Farmers march to Parliament, seek special session

Carrying their woes, burdens, aspirations and a warning of a "votebandi" to Narendra Modi government, tens of thousands of farmers on Friday marched to the Parliament seeking a special session on agrarian crisis.

Farmers from Tamil Nadu (DH Photo/Shemin Joy)

With some chanting 'Ayodhya nahi, Karzi maaf chahiye' (We don't need Ayodhya but debt waiver), the farmers took out the Kisan Mukti March to Parliament from Ramlila Maidan where they had stayed overnight after day-long marches from five locations reached the iconic protest spot on Thursday evening.

Farmers from across the country, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, have converged for the protest demanding the special session as well as debt relief and remunerative prices for their produce among others.

The two-day Kisan Mukti March is organised by All India Kisan Struggle Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) representing around 200 farmers' outfits.

Some of the protesters from Tamil Nadu were seen carrying skulls, which they said were of farmers who committed suicide.

Students, artists, professionals, youth and lawyers also joined the protest along with ex-servicemen fighting for One Rank One Pension (OROP).

At the protest, several activists and political leaders attacked the government for not implementing a "single major initiative" for farmers in the past four and a half years.

They claimed demonetisation worsened the situation for farmers.

Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Medha Patkar said, "the aim of the BJP government is to handover the land belonging to farmers and tribals to industrialists and corporates."

All India Kisan Mahasabha general secretary Rajaram Singh said, "demonetisation's impact falls on farmers across the country."

Senior Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi said, "farmers of India stand before us. This is India's movement. (TMC chief) Mamata Banerjee has sent you love. If you have a strong resolve you can achieve everything. There are talks about loan waiver but should the farmer even have to take loans."