Farmers Step On The Accelerator Ahead Of Polls

With just a few months left for the Parliamentary elections, farmers’ groups are trying to organise themselves into a movement that no political party can ignore easily. This comes in the wake of the Central government’s claims that farmers’ welfare is its top priority.

While the farmers still have to go a long way to have a national footprint, as social and economic dynamics vary from state to state, they have joined hands with central trade unions, independent sectoral federations and associations. They are also trying to reach out to other sections of the society. The farmers are also raising awareness about a large set of issues, going beyond agricultural concerns.

At times it appears that political parties that comprise the Opposition, can learn from the farmers who have displayed a clarity of agenda, and programmes.

On January 26, various farmers’ organisations affiliated to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) held a tractor parade in various parts of the country to mark Republic Day. The call was given by the SKM to demand an end to 'corporate loot, save agriculture and save India’.

The farmers braved the inclement weather, especially in North India, and participated in the parade in large numbers. According to the SKM, “the parade was held in 484 districts of 27 states and union territories. The SKM congratulates and greets all those who have come forward and made the patriotic action of the farmers and workers of India such a remarkable success.”

Participants also took a pledge to intensify the struggle against ‘the pro-corporate anti-farmer’ policies of the Narendra Modi-led Central government and strengthen the secular and democratic character of the Republic of India.

The parade was part of the second phase of the farmers’ struggle to press the Union government to implement its written assurance made on December 9, 2021 and other essential demands of farmers.

These include legalising minimum support price (MSP) at the rate of C2+50%, with guaranteed procurement for all crops; comprehensive loan waiver for farmers and farm workers; stopping privatisation of electricity sector and installation of prepaid metres; reducing cost of inputs, ensuring a government controlled simple and universal crop insurance.

Another demand is the dismissal and prosecution of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni, in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri massacre.

“It may be kept in mind that corporatization of agriculture leading to the agrarian crisis has devastated the lives of farmers, workers and the youth as well. A total of 1,00,474 Indian farmers have committed suicide during the Modi years of 2014-2022.

“Though 14.64 lakh crore of debt of corporates was written off in the last nine years, not a single rupee of farmers’ debt has been waived. The withdrawal of subsidies for inputs and the uncontrolled price rise has escalated the cost of production in agriculture and day-to-day expenditure of the farmer households,” the SKM stated.

On January 24, the SKM had issued an appeal to the broader section of the society including students, youth, women, small traders, journalists, cultural activists etc to bring livelihood issues back to the national agenda.

The appeal also sought support and synchronisation of struggles, to make the industrial and sectoral strike along with a ‘grameen bandh (rural strike)’ on February 16 a success. The strike and bandh have been called by the organisations to protest against what they term as the ‘anti-worker, anti-farmer and anti-national’ policies of the Union Government.

“In the context of the growing corporate, communal and authoritarian attack on the people under the Narendra Modi government, the larger unity of the people is inevitable to save the basic principles of Democracy, Federalism, Secularism and Socialism enshrined in the Constitution of India. Hence the request to all the secular and democratic forces to support this struggle to ‘End the Corporate Loot’ and save the secular democratic character of the Republic of India,” the appeal stated.

The joint appeal also proposed coordinated and united actions to counter “heinous religious fanaticism and jingoism” aimed at electoral gains. It urged that “real livelihood issues of the people” be brought back to the national agenda.

It asked that people must rally together to “resist and decisively defeat the destructive, divisive, authoritarian policies of the corporate communal nexus” and replace them with “pro-worker, pro-farmer, pro-people policies”.

A lot has been happening on the farmers’ front which is under-reported, and also misreported. Even at a time when most of the mainstream media has found an excuse in going hyper-local with news, farmers movements remain buried deep in the local pages, and fail to grab national attention.

One such interesting development was the All India Convention of Farmers held at Baba Jawala Singh Auditorium at Desh Bhagat Yadgar Memorial in Jalandhar on January 16.

The farmers gave a call to “punish the pro-corporate and anti-farmer Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre” which they claimed has formulated and implemented policies to “deliberately worsen the economic condition of farmers, to aid and abet grabbing of land of farmers and putting them out of farming by corporates who can then take control of crop production and food supply chain and monopolise it for profiteering and further oppressing common people”.

