He said he will also raise this issue with the President of India on December 9. The NCP had staged a walk-out in the Rajya Sabha when the three farm bills were introduced in September this year during the Parliament’s monsoon session.
Meanwhile, after an imbroglio with Canada over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau comments over farmers’ protests in India, the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will not be part of a video-call at the initiative of Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne on Monday. Earlier India had summoned the Canadian envoy and protested against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s comments. Officially, India has conveyed to Canada that Jaishankar will not be able to attend the video-call due to “scheduling issues”.
In diplomatic circles, such moves will not be taken politely. If it was indeed an action to convey India’s displeasure, it should not have given “scheduling issues” as a reason. Since March 15, Canada has been having video-calls with foreign ministers of Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore and the United Kingdom and there have been eleven such video-calls till date. On November 3, Jaishankar took part in the 11th call of the ministerial coordination group on Covid-19 hosted by Canada. It is a strong message by India but it will not gain much credence in the diplomatic corps.
While speaking virtually to members of the Indian community in Canada to mark the 551st birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, Trudeau had said, “I would be remiss if I didn’t start also by recognising the news coming out of India about the protest by farmers. The situation is concerning, and we’re all very worried about family and friends,” much to the dismay of India’s ruling political circles, which calls the issue as “internal matter” of India. Following which, India issued a demarche to the Canadian High Commissioner over these comments by the Canadian Prime Minister.
In yet another international twist to this entire issue, the spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and a group of 36 United Kingdom parliamentarians cutting across party lines have also come out in support of the agitating Indian farmers, saying that people have a right to demonstrate peacefully and authorities should let them do so. A group of 36 UK Parliamentarians have written to UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and asked him to make representations to his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar, regarding the impact on British Punjabis affected by the demonstrations by farmers against new agricultural reforms in India. The letter, issued on Friday, has been drafted by British Sikh Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and signed by other Indian-origin MPs, including Labour’s Virendra Sharma, Seema Malhotra and Valerie Vaz as well as former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The farmers’ protest which is continuing for over ten days now at the Delhi borders has become a thorn in a flesh for the Union government as many opposition political parties in India, including Congress, have also committed their support to “Bharat Bandh” (India lockdown) called by the farmers on December 8. The farmers’ protest, which began in Punjab and some parts of Haryana, is now taking the shape of a political movement as they gathered steam from international quarters too. It can no longer be called an “internal issue” and the theory of Jammu & Kashmir as “internal matter” of India, is unlikely to work in this situation. In London, a strong police force was deployed on Sunday to give protection to Indian High Commission when some protesters raised anti-India and pro-farmer slogans.
Enthused by the support from all corners the representatives of thousands of agitating farmers, who are sitting on various borders of the national capital since November 26, have said their call for a ‘Bharat Bandh’ on December 8 would be observed with full force. Several meetings of farmers’ representatives with the Union ministers have not resolved the issue as the farmers are raising their voices to completely repeal all the three farm bills to which the Union government is unwilling to oblige. The deadlock seems to be hitting a dead-end like situation and if no solution to this issue is found soon, the matter will escalate leading to many farmers across the country joining in support of the protesters and thus fuelling further Corona cases.
