Farmer bodies to invite repatriates to mahapanchayats

Farm unions protesting on Punjab’s border with Haryana and in Rajasthan’s Ratangarh on Friday decided to invite the youth deported from the US to their mahapanchayats scheduled for next week.

The farm bodies — under the umbrella of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) — will hold the congregations to mark one-year of their stir in Ratangarh and Punjab’s Khanauri and Shambhu on February 11, 12 and 13, respectively.

The mahapanchayats are being held prior to the farmers’ scheduled talks on February 14 with the Centre over their demands, including a law assuring a minimum support price for crops.

The decision to invite the Punjab and Haryana youth deported from the US has come two days after a military plane carrying 104 Indians landed at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport.

The protesting unions said most deportees belonged to poor farming families, and had paid close to Rs 50 lakh to travel agents to immigrate as the country’s “flawed” employment and education policies left them without suitable job opportunities.

The unions alleged that they were “treated as criminals” by the US authorities on being caught while entering their country.

Why didn’t flight land in Gujarat, ask farmers

They also asked as to why Amritsar was chosen as the destination for the deportation flight when a majority of deportees belonged to other states.

“If the standard deportation process was followed, then why the plane landed in Amritsar, and not in Delhi, Mumbai or even in Gujarat, from where 33 of the deportees originates,” farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said.

Pandher alleged that the landing was deliberately done in Amritsar to show the farming community, particularly Punjabis, in “bad light”. “It is so unfortunate that even Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann did not object to the landing of the plane in Amritsar,” said Pandher.

‘Support to farming could have stopped migration’

Pandher alleged that the youth belonging to the farming country is migrating to other countries due to poor finances of their families as farming is increasingly becoming non-profitable.

“Had the government provided a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) and initiated other reforms, they might not have been forced to seek illegal routes to the US,” he added.

Pandher also alleged that after being caught by the US authorities, many of the deportees restrained and “paraded like hardened criminals before being packed into an army aircraft with just one toilet facility”.

Farmer leader Guramneet Singh Mangat of the KMM called for introspection into why people are increasingly opting for immigration.

“The answer is simple. There aren’t enough job opportunities. And even when jobs exist, salaries are significantly lower than those offered abroad. We have a government that is pro-corporate. If the government wants to stop this mass exodus, then they will have to strengthen the farming sector and small business,” he stated.

Mamata’s secy meets Dallewal

KJS Cheema, Special Principal Secretary to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, visited the Khanauri border and met Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on an indefinite fast since November 26. Cheema said Mamata wanted to visit the fasting leader but was unable to do so due to her busy schedule. He said she had sent him to know about the well-being of the farmer leader.