Farmers Navigate Divisiveness, Bat for Free Speech

The prophecies of political observers in Punjab and Haryana, the two states that were the pivot of the farmers’ agitation against the three controversial land laws, are coming true. It was evident from the moment the three laws were withdrawn that the issue will be used as a narrative ahead of the 2024 parliamentary polls.

Observers were also sure that the Khalistan narrative too would be revived. This was evident from the recent standoff between India and Canada. During the farmers’ movement, the entire right wing ecosystem had painted the Sikh farmers as being pro Khalistan, and ‘anti national’.

The manner in which the embedded media had twisted the incident at the Red Fort where a Nishan Sahib (religious symbol) flag was unfurled on January 26, 2021 was the zenith of that effort. This narrative has returned through the recent crackdown on Newsclick.

Neither the developments around the Khalistani narrative that makes an appearance every now and then, particularly around polls, nor has the crackdown on the media come as a surprise to the politically aware people.

Now, the mood on the ground is to challenge the slander. It has been regularly reported that the majority in Punjab simply debunks the Khalistan issue, and only a small number of radicals want to fan it.

The people say that no one wants the dark days of the 1980s and the early 1990s to return. They understand that divisive narratives only help those looking for political dividends, resulting from the politics of polarisation.

It needs also to be underlined once again that the farmers’ movement had resulted in an unprecedented camaraderie between the people of Punjab and Haryana. The two states had led the farmers’ movement successfully, defying every move from the political and other forces to divide them on emotive issues.

In this context, the return of the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) issue is something that the farmers of the two states need to navigate cautiously once again. Last Wednesday the Supreme Court reportedly asked the Centre to conduct a survey of the land meant for construction of the SYL canal in Punjab to know how much work has been done. The SC asked the state government to extend cooperation in the survey.

As expected, the Supreme Court directive unleashed a war of words among the political parties in Punjab in particular while these political forces also took positions on the issue in Haryana. Interestingly, the Punjab government had de-notified the land acquired for constructing the canal in 2016 ahead of the 2017 assembly polls.

Coming back to the revival of anti farmer narrative via the media crackdown, the farmers are agitated over the ‘scurrilous and malafide’ allegations made against the farmers’ movement at Delhi along with the media house Newsclick and several journalists.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) which is the umbrella organisation of various farmer organisations across the country has rejected all the allegations as ‘false and motivated’.

“The SKM rejects the patently false and mischievous allegations in the FIR that the farmers’ movement was to ‘disrupt supplies and services essential to the life of community in India, abet damage and destruction of property, cause huge loss to the Indian economy and create internal law and order problems, through illegal foreign funding.

“Farmers, the annadatas of the nation, participated in a peaceful protest led by the SKM against the anti-farmer and pro-corporate laws and policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. No supply was disrupted by the farmers. No property was damaged by the farmers.

“No loss to the economy was caused by farmers. No law and order problem was created by the farmers. By violently stopping the farmers from exercising their democratic right of reaching the nation’s capital, through barbed wire fencing, water cannons, lathi charge and digging up the roads, it is the union government that caused great inconvenience to the people of the nation and the farmers.

“Farmers had to sit in protest for 13 long months, under the blazing summer sun, torrential rains and freezing winter cold,” the SKM said in a statement.

The farmers have pointed out the failure of the government in not removing the Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra over his son’s alleged involvement in the mowing down of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. Underlining the death of 735 farmers during the movement, the SKM has accused the government of conspiring with crony capitalists to grab and capture food production and supply chains, destroying food security of the people and economy of the nation.

“To belittle such sacrifice by alleging that the movement was foreign funded and acts of terrorism, betrays the arrogance, ignorance and anti-people mindset of the government,” the statement added.

The SKM has stated, “It is pertinent to mention that the three black farm laws tried to establish legal control of corporates over cropping pattern through contract farming, over mandis, food processing and food distribution through the Mandi Act and modifications in the Essential Commodities Act and to do away with government procurement, price support and public distribution system (PDS) ration security.