They demanded an alternative policy for agriculture and agro based industrial development, that is not in the clutches of corporate monopolies, but is based on public investment, producer cooperatives and other people centric models. This, they said, will enable farmers to get remunerative prices, and workers to get fair wages to lead a dignified life, with social security.

An appeal was also made to the state governments of Delhi and Haryana, that are currently led by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP respectively, to provide adequate land to build a Kisan Martyrs Memorial at the Delhi border.

This they said will be a mark of respect to the 736 martyrs who had lost their life during the farmers’ struggle that was held to repeal the three controversial farm laws, and for a remunerative price on agricultural produce, loan waiver and against privatisation of the power sector.

Various farmer organisations across India were asked to write a letter to the Chief Ministers of Delhi and Haryana, Arvind Kejriwal and Manohar Lal Khattar respectively, in support of the demand for land for the Kisan Martyrs Memorial.

“The historic farmers' struggle was the largest and longest uprising of the framers, farm workers supported by the workers and people across India since Independence in 1947. This struggle had been conducted from November 26, 2020 to December 11, 2021 at the Delhi border spots of Singhu, Tikri, Ghazipur, Palwal, Dhasa, Sunheda and Shahjahanpur at Rajasthan-Haryana border.

“The farmers' struggle at Delhi borders had been instrumental in stopping the three black laws which promoted corporate control over agriculture done by farmers, food storage, food markets and food security of the country. This massive movement of resistance helped to bring confidence among the public in democracy and people’s movement against excessive state power and reminded the decades long historical struggle for independence against colonial and feudal social order that achieved the creation of Indian Union.

“The life sacrifice of those kisan fighters is valuable for the existence and flourishing of the principles of democracy, secularism, federalism and socialism enshrined in the Constitution of India hence, the responsibility of the people of India to establish a suitable memorial in memory of those kisan martyrs.

“It will be a source of inspiration for the generations to come, show them the path of struggle against any sort of injustice and exploitation of the people,” a spokesperson of the farmers at the Convention said.

Another development announced at the Convention was the reuniting of farmers’ leader Balbir Singh Rajewal, who heads the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal), with the SKM. Rajewal also addressed the attendees at the Convention. He had parted ways with SKM ahead of the last Punjab assembly polls and had gone on to contest the polls.

“Along with BKU (Rajewal) four other kisan organisations also reunited with SKM today. BKU (Ugrahan) is working in coordination with SKM Punjab. SKM in Punjab has been strengthened as a platform of 32 organisations now,” the spokesperson added.

Another event that went under reported was the first national conference of the Apple Farmers’ Federation of India (AFFI) that was held in Chandigarh on January 18 and 19. This was attended by apple producers of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.

“The participants decided to launch intensive campaigns on the livelihood issues of apple growers from the village level in the country’s apple belt and also lend its strength to the January 26 tractor parade and February 16 grameen bandh,” a statement issued by Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami and Rakesh Singha stated. The two are former CPM legislators from Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

The conference passed resolutions against the amendment made to land laws in Jammu and Kashmir recently, and also adopted a charter of demands presented by Singha. The participants demanded remunerative prices for apples; universal packaging and freight charges; subsidised cold storages; imposition of 100% import duty on apples; insurance against climate change and diseases; and state support for producer cooperatives.

It was decided to enrol a membership of 56,000 growers till the end of 2024. The AFFI currently has a membership of roughly 10,000 growers.

Meanwhile, the SKM has also come down heavily on the reported surrender of Rs 105543.71 crore by the central government that was allocated for the agriculture ministry.

“The Report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare titled ‘Accounts at a Glance for the Year 2022-23’ has revealed that the Modi Government has surrendered Rs.10,5543.71 crore during the last five years since 2018-19 which was allocated for the Ministry of Agriculture.

“As per the said report, in 2018-19 the total allocation for the Ministry of Agriculture was Rs.54,000 crore. In that year Rs. 21,043.75 crore was surrendered. In the subsequent years, of 2019-20 Rs. 34,517.7 crore, in 2020-21 Rs. 23,824.53 crore, in 2021-22 Rs. 5,152.6 crore and in 2022-23 Rs. 21,005.13 crore. This comes to a whopping total that is even more than the total allocation for agriculture in some of the years from 2018-19 to 2022-23.

