Gujarat farmers agitation continues despite government repression: Sanyukt Khedut Sangharsh Samiti’s call to the government – respect Constitution and democracy

By Dilip -
Sanyukt Khedut Sangharsh Samiti
C/o Khet Bhavan, Near Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad 380 027
 8 January 2015
 UPDATE
Sanyukt Khedut Sangharsh Samiti’s call to the government – respect Constitution and democracy
Friends,
It appears that the Government of Gujarat, afraid that the myth of a developed Gujarat – created in the editing rooms of advertising agencies – will be punctured, is running scared of the farmers’ programme to march from Adalaj to Mahatma Mandir. There is constant surveillance on farmer leaders in all districts by the IB, LIB and the police. They are constantly being harangued with questions about time, numbers, place etc. of the programme.
It is quite obvious from this behaviour that the government will use all means at its disposal, unconstitutional and undemocratic as they may be, to try and suppress the voice of the farmers. The undemocratic behaviour of the government has been challenged by Shri Rameshbhai Virani in the Hon.ble High Court of Gujarat. The petition has been admitted by the Hon.ble Court and will come up on the board tomorrow. The prayers in the petition are that farmers be allowed their right to peaceful assembly, not to be stopped by the authorities from voicing their protest and to grant them the permission for the rally...

Sagar Rabari

**********
Sanyukt Khedut Sangharsh Samiti
C/o Khet Bhavan, Near Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad 380 027
10 January 2015

PRESSNOTE
To, Editor/Bureau Chief,

The arrest of farmer leaders is condemned; call to farmers to take the programme forward on their own.

Undemocratic, fascist steps of the government; the movement is not afraid of the repression.

This is a farmers’ movement and not the politicians’.

Farmers will reach the venue despite their leaders’ arrest.

One of the leaders of the Sanyukt Khedut Sangharsh Samiti, Shri Sagar Rabari, in a press release states that:

Ever since the announcement of the programme of a march by the farmers the IB, LIB and the police teams have been constantly tailing the leaders of the Sanyukt Khedut Sangharsh Samiti. It was evident that the government would take all kinds of undemocratic and repressive measures to stop the farmers from carrying out their programme. Accordingly, the government today held two of Saurashtra’s prominent farmer leaders – Shri Shivlalbhai Vekaria and Shri Chandubhai Shingala – along with many more farmers, into preventive detention. We condemn this unconstitutional and undemocratic step of the government.

We request the democratically elected government to repose faith in democracy, to let the farmers exercise their democratic right to voice their demands, refrain from creating an environment of fear, but rather listen to the farmers’ agony and distress. If the people cannot take their woes to the government, then where will they go? Creating an environment of fear and terror cannot take the government very far. The government must come forward to forge a dialogue with the distressed farmers, otherwise these farmers know how to answer even this repression through democratic means.

Sagar Rabari

********
10 January 2015
PRESSNOTE
To, Editor/Bureau Chief,

 Government attempts to cow down farmers;

Farmers determined to make government see reason

The Sanyukt Khedut Sangharsh Samiti, in a press release, states that:

The news of several farmer leaders being taken into preventive detention has been received from several places from Gujarat. In addition to this, the administration, in several places, has issued orders to private transport services not to ferry the agitating farmers to Ahmedabad. The farmers are determined to descend upon Ahmedabad and carry out their programme as per plan despite this heavy-handedness and repression by the state government. The farmers from various parts of Gujarat will converge at Adalaj crossroads by 11 am tomorrow, Sunday 11 January 2015. From there they will commence their march towards Mahatma Mandir.

Kindly come to support the farmers in their struggle.

Sagar Rabari

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