AAP govt betrayed, will rebuild farmers' agitation: Jagjit Singh Dallewal

Chandigarh: Punjab farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal on Thursday said farmers will rebuild their agitation, accusing the AAP government in the state of "betraying" them by evicting the protesters from Shambhu and Khanauri border points in a police crackdown.

Dallewal is a senior leader of the joint forum of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM). He is on an indefinite hunger strike since November 26 last year to press the Centre to accept their demands including a legal guarantee to provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops.

Dallewal started taking medical aid at the Khanauri protest site after the Centre invited the farmer leaders for talks in January but he did not end his fast. He was discharged from a private hospital in Patiala on Thursday. He later went to his native village in the Faridkot district.

Speaking to reporters in Patiala, he said it has never happened that on one side, meetings are taking place with the government and on the other side, farmers were detained by the police after the meeting.

"The government which betrayed us may uproot the agitation but not my heart. Our effort is to rebuild this agitation. The two forums will sit together and discuss how to take it across the country," said Dallewal.

On the Punjab police action against farmers, Dallewal said the state government not only "backstabbed" the agitation but also "backstabbed" the people of Punjab as this fight was for saving the state's water.

Dallewal reiterated that his indefinite fast would continue till the farmers' demands including a legal guarantee to MSP for crops were met.

The farmer leader said following the Punjab Police's action against farmers on March 19, he had refused to take water and medical aid till the detained farmers were released.

The Punjab Police on March 19 detained farmer leaders in Mohali when they were returning from a meeting with a central delegation led by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Chandigarh.

The meeting was organised to discuss the farmers' demands, especially the MSP guarantee. As the departing farmers entered Mohali after the meeting, they were met with heavy barricading and some of their leaders were detained.

The police evicted the farmers and dismantled temporary structures from the Shambhu and Khanauri border points.