121 farmers end fast after Dallewal takes medical aid
A group of 121 farmers, who sat on a fast-unto-death at the Khanauri protest site in solidarity with farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, ended their indefinite strike on Sunday after he took medical aid
Patiala : A group of 121 farmers, who sat on a fast-unto-death at the Khanauri protest site in solidarity with farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, ended their indefinite strike on Sunday after he took medical aid.
A group of 111 farmers had joined Dallewal’s fast-unto-death on January 15 and sat on the Haryana side of the border near Khanauri. On January 17, 10 more farmers, who were from Haryana, joined them.
The 121 farmers ended their fast by sipping juice in the presence of deputy inspector general of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu and Patiala senior superintendent of police Nanak Singh.
Dallewal (67), who has refused any aid since he sat on a fast-unto-death on November 26, agreed on Saturday to take medical aid following the Centre’s invitation for talks on February 14 to discuss farmers’ demands.
A high-level central delegation, led by Union agriculture ministry joint secretary Priya Ranjan, met Dallewal and representatives of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha on Saturday, and invited them for a resumption of talks on February 14 at Chandigarh.
Dallewal has been administered intravenous (IV) fluids to recover from acute dehydration. The veteran farm leader, whose fast-unto-death entered 55th day on Sunday, will not end his indefinite strike until a legal guarantee to minimum support price for crops is given.
The January 14 blood test reports of the fasting leader revealed that he was suffering from acute starvation. The blood test reports, which the HT has a copy of, revealed that there were high levels of ketones in the blood. The presence of ketone in blood indicates that the body is running out of glucose and is using fat for energy. This situation happens in case of starvation.
Dr Ashish Kumar from Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, said: “As of now, we are only giving IV fluids to the farm leader. We will conduct a blood test in a day or two. Based on blood test reports, we will try to replenish the deficiencies.”
Dr Kumar is also a member of the medical board which was constituted by the Punjab government to oversee the medical health of Dallewal.
Farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar on Sunday said that Dallewal was not ready to take medical aid despite getting an invite from the Union government. “We had to appeal to Dallewal to take medical aid as he had continuously been vomiting for the past 72 hours. After our request, Dallewal agreed to take minimum medical aid,” he said.
SKM hails Centre’s decision
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Sunday hailed the Union government’s proposal of talks with farmers as a great victory and welcomed fasting farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal’s decision to receive medical support.
“SKM considers Union government’s decision to hold discussions with farmers organisations a great victory,” they said in a statement.
The group, which led the 2020-21 farmers’ protests against the three now-repealed farm laws, said the government was forced to hold discussions due to the farmers’ growing unity.
“SKM welcomes the decision of fasting farmer leader Sardar Jagjit Singh Dallewal to receive medical support and wishes him a quick recovery and good health. The continuous efforts made by SKM leaders for farmers’ unity and pan-India agitation against the anti-farmer union government has forced the government to retract from its divisive strategy,” the collective said.
The farmers’ body also called upon all its units to send out memorandums to members of Parliament through email instead of holding kisan dharna at MP offices on Monday and asked them to focus on SKM’s tractor rallies on January 26.
A meeting of the general body of SKM will be held in New Delhi on January 24.
