Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik on Sunday said the farmers' movement is not over yet and that they will wage a "fierce battle" against the government if it does not bring a law on minimum support price (MSP). Speaking at a Jat community program here, Malik said he will also join the movement once he completes his term as Meghalaya governor.
Malik has targeted the government several times in the recent past over farmers' issues. "The farmers' movement is not over yet, it was the dharna which ended. If a law on MSP is not made, then the farmers will wage a fierce battle against the country's government," Malik said. He said only four months of his tenure as Meghalaya governor are left and he will also join the movement once he completes his term.
Malik said when the farmers were protesting against the farm laws, he went to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and told him that atrocities were being committed against them. He claimed he suggested to the prime minister that he should settle the matter with the farmers but Modi told him that they will end the dharna on their own. "I said that they (farmers) will go only after you (PM) are gone," he added.
Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, laid siege at Delhi borders in November 2020 demanding that the Centre withdraw its three contentious farm laws. The protest ended in December 2021 after the government withdrew the farm laws. Hitting out at the Adani Group, Malik asked Modi how the conglomerate is getting richer at a time when the common people are getting destroyed.
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Withdrawal of cases lodged against farmers during their agitation against the farm laws, legal guarantee on MSP, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during the course of the protest were some of the protesters' demands that the government had agreed to consider before they ended their dharna.