“That is why the laws were anti-people and unpatriotic while the farmers' movement was a spontaneous expression of high degree of nationalism. This FIR is a crafty and nefarious plan to portray the farmers' movement as funded by some extraneous sources, a ploy firmly rejected by the farmers’ movement during the course of the movement, and before which the Narendra Modi led BJP-RSS government had been forced to surrender its fabricated claims.

“Indian farming not only provides for food security to 142 crore people, it provides subsistence to 90 crore rural folk, the importance of which was seen by all during the Corona pandemic.”

It has further claimed, “The SKM understands that the BJP led union government, still smarting from the humiliation of having to roll-back the three black farm laws in the face of the determined, democratic and peaceful agitation of farmers at the borders of Delhi from November 2020 to December 2021, will continuously try to take revenge against farmers by tainting the Farmers’ Movement and building an anti-farmer narrative.”

While expressing solidarity with Newsclick and all sections of the independent media, the farmers have reiterated that they shall support all classes of citizens in ensuring that their rights are not trampled upon by the government.

The SKM has announced nationwide mass protests against this renewed attack on the farmers’ movement. “Every state capital, district head quarter, tehsil head quarter shall see mass protest gatherings demanding immediate withdrawal of the false and scurrilous allegations made against the farmers’ movement in the Newsclick FIR,” the statement read.

There have been protests in the recent past across Punjab on the crackdown on media organisations and attempts to muzzle free speech. The issue remains alive among not only the peasantry but other sections of the society as well and is expected to dominate the public discourse in the days to come. It is also being taken up in the meetings of farmers across Haryana as well where resolutions are being passed in support of free speech and independence of the media.

The issue was taken up during a Kisan Mahapanchayat organised at Uchana in Haryana on Monday by the SKM. The protest had been organised to express strong anger over non disbursement of compensation for the crops damaged due to floods and drought across the state.

Uchana falls in Jind district and is the assembly constituency of Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala. He is also in-charge of the revenue portfolio.

After the Mahapanchayat the farmers took out a huge procession and peacefully gheraoed the camp office of Chautala demanding a date to be fixed between government and SKM leaders for resolving the problems amicably.

“The duty magistrate informed the farmers that Dushyant Chautala will return from abroad on Tuesday and only then a date could be fixed. Not satisfied with this, the SKM announced to commence an indefinite dharna at his camp office,” disclosed farmers’ leader Inderjit Singh. The other demands pertained to proper procurement of crops and minimum support price (MSP) guarantee.

The farmers also passed a resolution condemning an ‘all out attack by Modi government on the media that supported the historical farmers’ movement’ and demanded immediate release of the arrested media personalities.

Meanwhile, it is the issue of SYL coming to limelight through the courts that has led to the political forces taking state specific positions even though they quite often amount to double speak as the same political party’s unit in Punjab has a different stand from its unit in Haryana. And amidst all this it is the people and more so the farmers that are caught in between.

Sources disclosed that the farmers are very much aware of the designs of certain political forces to divide the peasantry of Punjab and Haryana on the contentious issue of water. At the same time they are confident of maintaining their unity while looking and understanding the issue in totality without getting swayed by the hyper narratives being dished out by the political parties.

Sources disclosed that the issue will be discussed threadbare during the meeting of the SKM on October 18 and a unanimous position would be taken on the issue by the farmers.

There are certain things that the farmers are clear about.

The first is that water scarcity is a crisis that is being faced by the entire world. Secondly, the farmers pointed out that they understand that on one hand Haryana needs water and on the other Punjab does not have spare water at hand as the number of ‘dark zones’ have continuously increased in Punjab and the water table has been going down. They see it as a larger issue than a mere SYL contention.

The farmers further feel that it is the concern of the small peasant that should be a priority as he is the one who is more dependent on canal irrigation as compared to the big farmer who has the resources to go in for boring the ground and obtain water. They also feel that over and above the SYL issue there is a need to understand and account for water that is being wasted through other channels.

