On September 2, 2024, the Supreme Court announced the setting up of a five member high power committee headed by Nawab Singh, a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. It entrusted the committee with the tasks of engaging the kisans protesting at the Punjab — Haryana border at Shambhu and Khanauri in discussion about their demands. It specifically charged the committee with ensuring that the kisans immediately removed their tractors and trolleys from the highway. The Supreme Court cautioned the protesting farmers not to insist on demands that are “not feasible”.
The protesting farmers have given a fitting reply. The Convenor of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, Sarwan Singh Pandher said: “The apex court’s priority is to open the national highway, which is blocked by the Haryana government, not by us. The committee doesn’t have any agenda regarding farmers’ issues. It has been formed to scuttle the ongoing protest”.
Kisan leaders have questioned the effectiveness and intent of the committee. They accused the Center and Haryana governments of trying to divert from the real issues. Instead of addressing the most pressing problem of a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops, the Committee has been formed with the aim of reopening the National Highway and undermining the farmers protest.
Kisan leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal has said “We don’t believe in this new high-powered committee. We had no outcome from earlier such committees.”
Earlier, on August 31, 2024, kisans marked the completion of 200 days of the latest Delhi Chalo March by organizing rallies at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders between Punjab and Haryana. It may be recalled that in December 2021, kisan organisations which had been camping on the borders of Delhi for over 13 months, temporarily suspended their agitation, on the basis of the assurances given by the Central government that the demands of the kisans, including legal guarantee for MSP for all crops would be fulfilled. However, when kisans saw that the central government was refusing to fulfil its promises, they began their Delhi Chalo March on February 13, 2024 along with their trolleys and tractors.
The Haryana government and the Central government launched a ferocious attack against the peaceful march of the kisans. The Shambhu and Khanauri borders were so heavily barricaded that no person could come from Punjab to Haryana by road at these borders. The authorities dug up the roads, placed huge boulders of concrete, as well as installed nails that would destroy the tires of tractors and trolleys. The police forces fired on the protesting farmers with live bullets, resulting in the death of one farmer, and injuries to hundreds. They used drones to attack the protesting farmers from the sky.
For over 200 days, the kisans have been peacefully sitting on dharna at these two borders, with their tractors and trolleys, for the borders to be opened up so they could march to Delhi and place their demands before the government.
The Kisans have repeatedly declared — they will withdraw their agitation only if their demands are fulfilled. They have put forth ten demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops, implementation of Swaminathan Commissions formula to calculate MSP for crops, full debt waiver for farmers, pension for farmers and agricultural workers, and withdrawal of cases against farmers during the 2020-2021 protest.
The resolute stand of the kisans, and the manner in which they have conducted their agitation peacefully, refusing to fall for the provocations of the government, has won them the support of broad masses of people.
While the Central and Haryana government have been doing widespread propaganda that the kisans have blocked the border, the truth is that it is the Haryana government, at the instruction of the Central government, which has barricaded the Punjab-Haryana border.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court order, that the Haryana government immediately remove the barricades on the borders for free movement of traffic, must be seen in this context. The Haryana government appealed against this order in the Supreme Court, saying that if the borders were opened, then Kisans would march to Delhi!
On August 22, the Supreme Court called upon the Punjab and Haryana governments to negotiate with the kisans and make them remove their tractors and trolleys from the highway. Officials of the two states conducted two rounds of negotiations to convince the agitating kisans that they should abandon their planned Delhi Chaarch with trolleys and tractors. However the kisan leaders refused to capitulate.
The kisan leaders have consistently demanded the immediate reopening of the Shambhu barrier on the Punjab-Haryana border. They are determined to go to Delhi with their tractors and trolleys if and when the barricades at Shambhu are removed, to put forth their demands before the government. It is the democratic right of kisans to do so. The working class and working people, and all democratic minded people are one with the kisans in their just struggle.