Gujarat farmer leaders form coordination committee, to 'organise' Dec 8 Bharat bandh

By A Representative
A meeting, organised in support of farmers’ rights and in opposition to the three farm bills passed recently in Parliament in Ahmedabad, has decided to form common platform, called Gujarat Khedut Sangharsh Samiti, in order to to support the Bharat bandh call given for December 8, 2020 by the agitating farmers on Delhi borders, as organise agitations in the state.
Organised by Jayeshbhai Patel of the Gujarat Khedut Samaj and Dahyabhai Gajra of the Gujarat Kisan Sabha, those present on the occasion agreed, the bills would affect not just farmers but also small businesses and working people, even as encouraging hoarding and impacting consumers in a serious way.
The meeting decided to hold protests all over Gujarat on the December 10, organise Kisan Sansad at Satyagrah Chhavni in Gandhinagar after seeking relevant permissions on December 11, send farmers to Delhi to join the protesting farmers starting with December 12, and publish a leaflet in the name of the Gujarat Khedut Sangharsh Samiti to inform farmers about the implications of the bills.
The organizations which took part in the meeting included the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Samiti, the Gujarat Kisan Congress (Saurashtra), Annadaata Hitrakshak Samiti (Gandhinagar), Gujarat Kisan Sabha, Dharti Putra Kisan Trust (Mehsana), Lokshaasan (Jamnagar), Ekta Grameen Praja Vichar Manch, Marketing Yard Ekta Vyapari Sangathan (Rajkot), Gujarat Khedut Samaj, Rashtriya Kisan Morcha, Gujarat Khedut Sangharsh Samiti (Sanand), and civil rights organization Anhad.
Human rights advocate Anand Yagnik was present on the occasion.

Gujarat minorities group 'endorses' Bharat bandh

Meanwhile, Gujarat’s civil rights organization, Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), expressing its “complete solidarity with ongoing farmers’ nation-wide protests”, has “endorsed” the Bharat bandh on December 8. In a statement, Mujahid Nafees, MCC convener, said, “The call has come after several rounds of failed negotiations between the protesting farmers in Delhi and the Government of India over the three Farm Acts and the Electricity Bill.”
Stating that these law together “are bound to corporatize farming and makes lives of millions of farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, increasingly precarious”, Nafees said, “MCC calls upon all sections of our society to stand with the historic struggle of farmers and participate actively in the Bharat bandh.”
He added, “MCC commits itself to intensify the struggle, along with other organizations, until the core demands of the farmers to repeal the three Acts and the Electricity Bill and legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price for all crops are not met.”

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