Amid a third round of talks with the central government ending in a stalemate, the General Secretary of Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, Sarwan Singh Pandher on Friday urged an intervention on part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the farmers issues adding that they would like to solve the issues 'amicably'.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, the farmer leader raised concerns over the central government's use of para-military forces to resist the farmers that have left hundreds injured.
"The demands of the farmers and farm labourers of the country are united, everyone is fighting together. Look, now there are 54 serious injuries. The way the overall number is 400. People have suffered huge losses, so this is continuously happening. So we have raised most of these things in the meeting yesterday and we will again appeal to the Honorable Prime Minister through you."
"It is not appropriate that military force is imposed on them, give us the right to protest peacefully, if you do not want us to demand or accept our demands and as far as the demands are concerned, there should be long discussion on every demand," Pandher said.
"That whenever there will be talks again, please, we would like these issues to be resolved amicably or else we should be allowed to present our views democratically and constitutionally," he added.
He emphasised that the MSP purchase issue raised by the Punjab farmers is not just confined to Punjab or Haryana but is a question of farmers across the country.
"Many things are being said, so we would like to tell everyone that farmers are also farm labourers. The law of guarantee of MSP purchase is not a question of Punjab or Haryana alone. Here, some crops are being procured, but there are states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan and other states of the country where many farmers are in bad condition, then the entire country needs a law to purchase more MSP than just these two states and this movement is a nationwide movement," the farmer leader said.
"Kisan Mazdoor Morcha is an umbrella union umbrella morcha which has 100 sub-unions, similar is SKEM. The forms are working and the entire country is with the organization, so I don't think it is inappropriate to talk like this, even today we say that whoever is a voter or supporter of Modi ji, he should vote for Modi ji. We have no objection, we have no connection with any politics, but the farmers and farm labourers of the country will stand with us on these demands," he added. -- ANI