Upholding the Farmers’ Protest

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) stands in solidarity with the non-violent and peaceful struggle of the lakhs of farmers sleeping under the open sky in the chill of winter on the Delhi borders. When the farmers of the country needed full support from the government due to the ongoing agrarian crisis, it has come as a shocker that the Government of India (GOI) wants to disempower the farmers completely in the interests of big corporates.

The PUCL would like to assert that the GOI must meet the demands of the protesting farmers and repeal the three new laws on farming, which were passed in Parliament in September 2020, by flouting all democratic norms. We would like to point out that these laws were passed in the middle of the pandemic without a national discussion on the proposed changes of law, which threaten to change the face of agriculture in India. It is objectionable that such far-reaching changes were ushered in at a time when the pandemic had already forcibly restricted the movement and economic activity of ordinary people.