After much hype around calling it his last hunger strike, social activist Anna Hazare, on Friday, announced he won't be proceeding with the indefinite fast against the new farm laws. He, however, claimed that the central government has agreed to some of his demands.
This development took place after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Union MoS for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary and former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis held a discussion with him.
Hazare, whose hunger strikes in the national capital in 2011 and 2012 unrelenting galvanised millions across the country against institutional corruption, earlier this month, said he had been writing letters for permission to hold a protest over farmers' issues at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan, but didn't get a response. At the forefront of the anti-corruption movement in 2011, he had recalled that when he went on a hunger strike at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan, the then UPA government had called a special session of parliament.
Seven years later, Hazare in March 2018 went on indefinite hunger strike against the BJP-led government in New Delhi. The protest was not similar to that of the 2011 anti-graft agitation. There was a major change in taking up issues of the middle class to addressing the growing agrarian distress in the country. It was flopped as it hardly gained any traction among the masses.
However, in a release, Hazare now said he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar five times on the plight of farmers, but to no avail.
"The union government has agreed to some of my demands and also announced the setting up a committee to improve the lives of farmers. I have decided to suspend my proposed indefinite fast starting from Saturday,” he added.
While announcing the hunger strike, Hazare had said, "I have been demanding reforms in the agriculture sector, but the central government doesn't seem to be taking the right decisions." "The central government has no sensitivity left for farmers, which is why I am starting my indefinite fast at my village from January 30," he had said and appealed to his supporters not to flock to his village district in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hazare’s announcement came when farmers are protesting the three farm laws, saying that they will make them vulnerable to corporates and will hit their incomes. However, the government argues the laws will provide more avenues to farmers to sell their crops and will eliminate the role of middlemen.
Hazare, whose hunger strikes in the national capital in 2011 and 2012 galvanised millions across the country against institutional corruption, earlier this month, said he had been writing letters for permission to hold a protest over farmers' issues at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan, but didn't get a response. At the forefront of the anti-corruption movement in 2011, he had recalled that when he went on a hunger strike at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan, the then UPA government had called a special session of parliament.
Seven years later, Hazare in March 2018 went on indefinite hunger strike against the BJP-led government in New Delhi. The protest was not similar to that of the 2011 anti-graft agitation. There was a major change in taking up issues of the middle class to addressing the growing agrarian distress in the country. It was flopped as it hardly gained any traction among the masses.
