Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal ends hunger strike after four months
Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who was on a hunger strike since November 26, ended his indefinite fast on Sunday in Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib district, reported PTI.
“You all have asked me to end the fast unto death,” Dallewal told a gathering of farmers. “I am indebted to you for taking care of the agitation. I respect your sentiments. I accept your order.”
He added that while he was ending his fast, the farmers’ protest will continue.
Dallewal, 70, is the chief of the farm group Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political). His strike was part of a wider campaign by Punjab’s farm groups to press the Union government to accept their demand for legally guaranteed minimum support prices. The minimum support price is the cost at which the government procures crops from farmers.
Besides a legal guarantee, the farmers have also been demanding the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission’s wider recommendations for farming in India, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, a farm debt waiver, the reinstatement of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act and justice for victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
Dallewal’s announcement came a day after Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan urged him to end his hunger strike, stating that the Centre will meet representatives of farmers’ organisations for talks on May 4.
The talks between the Union...
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