Farmers across India observed Black Day on Wednesday (May 26) to mark the completion of six months of their movement against the three farm laws passed by the Lok Sabha on September 17 last. It was on November 26, that is Constitution Day, that thousands of farmers tried to enter Delhi but were prevented from doing so by the government.
Notwithstanding the spread of corona virus lakhs of farmers all over the country, especially in the northern states staged sit-ins and adopted other forms of protest against the government. They burnt the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hoisted black flags on top of their houses.
The scenes of dharna on the borders of Delhi, be it at Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh side or Tikri and Singhu in Haryana, have once again started attracting people after a couple of months of low-profile protests due to the pandemic. The farmers of Hisar in Haryana had in the last few days taken to streets to protest their charter of demand.
The Kisan Morcha leaders are of the view that they are least daunted by the COVID-19 pandemic and would sit there till 2024 if the Narendra Modi government does not scrap the three farm laws.
In Ghazipur sit-in site, the police tried to intervene but to little avail. It needs to be mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes seven years in office on May 26.
Independent political observers are of the view that if the cases of corona virus decline, the farmers may step up their movement because they are aware that Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are going for polls in January-February next year. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP-led Yogi Adityanath government is already on the back-foot because of the poor handling of COVID-19. Thus, this is the best time for the farmers to force the Centre to scrap the three farm laws.
