Farmers protest near houses of AAP, BJP leaders

Acting on a call by various farm unions, a large number of farmers staged protests outside the residences of AAP and BJP leaders in Bathinda and neighbouring districts on Sunday. The demonstrations lasted nearly three hours. The protesters demanded a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for crops and opposed the India-US trade deal.

In Bathinda district, protests were held outside the residences of former MLA Sarup Singla and AAP MLA Baljinder Kaur from Talwandi Sabo. In Mansa, demonstrations took place outside the houses of Gurpreet Banawali, Vijay Singla and Budh Ram. In Muktsar district, farmers protested outside the residence of Manpreet Badal in Badal village.

At Moga, farmers held a protest under the banner of the United Kisan Morcha. They were demanding that the Centre and the state government should address their longstanding issues.

Demonstrators gathered outside the residence of Aam Aadmi Party MLA Dr Amandeep Kaur Arora, raised slogans and staged a sit-in to express their dissatisfaction with government policies.

Farm leaders, including Iqbal Singh and Balor Singh, said despite years of peaceful struggle, their voices continued to be ignored. They voiced opposition to the Electricity Amendment Bill, Seeds Bill, replacement of 29 labour laws with four labour codes, potential changes to the MGNREGA law and the proposed free-trade agreements with the US, describing these as harmful to farmers and workers.