Farmers in Punjab are protesting against the contentious farm Bills — Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, and Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill — passed in Parliament last week.
The farmers in the state even took to "rail roko" agitation at several places. The movement of trains in Punjab remained suspended in the wake of the "rail roko" agitation, which was extended by three days till September 29. Earlier, the farmers had decided to block trains from September 24 to 26.
In Amritsar, farmers squatted on the Amritsar-Delhi rail track and went shirtless in protest against the Bills. They raised slogans against the BJP-led central government and demanded the rollback of the farm Bills which they described as "black laws".
On Thursday, a near-total "bandh" was observed in the state. Apart from Punjab, protests were witnessed in neighbouring Haryana with farmers hitting the streets and blocking roads.
Meanwhile, #SunnyDeolWhereAreYou began trending on Twitter on Sunday. The actor-turned-politician is the BJP MP from Punjab's Gurdaspur. Recently, he hailed the Bills and wrote in Hindi, “The Government of India had assured that farmers will be able to sell their agricultural produce at a place of their choice at a better price, which will increase the number of potential buyers." “The farmer will continue to own the crop at the production state and the crop will be insured and the farmer will also be able to take loans from financial institutions if needed,” he added.
On Saturday, farmers in Punjab went on to announce a 'social boycott' of Deol after he supported the Bills. "He is a Punjabi and his family has a farming background. Still, he has failed to understand the pain of farmers," said BKU (Lakhowal) general secretary Harinder Singh Lakhowal.
Here are a few Twitter reactions:
(With inputs from PTI)
