Farmers protest takes a new turn, leaders declare hunger strike on Dec 14

All farmers’ leaders will go on hunger strike on December 14 at Delhi’s Singhu border as the protests against the farm laws intensified, news agency PTI reported on Saturday. “On December 14, all farmer leaders will sit on a fast sharing same stage at Singhu border. We want government to take back three Farm bills, we’re not in favour of amendments,” said Kamal Preet Singh Pannu, leader of Sanyukta Kisan Andolan.“Centre wants to thwart our movement, but we will not allow this” Pannu also said as farmers vowed to keep protest against agriculture laws “peaceful”.

The farmers also announced to take out a tractor march on Sunday. The march will begin at 11am tomorrow from Shahjahanpur in Rajasthan and will block Jaipur-Delhi main road, Pannu also said. He also said that farmers from other parts of the country are also on their way to join the protesters here and they will take the agitation to the next level in the coming days.The government on Friday asked the protesting farmers to be vigilant against their platform being misused, saying some “antisocial” as well as “Leftist and Maoist” elements were conspiring to spoil the atmosphere of the agitation. Photographs of some protesters at the Tikri border seen holding posters demanding release of activists arrested under various charges had gone viral, prompting Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to say that these "antisocial elements" are conspiring to spoil the atmosphere of the peasants' movement under the guise of farmers. Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of Minimum Support Price and do away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.