farmers protest: A day after the death of a young farmer at the Datta Singhwala-Khanauri border, various unions in the region are mobilising support to push for legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) of crops among other demands.

While the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM-non political), organising the protests at the Haryana-Punjab borders, have halted their Delhi march for two days, the national council of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) chaired a meeting in Chandigarh and declared a series of protests in the country.

However, Haryana farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni, the face of 2020 farmers’ protests, has been distanced again.

Speaking to HT, Charuni said that he has not receied any invitation from the organisations to join the farmers protest, but his union has organised three protests at their own level.

“We have organised tractor marches and allow free passage at tolls in solidarity with the protesting farmers, and now also blocked roads for two hours to farmers protest against the death of the young farmer,” Charuni, head of BKU (Charuni), said.

When asked if he will join the farmers protest, he said, “It is not necessary that everyone should join them at Shambhu or Khanauri. We are protesting at the forefront in the state and have supported their demands already.”

In the past, since the farmers protest started on February 13, Charuni had hit out at the KMM and SKM (NP) for not taking along all the farmer unions.

“Five senior members of the SKM, including me, Balbir Singh Rajewal, Yogender Yadav, are into politics, but I don’t understand why I am being targeted and intentionally sidelined,” he had said.

Though the SKM has formed a six-member committee to coordinate with all “jathebandis” for a concentrated effort, there has been no specific mention of reaching out to Charuni yet having considerable following in the state.

However, people close to him suggest that there have been statements from the KMM or SKM (NP) calling for other farm unions to join while adhering to their condition that is not to engage in political activities, which Charuni won’t agree to.

“All the efforts by Charuni were his compulsion to keep his camp intact in view of existential crisis when his members have been anxious to join their counterparts on inter-state borders since the protests began on February 13,” people familiar with the developments said.

Amarjeet Singh Mohri, Tejveer Singh, Jai Singh Jalbera, Navdeep Jalbera and others, spearheading the Haryana contingent in the KMM, are founders of the Ambala-based BKU (Shaheed Bhagat Singh – SBS), a breakaway faction of the BKU (Charuni).

The foundation of the SBS group and Sir Chotu Ram faction in Karnal was only Charuni’s call to help farmers contest elections in Punjab in 2021 during the protests against three farm laws.

Last year, at a rally in Kurukshetra with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhary and Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav, Charuni had reiterated his intention to enter active politics to raise the voice of farmers in the Parliament or state assembly.