Marxist party stages protest, demands withdrawal of farm bills

They were later removed from the spot by police. Speaking to reporters, CPI(M) affiliated Tamil Nadu Farmers Association's state general secretary P Shanmugam demanded that Chief Minister Palaniswami resign from his post and tender an apology to farmers for supporting the bills.

Demanding that the Centre withdraw the farm bills passed by Parliament, the CPI(M) staged a protest here on Monday. Raising slogans against the union government and asking Chief Minister K Palaniswami to resign for supporting the bills, the party members tried to march towards the Secretariat from Parrys corner area as part of the "besiege" Fort St George protest.

There was a brief scuffle when police tried to stop the CPI(M) cadres, who then resorted to road roko for a while. They were later removed from the spot by police.

Speaking to reporters, CPI(M) affiliated Tamil Nadu Farmers Association's state general secretary P Shanmugam demanded that Chief Minister Palaniswami resign from his post and tender an apology to farmers for supporting the bills. There would be no food security for the people and corporates could seriously affect the farm sector if these new laws were implemented, he alleged.

"In these bills that have been passed, there is no mention of Minimum Support Price or procurement by the government. If the government does not buy, there will be no Public Distribution System outlets in the country and if there are no PDS shops, the poor and ordinary people will not get food grains grains at reduced prices," he said.

"Narendra Modi became Prime Minister only after promising an MSP, which is 50 per cent more than the cost of production as per the M S Swaminathan Committee recommendation. He did not honour his promise and has cheated the farmers," Shanmugam, also a state secretariat member of the CPI(M), alleged.

Only against such a background has the Prime Minister been giving "assurances" about the new laws, but he has not fulfilled his promises and farmers are not ready to believe him, he claimed. "That is why there are large-scale protests against the new farm laws in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha.

In Tamil Nadu, there will be protests in more than 500 locations, including national and state highways on September 25 on behalf of all farmers bodies." Till such time, the bills passed by Parliament are withdrawn by the Centre, the protests would not cease, he said. "These laws are not only against farmers, but against all sections of the people and all segments of society should support the protests," he said.