A 70-year-old farmer leader in India has been on hunger strike for 46 days to pressure the federal government to accept the demands of protesting farmers. Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is leading the United Kisan Morcha (SKM), has been on hunger strike for 46 days.

For a few weeks, his health condition is deteriorating and he is unable to speak. Doctors have warned that Dallewal's health has deteriorated and he needs immediate treatment.  But in Khanouri of Sangrur on the Punjab-Haryana border, the protesting Dallewal and his supporters have so far refused medical help.

Dallewal's health has sparked renewed interest in farmers' protests. Farmers shut down Punjab on December 30 last year with the aim of pressing to meet the demand. Due to the bandh, the province of Punjab was almost at a standstill . Similarly, the farmers held a Mahapanchayat at the hunger strike on January 4.

SKM said that the Mahapanchayat has passed the unity resolution 'taking into account the demands of the farmers'. SKM has said that it has full support for the hunger strike of farmer leader Dallewal. About three dozen organizations of farmers are affiliated to SKM. The Indian media reported that they will unite and move forward with the movement.

The 6-member unity committee of SKM met Dallewal at the venue on Friday. The members of the unity committee said that the central government, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, are responsible for the current deadlock and the deteriorating condition of Dallewal.  

They have asked the central government to negotiate with the farmers' organization to save Dallewal's life. They warned that if anything happens to Dallewal, the central government will be fully responsible. "It was said that the government of India is not ready for talks because we are not united," said Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of SKM-affiliated BKU (Rajewal). "Now we are all united." The negotiation process should be started immediately.' 

SKM said last Thursday that the new draft of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing is a dangerous version of the three agricultural laws that were repealed in 2021. This confirms that the central government of India is again working in favor of the imperialists against the constitution and against the federal character, says SKM. In protest against the policy, SKM is planning to burn a copy of it on January 13 and take out a tractor rally in Punjab on January 26. 

Thousands of Indian farmers gathered on the border of Punjab and Haryana states in February last year and staged a massive protest. Their demands include fixed prices for certain crops, loan waivers and compensation to the families of farmers killed in previous agitations. At that time, they tried to advance towards the capital New Delhi . But the security forces stopped at the border . 

Indian farmers have been holding large demonstrations at various times to highlight their problems. In 2020, they protested for months on the borders of Delhi demanding the repeal of three agricultural laws introduced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

Farmers have been arguing that the law introduced by the government does not match the price of agricultural produce. But the government claimed to improve the sale of agricultural produce and benefit the community. The laws were eventually repealed . But the protesting farmers have said that the government has not fulfilled the other demands made in 2020. Farmers sat on dharna on February 13, 2024 to meet their demand.

Dallewal hails from Faridkot in Punjab, an Indian province that relies heavily on agriculture for employment. In recent years, there has been a continuous decline in the income of farmers in Punjab. Because of this, the number of farmers committing suicide and migration is increasing. Earlier, he led a movement against land acquisition in Punjab and demanded compensation for farmers who died of suicide.

2018  14 years ago, he led a protest rally of tractors that marched towards Delhi to press for the implementation of recommendations made by a government committee. The participants in the rally demanded remunerative prices for produce and farm loan waiver as recommended by the committee. 

On November 26, Dallewal was taken to the hospital by the state police for a medical check-up. But he returned to the protest site within a few days, claiming that he was confined in the hospital. In a letter written to Prime Minister Modi, Dallewal has written that he is ready to sacrifice his life to prevent the death of farmers.

Indian farmers have been agitating repeatedly to fulfill their unfulfilled demands including legal guarantee of minimum support price, loan waiver, pension for both farmers and agricultural workers, electricity tariffs should be sustainable, restoration of land acquisition laws. In addition to that, they have also demanded compensation to the families of the farmers who were killed in the previous agitation.

But it seems that the central government led by Modi is ignoring the farmers' protest. 2020's  During the agitation, the federal government held several rounds of negotiations with the farmers. Top officials, including India's then Minister of Agriculture and Food, were involved in the talks. Also, after farmers prepared to protest in Delhi last February, central government ministers held two rounds of talks. But those talks ended without a conclusion .

Since then, the central government of India seems to have distanced itself from the protesting farmers. Last week, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that he would wait for the Supreme Court's instructions on calling the protesting farmers for talks. Last September, the Supreme Court ordered the formation of a committee to address the demands of the farmers. The report submitted by the

committee in November mentioned the serious crisis faced by the farmers . In the report, farmers' wages are very low, farmers are burdened with debt and other crises are mentioned. The committee has also put forward measures to help farmers with direct income.