Farmers' organisations under the banner of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) are holding mass demonstrations at district and tehsil centres across India on Friday, October 23, in support of the ongoing anti-SIR struggle in New Delhi, The Hindu reported.
Source: The Hindu (via Kashmir Media Service)
The SKM's national council and general body meeting at Jat Bhawan in Karnal on October 12 decided to rally farmers behind the student and youth protesters on the SIR issue, with the SKM leadership joining the struggle in New Delhi, according to the SKM's meeting report published by Peoples Democracy.
The protesters' core demands, as stated by the organisers, are the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the immediate end of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and electoral reform including a return to paper-ballot voting. The SKM alleges that voters were removed from electoral rolls without transparency — a claim the Election Commission has not accepted; the figure of 13.41 crore deletions cited by the SKM is the organisation's own claim and has not been independently verified.
A wider alliance takes the campaign nationwide
The October 23 action is being taken forward by People Against SIR, an alliance of civil-society groups, students, farmers, minority organisations, lawyers and public figures, with the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) participating and the INDIA bloc announcing support and coordination, IPA News Pack reported. The campaign is being run under the slogan 'Har haath mein Tiranga, har gali mein Jantar Mantar' — a tricolour in every hand, a Jantar Mantar in every street.
SKM leader and All India Kisan Sabha president Ashok Dhawale told journalists that students, youth, women, civil-society organisations and trade unions would join the demonstrations, and that the farmers would not be intimidated, The Hindu reported. The SKM has also announced larger demonstrations on November 26 in New Delhi and across India, marking the sixth anniversary of the historic farmers' struggle at Delhi's borders, Peoples Democracy reported.