Artistes’ Community, Lawyers’ Associations Support Farmers’ Call for Bharat Bandh

The members of Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust said they strongly support the farmers’ demand. The Bar Council of Delhi too has lent its support.

New Delhi: Among those who have joined political parties in voicing support to farmers who have called for a nationwide strike are communities of artistes and lawyers’ associations.

The members of the artistes’ community Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, or SAHMAT, issued a statement Monday supporting the call for the ‘Bharat Bandh’ by the country’s farmers who have gathered in strength at the borders of the National Capital to express their rejection of the three farm laws and the Electricity Amendment Act 2020.

“These Acts seek to regulate the entire system to promote the corporatisation of the agrarian sector and contractualisation of farming to benefit corporate investors. Exploiting the surging corona[virus] pandemic, the central government brought ordinances that speedily received presidential assent, and passed the Acts in a completely undemocratic manner and with no respect for the strong opposition of the farmers and workers,” the statement added.

Also read: Backstory: Farmers’ Protest and Callousness – as the Media Sows, So Will They Reap

The statement was signed by Vivan Sundaram, M.K. Raina, Ram Rahman, Geeta Kapur, Parthiv Shah, Sohail Hashmi, Madangopal Singh, Indu Chandrasekhar, Veer Munshi, C.P. Chandrasekhar, Kalidas, Vidya Shah, Saeed Mirza, Aban Raza, Irfan Habib, Jasbir Jassi, N.K. Sharma, Atluri Murali, P.K. Shukla, Zoya Hasan, Shireen Moosvi, Rajinder Arora, Rajni Arora, Valay Singh, Simar Puneet, Pallavi Gaur, Arushi Vats, Ahmar Raza, Nuzhat Kazmi, Shriyam Gupta, Vishwaraj Mohan, Shatam Ray, Shreya Varma, Maitreyi Sinha, Priyanshi Saxena, Samira Haksar, Shreya Varma, Gopa, Rishabh Arora, Tsering Negi, Kumaraswamy Pashikanti, Deepani Seth, Subrat Beura, and Prerna Kapur.

Meanwhile, the Bar Council of Delhi has also lent its voice in support to the farmers. In a letter, the Council noted that the legislation against which the farmers are protesting is “unreasonable, arbitrary and unjust.”

Members of the Bar Association also participated in demonstrations at the Singhu border.