Mumbai to host kisan maha-panchayat on Sunday

BKU leader Rakesh Tikait with other farmers, at Lakhimpur Kheri. File pic

Thousands of farmers, farm workers, activists along with political leaders are expected to gather at Azad Maidan, for the kisan mahapanchayat on Sunday. A day before the mega event, the ashes of farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence will be brought to the city after passing through various places in the state. The mahapanchayat is being organised after the Centre announced the repeal of the contentious farm acts.

Political parties and unions, led by the ruling Congress and NCP, which backed the mahapanchayat, addressed a media conference in the city on Wednesday. Congress's Maharashtra president Nana Patole and NCP's chief spokesperson and minister Nawab Malik said that political leaders will neither share the dais with farmer leaders, such as Rakesh Tikait, nor deliver speeches at the mahapanchayat, and instead sit in the audience.

The participants of the mahapanchayat will come together under the banner of Samyukta Shetkari Kamgar Morcha. Non-BJP parties, including MVA partners Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP, and their respective unions, leftist political outfits and their unions, and host of other labour and farmers' organisations will be in attendance. "It's the farmer leaders' wish that political leaders not make speeches. But we (political leaders) will accompany the slain farmers' ashes across the city," said Malik.

"We want the Centre to fulfil the demand for minimum support price and discuss things with the opposition and farmers leaders before repealing the three acts in Parliament. We don't trust the Centre. We must know the fine print of the repealing," said Patole.