Condemning the first information report (FIR) registered by the Delhi Police against online news portal NewsClick and journalists associated with it, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Sunday said the charges in the FIR that the farmers’ protests were held to “disrupt supplies and services essential to the life of community in India” were false and mischievous.
The Morcha, in a statement, “categorically rejected” all allegations made in the FIR against the farmers’ movement. It also announced nationwide protests against the Union government for its renewed attack on the farmers’ movement through the NewsClick FIR.
The FIR said that the 13-month-long farmers’ movement was to “abet damage and destruction of property, cause huge loss to the Indian economy and create internal law and order problems, through illegal foreign funding”.
The Morcha said the protests against the “anti-farmer and pro-corporate” laws and policies of the BJP government were peaceful. “No supply was disrupted by the farmers. No property was damaged by the farmers. No loss to the economy was caused by farmers. No law and order problem was created by the farmers. By violently stopping the farmers from exercising their democratic right of reaching the nation’s capital, through barbed wire fencing, water cannons, lathi charge and digging up roads, it is the Union Government that caused great inconvenience to the people of the nation and the farmers,” the Morcha said. It also cited the deaths of 735 farmers at various protest sites and the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, where four farmers and one journalist were murdered.
It is the government that conspired with crony capitalists to grab and capture food production and supply chains, destroying food security of the people and economy of the nation, the Morcha said.
It alleged that funds from China had been received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the PM Cares Fund and Gautam Adani in his business. “The Farmers’ Movement succeeded, overcoming enormous hardship and with great sacrifice of the farmers. To belittle such sacrifice by alleging that the movement was foreign funded and acts of terrorism, betrays the arrogance, ignorance and anti-people mindset of the government,” the Morcha said.
