UNITED NATIONS, Dec 05 (DNA): The United Nations has said that the
Indian farmers have the right to peaceful protest and that the
authorities should allow them to demonstrate.

“People have a right to demonstrate peacefully, and authorities need to
let them do so,” UN Secretary-General’s Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said
in response to a question about the growing demonstrations around New
Delhi by farmers protesting against the new legislation sponsored by the
right-wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that they said
would curb their earnings and benefit big corporations.

According to media reports, tens of thousands of Indian farmers have
been camped for over a week on highways leading into New Delhi,
demanding the rollback of new laws that will change the way they have
sold crops for decades at government-regulated agricultural markets, to
pave the way for free market trade.

After being refused permission to hold their protest in the heart of the
capital, farmers have parked their tractors and trucks stacked with food
rations, mattresses and blankets behind heavily barricaded highways
guarded by police. They are spending the cold winter nights inside their
trucks or in the open – fully prepared for a prolonged standoff with the
government.

In New York, hundreds of American-Sikhs staged a protest demonstration
near the Indian consulate on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the General Counsel of the United States -based Sikhs for
Justice (SfJ), Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, said in a statement that the New
York rally was the start of a series of pro-farmer and pro-independence
rallies outside Indian missions across North America and Europe.

The group has already announced one million US dollars in aid for
Punjabi farmers who suffered injuries or damage to their vehicles in
clashes with police as they marched into New Delhi to protest against
new farm laws.

SfJ said it would open 24 -hour call centers in the United States ,
Canada, UK, France and Germany to take online applications from farmers
of Punjab and Haryana to reimburse them for their losses and also to
register votes for the “Khalistan Referendum” that it would plan to hold
in August. DNA

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