UP: Farmers to Celebrate Kisan Mazdoor Azaadi Sangram Diwas on I-Day, Take Out Tableaux of Struggle

Lucknow: In a bid to intensify protests against the three contentious agriculture laws enacted last year, farmers in Uttar Pradesh will celebrate India’s 75th Independence Day as ‘Kisan Mazdoor Azaadi Sangram Diwas’ under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), one of the leading organisations in the state, and All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS). 

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha, which is spearheading the protests against the farm laws, gave a national call for to mark the day by carrying ‘tiranga rallies’ at block and tehsil levels following submitting memorandum. 

“On the call given by Samyukt Kisan Morcha, on August 15, on the occasion of 75th Independence Day, Bharatiya Kisan Union urged its supporters to mark this day as Kisan Mazdoor Azaadi Sangram Diwas, with tiranga marches to be organised at tehsil and block level,” Dharmendra Malik, BKU’s state spokesperson told NewsClick, that tractors, motorcycles, cycles and bullock-carts will be taken out for ‘tiranga’ marches by peasants and workers. Theses peaceful marches will be taken out with national flag atop vehicles. He said that farmers from Western UP will not enter the Delhi border. 

Farmers from across state, depicting village life, their protest against the Centre’s farm laws, hailing their courage and plight will take out a number of artistic tableaux, an organiser from Meerut told NewsClick.

When asked about the preparation for the rallies, he said: “More than 20,000 tractor trolleys and other vehicles will participate in the tiranga rally on Sunday. Around 10% of these will have tableaux on different themes, including the history of the farmers’ movement in our country, how farmers are forced to commit suicide due to failure of the government and the role of women in the ongoing movement,” he told NewsClick, adding that tributes will also be paid to farmers who died during protests on Delhi’s borders in the past eight months.  

BKU leaders said farmers across state once again will reiterate their demands of repealing the three agri laws, guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for crops. “We will not let our countrymen forget that the government did not listen to our demands despite our over eight-month-long protest,” said the farmer.

He said children and family members of farmers who died by suicide are expected to participate in the parade. Their tableau will depict the hardships faced by farmers of the region.

Farmers leader Vinod Kalanjari of Meerut says they have been mobilising peasants and workers in rural areas, asking them to reach at Ghazipur border with their tractors and vehicles the tricolour to celebrate Independence Day. He said around thousand farmers from Meerut district alone are expected to Ghazipur. 

Following the call for a parade against farm laws, hundreds of farmers are ready with their tractors to gather for a parade in Lucknow’ Chinhat, Gosaiganj and Naubasta Kala areas in a show of strength, Harinam Singh Verma, state president of BKU told NewsClick. 

Verma said the tiranga marches will reiterate the farmers’ demands of repealing the three laws. 

“We want to stress our demands through Kisan Mazdoor Azaadi Sangram Diwas that we are not going anywhere until the government rolls back these laws. We have made highways and toll plazas our home for the past eight-months,” said Verma. 

AIKS’s Mukut Singh said farmers will hoist the tricolour at every farmers’ headquarters in the state and press their demands. Farmers in Eastern UP, including Sitapur, Lakhimpur and Bahraich, under the banner of Mazdoor Kisan Manch, will follow the suit

‘GRAND MAHAPANCHAYAT ON SEPT 5

BKU workers are visiting door to door in every village of Western Uttar Pradesh to make them aware of the ‘draconian laws’ and prepare for a mega ‘kisan mahapanchayat’ on September 5 at GIC ground in Muzaffarnagar district, under the aegis of SKM. Farmers from Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Bihar are expected to join the mahapanchayat, an organiser told NewsClick, adding that it would be one of biggest rallies to be held by farmers ahead of UP Assembly polls early next year. 

Read Also: 'Mission UP': Farmers to Campaign Against BJP in Upcoming Polls

BKU leader Rakesh Tikait had earlier said in a press conference in Lucknow  that on September 5, the SKM, an umbrella body of over 40 farmers unions, may decide the roadmap for farmers and its volunteers for future campaign against the BJP-ruled government ahead of the UP Assembly polls and “expose” it for “treating farmers second class citizens”.