to PM Modi when he visits Punjab for campaigning. A decision in this regard was taken at a rally organised by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM).

Taking the cause of protesting farmers, a day earlier Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his first election rally in Haryana’s Mahendragarh said, “The farmers of Haryana work in the fields of the country; the Modi government snatched away your rights and abolished the Land Tribunal Bill to help the billionaires; then three (farm) laws came, but the government had to step back.”

The Congress leader accused PM Modi of waiving off the loan of Rs 16 lakh crore of a few capitalists. “If Narendra Modi can waive off the loan of Rs 16 lakh crore of a few capitalists of the country, then the Congress will waive off the farmers’ loans. The amount of money that Narendra Modi gave to the billionaires, we will give that much money to the farmers, labourers and the poor of the country.”

Without mincing words, he stated, “Modi-ji has said that waiving off farmers’ loans will ruin the habits of farmers. Does loan waiver only ruin the habits of farmers, not those of billionaires? If waiving off farmers’ loans and improving their lives is ‘breaking a habit’, then we will do this not just once but repeatedly.”

Meanwhile, heavy security has been deployed at PM Modi’s election rally to prevent untoward incidents.