Chandigarh, 6 April

Punjab farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal on 6 April ended his hunger strike, which he began on 26 November last year over various demands of agitating farmers, including a legal guarantee on minimum support price for crops.

The announcement came a day after Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu appealed to him to end his hunger strike.

Dallewal announced at a 'Kisan Mahapanchayat' organised at Anaaj Mandi in Sirhind in Punjab's Fatehgarh Sahib district that he was ending his indefinite fast. At the same time, he asserted that his fight for a legal guarantee on MSP for crops and other demands continues.

Dallewal stated, "The morcha continues. Even today I don't want to end the indefinite fast, but you have repeatedly asked me (to end the fast) and I respect it. But I want assurance that we form a stronger morcha."

The development comes more than a fortnight after the Punjab Police cracked down on agitating farmers after their leaders were detained in Mohali when they were returning from a meeting with a central delegation led by Agriculture Minister Chouhan in Chandigarh. The 19 March meeting was held to discuss farmers' demands, particularly the MSP guarantee.

Dallewal, president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur), hails from Dallewal village in Faridkot. Be it inadequate compensation for agricultural land acquisition, pending payments to farmers or cases of farmers committing suicide, Dallewal has been at the forefront of raising these issues.

Earlier, he had fasted in support of farmers' issues in March 2018, January 2019, January 2021, November 2022 and June 2023. Before starting his fast unto death in November last year, Dallewal had transferred his 17 acres of land to his son, daughter-in-law and grandson.