They also feel the need to address the concerns in context of the recent floods that were experienced by several districts of Punjab and also some parts of Haryana.

“The political parties have never wanted to resolve the issue in the interest of the people in a democratic manner. They have always been keen to reap their own petty political dividends.

“If one goes back in time one can understand their doublespeak and anti people stances. The farmers have the capacity and ability to understand the issue and discuss it amicably. They do not take positions like enemies but look at it from the humanitarian and democratic perspective,” said Narayan Dutt of Inquilabi Kendra Punjab who was instrumental in organising the farmers’ movement.

“The farmers are not getting divided on the issue. That is why there is no statement coming from any farmer organisation from any side. The people have seen through the game the political forces play. It is true that the courts have an important role to play when it comes to interstate matters.

“But before that it is the duty of the elected governments to arrive at amicable solutions in the interest of the people. They need to show sincerity and faithful attitude towards resolving contentious issues pending for decades. But instead of this the issue has assumed political overtones and has been exploited for electoral gains on numerous occasions,” explained Inderjit Singh who is a senior All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader in Haryana.

Meanwhile, Punjab continues to hear the shrill cacophony on the SYL issue. Being in the saddle it is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government led by Bhagwant Singh Mann that is being cornered by the opposition for now being able to put Punjab’s stand properly before the Supreme Court.

A beleaguered Mann has thrown an invitation to the opposition leaders to come and debate on the various issues of Punjab. The AAP has been claiming that the SYL and other contentious issues are 'gifts' of previous governments of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP combine and the government.

The Punjab cabinet recently opined that the state has no spare water to share with any other state so there is no question of construction of SYL canal. It firmly said that Sutlej river has already dried up and there is no question of sharing even a single drop of water from it.

“Punjab has no surplus water to share with Haryana and reassessment of availability of water is required as per international norms. It was also observed that Punjab’s 76.5% blocks (117 out of 153) are over exploited where the stage of ground water extraction is more than 100%, whereas in Haryana only 61.5% (88 out of 143) are over exploited,” said a government spokesperson.

The Akalis have accused Mann of having pushed Punjab to the same spot it was at four decades ago. According to SAD’s spokesman and legal cell chairman Arshdeep Singh Kler the stand taken by the AAP government on SYL issue in the Supreme Court was a part of record in which Punjab’s lawyer has accepted that the government was willing to construct the SYL canal. However, resistance from opposition parties and difficulty in reacquiring the land back to farmers by the SAD government led by Parkash Singh Badal was a big hurdle.

Accepting the invitation for a debate party president Sukhbir Badal asserted that the ‘real’ chief minister of Punjab Arvind Kejriwal should also participate as the latter was taking all the decisions concerning the state. “Punjabis are keen to know why Kejriwal has taken an anti- Punjab stance despite the fact that they had given his party an overwhelming majority in the state,” he said.

The state Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring has claimed that the land under farming would get heavily affected if the decision regarding the SYL canal goes against the state. “If we are asked to share any more water, we will be killing the farmers of our state with our own hands, thus killing Punjab as well,” Warring said while asking all the political parties of Punjab to come together on the issue.

He demanded that the BJP-led Central government look sympathetically at the issue, as it is related to Punjab’s future and not merely play politics with it.

“The situation would have been resolved in 2017 itself by the BJP lead central government, but rather, the Centre decided to run away from the situation and later filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court conveying their inability to resolve the issue and demanded the court’s intervention,” Warring said.

In Haryana too it is AAP under attack for clearing its stand on the SYL issue. There are reports about the opposition seeking an all party meeting and taking up the issue with the Prime Minister. The different parties that will be in the arena for the assembly polls immediately after the parliamentary elections are expected to increase their shrillness decibels on the issue in the days to come. What remains to be seen is how the farmers who are at the core of the water politics respond to this.