12 opposition parties extend support to farmers nationwide protest call on May 26

PTI, May 23, 2021, 7:31 PM IST

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New Delhi: Twelve major opposition parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Left parties, SP, NCP and DMK on Sunday extended their support to a countrywide protest call given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha on May 26, marking six months of the farmers protest against the Centre’s farm laws.

Farmers from various parts of the country are protesting at Delhi borders against the three farm laws brought by the Centre, alleging that the legislations will hamper farming.

In a joint statement issued here by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister H D Devegowda, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and chief ministers Mamata Banerjee, Uddhav Thackeray, M K Stalin and Hemant Soren said the Centre must stop being obdurate and immediately resume talks with farmer leaders and repeal the three farm laws.

Other signatories to the joint statement include former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah (JKPA) and Akhilesh Yadav (SP) besides Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), D Raja (CPI) and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M).

”We extend our support to the call given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) to observe a countrywide protest day on May 26 marking the completion of six months of the heroic peaceful Kisan struggle,” the statement said.

”The Central Government must stop being obdurate and immediately resume talks with SKM on these lines,” it said.

The opposition leaders said that on May 12, they had jointly written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the “repeal of farm laws to protect lakhs of our ‘annadatas’ becoming victims of the pandemic so that they can continue to produce food to feed the Indian people”.

”We demand the immediate repeal of the farm laws and the legal entitlement to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of C2+50 per cent as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission,” they said.

The three farm laws were passed by the parliament in September last and were later made a law after presidential assent.

The farmers have been protesting at Singhu and Tikri borders with Haryana, Ghazipur border with Uttar Pradesh and other places.