GoI Issues Bharat Bandh Guidelines, Strike To Begin At 11 AM Tomorrow

For the Bharat Bandh (Nationwide strike,) the Central Government issued advisory to the state and union territory governments.

The Centre has asked all states and Union Territories to tighten security during Tuesday’s ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by the farmers unions and supported by opposition parties, while asserting that peace and tranquillity must be maintained on that day, officials said.

The Union Home Ministry asked the respective governments to ensure peace and to follow the guidelines of the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19. In addition, there should be strict social distancing, wearing face masks and sanitizer.

The Home Ministry statement read, “The states and UTs were told that peace and tranquillity must be maintained during the ‘Bharat Bandh’ and precautionary measures taken so that no untoward incident takes place anywhere in the country.”

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various border points of Delhi against the new farm laws.

The farmer’s unions/organisations and farmers of Haryana and Punjab called for the nationwide strike against the three farm bills.

The three farm bills are, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020, the Farmers Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill 2020 (Empowerment and Protection) and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020, were cleared by the President of India.

According to the passed bills, the Minimum Support Price (MSP,) area of trading would be under the purview of the Indian Government.

The reason behind the farmers protest is their fear of being at the mercy of corporates or zamindars for crop prices. The new bills would also demolish the Minimum Support Price (MSP) advantages for farmers.

Despite 5 rounds of talk with the Central Government and 132 farmer’s associations and unions represented, the protest is still underway.

The last round of talks between the farmer’s unions and the Central Government was held on the 5th of December at 3:00 P.M.,

However, all the negotiations and meetings failed to break the protest of the farmers

The Central Government proposed another meeting on the 9th of December with the representatives of the protesting farmers. The Government of India also requested protestors to send back the elderly, women and children to their homes from the protest sites.

In addition, the Bharat Bandh decision of the farmers is being supported by several party leaders.

Almost all the opposition parties including the Indian National Congress (INC,) the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS,) the Samajwadi Party (SP,) the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP,) the Trinamool Congress (TMC,) the Shiv Sena and others extended their support.

The Bharat Bandh agitation would begin at 11:00 A.M., and would end after 12 hours.

Stay tuned for further updates.