By PTI
NEW DELHI: The atmosphere is celebratory, the mood victorious.
At the site of farmers’ protest on Delhi borders, sweets are being distributed and slogans raised.
The farmers are preparing to go home after more than a year of protest during which they endured harsh Delhi winter, scorching summer, police pushback and commuters’ complaint that their agitation inconvenienced thousands of commuters daily.
“We are not sleeping tonight. We are going home victorious,” said Harinder Singh, a farmer at the Singhu border.
Soon after the Samyukta Kisan Morcha leaders Thursday announced the stir will be suspended and they would go back home in a victory march on December 11, the protest sites erupted into celebrations with farmers raising their union flags, greeting each other on the success of their agitation and playing patriotic songs from their tractors.
The SKM, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions, decided to suspend the long-drawn farmers’ movement against three contentious farm laws after the Centre agreed to consider all their demands.
Chants of ‘Jo Bole So Nihal’ and other slogans underlining the jubilation rent the air as the protest reached the Thursday turning point.
Sweets were distributed at the Ghazipur border also and the farmers burst into cheering slogans and chanted ‘Jo Bole So Nihal’ and other impassioned cries to express their emotions.
They offered sweets also to the policemen deployed at Ghazipur border protest site.
At Singhu Border, farmers have already began the process to dismantle their camps.
“My village is getting a door built of flowers to welcome us,” said Surjeet Singh, 64, who hails from Hoshiarpur.
At Ghazipur, farmers also took out a small march at the protest site, and chanted slogans like, ‘Sarkar Hila Di Hukke Ne’, ‘Kisan Ekta Karta Hai, Marne Se Nahi Darta Hai’.
On November 19 too, sweets were distributed by several people at farmers’ protest sites near Delhi border areas when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the government had decided to repeal the three farm laws.
The day of announcement had coincided with Guru Nanak Jayanti which marks the birth anniversary of the one of the most revered Sikh gurus.
Many farmers had been protesting and encamped at Delhi’s borders since late November 2020 with a demand that the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee MSP for crops.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha leaders have said that they will again meet on January 15 to see if the government has fulfilled their demands.
The announcement came after the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spearheading the movement, received a central government signed letter where it agreed to consider their pending demands, including withdrawal of cases against farmers and form a committee on minimum support price (MSP).
