National Farmers’ Day: Jailed activists in Maharashtra on hunger strike to back farmers’ protest

Various activists arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links' case are observing a day-long hunger strike on Wednesday at Taloja jail in Maharashtra in support of farmers who are protesting against the Centre's new farm laws.

The activists, in a joint statement on the occasion of the National Farmers' Day, said they are lodged in the jail in Navi Mumbai and cannot participate physically in the farmers' agitation.

Hence, they are observing a day-long symbolic hunger strike in the jail.

"The demands you (farmers) have raised are absolutely right and just," they said in the statement, conveyed through advocate Nihalsingh Rathod.

The activists currently behind bars in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links' case include Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Anand Teltumbde, Hany Babu, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Father Stan Swamy, Gautam Navlakha and Rona Wilson, Rathod said.

The activists in their message said they had decided not to involve Stan Swamy and Navlakha in the protest, despite their insistence, due to their health issues.

"They (Swamy and Navlakha) are standing morally with us," the activists said in the message.