Left wing farmers’ bodies hold protests in Bengal against farm bills
Kolkata: Members of farmers’ bodies loyal to the Left parties Friday staged protests in various parts of West Bengal as part of the nationwide stir demanding the withdrawal of the “anti-people” farm bills passed in the Parliament.
CPI(M) farmers wing ‘Sara Bharat Krishak Sabha’ and those of other left partners such as CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP took out rallies in the districts and blocked roads for some time.
Participants in the processions at some places carried vegetables and agricultural produce and shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
Alleging that the BJP government at the Centre was opening up the farm sector to big corporate houses and pushing small and marginal farmers to starvation, the agitators took out processions in the rural belts of Hooghly, Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, Bankura and Nadia districts among others.
The Left Front and its fraternal organisations had on September 22 called for a strong movement against the passage of the “anti-farmer” bill in an “undemocratic manner”.
The LF rallies are part of the country-wide protests by ‘Sara Bharat Krishak Sangharsha Samannoy Committee’, which comprises the Krishak Sabha, CPI-M”s farmers wing, against the “draconian” Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.
The ruling Trinamool Congress farmers’ wing also brought out protest rallies across the state on Thursday and Friday.
Describing the farm sector reform bills as the “death knell” for farmers and agricultural workers of the country, hundreds of activists of the TMC’s ‘Kisaan Khet Mazdoor’ cell organised protest marches in various parts of the state. The activists shouted slogans and burnt copies of the bill.
At Bongaon in North 24 Parganas the TMC farmers’ wing donned headgeras worn by cultivators working in fields to escape the sun and rain and burnt an effigy of the prime minister.
The two bills were passed by voice vote in Rajya Sabha on Sunday amid chaotic scenes by the opposition who had demanded that the bills be referred to a House panel for greater scrutiny. The bills were passed by the Lok Sabha earlier.
