Letter to the Prime Minister Modi over failure to meet promisses and repressin against farmers | SKM, Feb 13, 2024

Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM)

13th February 2024, New Delhi

Letter to the Prime Minister

To,
Narendra Modi ji ,
Hon’ble Prime Minister of India
North Block, New Delhi, Govt of India

Subject: Failure to Fulfill Promises to Farmers and Repression Let Loose on Farmers Protest in Punjab - Haryana Border. Kisan Movement will resist united and single-minded any act of authoritarianism and excessive use of state power

Sir,

We write to you once again on the eve of our All India call for an Industrial / Sectoral Strike and Grameen Bharat Bandh on February 16, 2024 in support of the 21 point demand charter of farmers and workers in the hope that your government will see reason to address and solve the problems you had promised to SKM on Dec 9, 2021.

As a reminder we are briefing for your reference on these issues. They are MSP for all crops at Swaminathan formula of C2+50% with legal guarantee of procurement; debt waiver with reduction in input costs; no raise in electricity tariff and no to smart metres as per the new electricity bill; free 300 units electricity for farming and for domestic use and shops; comprehensive crop insurance payable for damage to each plot of land; punishment to Guilty of Lakhimpur carnage including sending main accused Ajay Misra Teni to jail; hike in pensions to Rs 10,000 per month and others.

We observe with deep regret that in place of solving these problems

A. Your government has failed to form and conduct the committee to look into all these issues and resolve them in a time bound manner.

B. Your ministers have been hesitant to talk with SKM while more interested to talk with other platforms to project that the farmers’ movement is divided in order to escape from your constitutional responsibility of solving the problems that distress the farmers.

C. Your govt and that of Haryana and UP led by the BJP have resorted to repressive measures on peaceful protests of farmers unleashed lathi charge, rubber bullet and tear gas shelling making many injured and inflict an atmosphere of terror on common farmers.

We would like to make clear that all these three measures are unacceptable in responsible governance.

We strongly protest the repression unleashed on farmers today at Punjab border and want to clear that the Kisan Movement in India is united and single minded and will resist any such act of authoritarianism and excessive use of state power.

As Prime Minister of India we urge you to take sympathy on the plight of farmers in the face of severe onslaught of the corporate intervention in agriculture actively supported by the Union Budgets and departmental actions.

we urge you to immediately address the demands raised by SKM, initiate discussion in order to resolve the demands of the farmers of the country.

For Secretariat of SKM-