New Delhi: With growing support from trade unions and Opposition parties for tomorrow’s “Bharat Bandh” call, some services, including the supply of fruits and vegetables, could get affected in Delhi – now the epicenter of farmers’ protests – and the rest of the country. The call for a “peaceful” nationwide shutdown on December 8, a day ahead of the sixth round of talks between protesting farmers and the center, is meant to mount pressure on the government to repeal three contentious agriculture reform laws. “The protest is to show that we don’t support some of the policies of the government,” Bharatiya Kisan Union Spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said. Unions have said their protest is “peaceful and will continue that way”.
Opposition leaders from several parties, including the Congress, the DMK, the RJD, the Samajwadi Party, the newly-minted People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration in J&K, and a collection of Left outfits, have issued a joint statement in support of Tuesday’s “Bharat bandh”, which has been called for by the thousands of farmers protesting against the center’s contentious new farm laws. The opposition parties called on the center to adhere to well-established democratic processes and norms and meet “the legitimate demands of our kisans-annadatas (farmers)”.National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah (for J&K’s PAGD) and a number of Left parties – the Communist Party of India, the CPI(M), the CPI(ML), the All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party – also expressed support for the farmers.
