BKU rejects Amit Shah’s Burari protest site offer

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 28

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday called up Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan and offered Burari Ground as protest site. However, the union rejected the offer and reasserted the right to protest at Jantar Mantar.

Ugrahan announced to start indefinite protest at Jantar Mantar. He said the protest would continue till their demands were met.

The union demanded immediate reconsideration of the application submitted by 500 farmers’ organizations for approval of the demonstration which was rejected by the Delhi Police.

Ugrahan said the caravan of protesters includes a substantial number of women and youth. He said instead of choking the national capital, they planned to start indefinite protest at Jantar Mantar so that locals were not inconvenienced. He has given a call to farmers and farm workers from all over India to join the protest.

Jhanda Singh Jekhuke, senior vice-president, BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) gave a call to farmers of Punjab that they should not let the chain of caravan break. He extended the appeal to farm workers and urban poor to join the protest and speed up their preparations for it.

He announced that scraping the farm laws was immediate demand but main demands were constitutional guarantee of procurement of all crops at MSP in all states and acknowledgement of legal sanctity to universal coverage of PDS.

Harjinder Bindu, state president of women wing of BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan), said thousands of women activists were in high spirits and geared up for indefinite protest in Delhi. He appealed to women in Punjab that they should continue the protests against corporate houses and BJP leaders in the state. Indefinite protests outside the houses of BJP leaders in Punjab have been continuing for more than a month. Bindu asked women activists to shoulder the responsibility of continuing the protests in Punjab.

Ugrahan turns down jyani’s invite for talks with Home Minister

The BKU said former BJP minister Surjit Kumar Jyani facilitated the telephonic conversation between Joginder Singh Ugrahan and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Once the offer for Burari Ground was rejected, Jyani called up Ugrahan, extending invite to a five-member panel for talks with Shah.

Ugrahan told Jyani that the BKU was one of the three fronts leading the protest, others two being coordination committee of 30 organisations and Satnam Pannu-led Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Committee. He said the invitation should be extended to all three fronts with a concrete proposal.