Hyderabad: The ‘Chalo`Raj Bhavan’ protest of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) today ended abruptly as over 100 protesters were taken into custody by the cops and then shifted to various police stations across the city.
The aim of the protest was to submit a memorandum to the Governor of Telangana Tamilisai Soundararajan, to resist the three farm laws, considered controversial, passed by the central government in 2020. The protestors were picked up from Indira Park and take to the police stations at Chikadapally, Musheerabad, and Gandhinagar.
According to Kiran Vissa–an activist and a member of AIKSCC national working group–despite obtaining prior permission the protest was abruptly stopped even before it commenced. Members of AIKSCC’s national working group, National Alliance of People’s Movements, All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha, Agricultural Workers Union, Progressive Organisation for Women and others were arrested.
The protest was a continuation of farmers’ demands for fixing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and guaranteeing the same to all farmers in a legal framework. Considering the initial farmers protests at Delhi in January this year resulted in little dialogue, the concern that their debts will increase is mounting by the day.
“The Telangana government is hand in glove with the Central government in not protecting the interests of farmers,” he says. Mr. Vissa further added that “While the protest was also to mark forty-six years of Emergency, there is an undeclared emergency both at the National level and in Telangana currently.”
The protest by farmer groups, especially from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, are still ongoing. Various organizations have been sitting in protest against the farm laws on the borders of New Delhi from at least six months, and are not showing any signs of stopping.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farmers’ unions, also decided to stage demonstrations outside Raj Bhavans across the country on June 26 to mark seven months since the protests started on Delhi borders. The protest in Hyderabad was held as part of that.