Agencies
New Delhi, June 21: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the country in celebrating the International Yoga Day, farmers in a few states protested by performing shavasana (corpse pose) to highlight the agrarian crisis.
In Madhya Pradesh, farmers led by Shivakumar Sharma of the Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Sangh demonstrated their protest by performing the ‘shavasana’, as the government is yet to meet their demands for loan waiver and better prices for the agriculture produce. They demanded action against the administrative and police officials responsible for the firing in Mandsaur which killed five farmers and left scores injured.
A similar protest – ‘Yoga on Highways’ session – was organized by the Kisan Mahapanchayat of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Wednesday to protest alleged anti-farmer policies of the Modi government.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki, hundreds of farmers belonging to BKU laid on the highway performing ‘shavasan’, bringing the traffic on NH-28 to a standstill. However, they allowed ambulances and students to pass through.
Harinam Singh Verma, a BKU leader told reporters, “The loan waiver of Yogi was mere eyewash and not a single farmer has benefited out of it. Imagine, we have to sell our milk at 25 Rs/litre, whereas bottled waters are sold at rs 50 to 60 of some brands.”
Mukesh Singh, another leader demanded higher support price for the produce. He lamented that the Centre has failed to live up to its promises and the farmers are left to fend for themselves. We are agitated by what happened in Mandsaur. The farmers, however, cleared the highway for traffic after the token protest. Earlier, they had plans to stage the protest till 12.00 noon.
According to the BKU chief Naresh Tikait, while Prime Minister Modi performs Yoga at Lucknow Stadium; farmers all over the country will block highways between 9 am to 12 noon as a mark of protest.