“The Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Food Processing has also pointed out that the impact of such surrender of funds would adversely impact the north eastern states, Scheduled Caste (SC) Sub Plan and Scheduled Tribe (ST) Sub Plan,” the SKM stated.

“The BJP had promised freedom from indebtedness to the farmers in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. The Modi Government has written off Rs.14.56 lakh crores of arrears of the large corporate houses in the last ten years period. But not a single rupee of the farmers’ loan was waived off.

“A total of 1,00,474 farmers have committed suicide in the Modi years (2014-2022) as per the report of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). If the Modi Government had used the surrendered money for the farmers, many of the lives could have been saved.

“The farmers have been demanding increased allocation for price support to ensure remunerative prices, agriculture infrastructure development, expansion of irrigation and for research and extension,” the statement added.

Calling the surrender a “criminal act of betrayal of the interests of farmers of India” the SKM flayed the “utter insensitivity” of the BJP-led government to the distressed farmers. It said the real intention behind this is to hand over agriculture to corporates.

The SKM also denounced a “misinformation campaign launched by vested interests” against its leader Darshan Pal who is the president of Krantikari Kisan Union, an active constituent of SKM.

“The attempt to link Dr. Darshan Pal to banned CPI (Maoists) through a highly suspicious and likely-to-be-fabricated press release is reprehensible. It is the handiwork of vested interests and agencies that are inimical to the cause of farmers and wish to crush the historic farmers’ movement being led by the SKM, through targeting of farmer leaders by character assassination and criminalising the entire farmers' movement,” the organisation stated.

The news linking Pal to the Maoist organisation had appeared in some dailies in north India last week. The SKM reminded the people of that this “false propaganda” against the farmers and their leaders commenced with the “Union government controlled Delhi Police alleging in a FIR in October 2023 against editors and reporters of media house News Click that the farmers’ movement was terrorist supported, anti-national, against India’s economic interest, foreign funded etc”.

“Nothing could be further from the truth and these allegations are a grave insult to the patriotic farmers of India who have worked hard even during the Covid period when the rest of the country and economy was at a standstill, to ensure economic growth in the agriculture sector and continuous food supply to the nation.

“The Union government is perhaps still smarting from the pushback it received from the historic, democratic and peaceful farmers’ movement at the borders of Delhi that led to the repeal of the three black anti-farmer laws that were passed for furthering the interest of corporate backers of the present regime.

“After that, Yudhvir Singh, leader of Bhartiya Kisan Union and a constituent of SKM was detained without explanation at New Delhi airport and not allowed to board a flight to attend a foreign destination where he was invited to attend a farmers’ convention. Due to vigorous protest by BKU and SKM, the union government was forced to allow Yudhvir Singh to fly the next day. Now comes this insinuation and whispering campaign to tarnish the image of Dr. Darshan Pal,” the statement added.

Recognising the pattern of these attacks on farmer leaders and farmers’ movement, the SKM has warned the “shadowy culprits behind these to forthwith stop their mendacious disinformation campaign”. It stated that all constituents of the SKM shall resist and repel these attacks with the collective resolve and participation of millions of farmers of India. “The movement to ensure that farmers receive their economic and legal rights shall continue with greater vigour”, it added.

On the other hand the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) and All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) jointly observed January 19 as Martyrs Day all over the country.

On this day in 1982, the struggle of workers and peasants all over the country faced barbaric attacks, allegedly by the police, in different parts of the country leading to the death of 10 workers, peasants and agricultural labourers in police firing.

The government too on the other hand is continuing with its narrative of working in the interest of the farmers. On January 25, PM Modi while inaugurating and laying the foundation stone for development projects worth over Rs 19,100 crores in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh said, “Farmers’ welfare is a top priority of the government.”

He said the government is attempting to create a protective shield for the farmers and mentioned spending crores of rupees to make low cost fertilisers available for Indian farmers. He informed that a bag of urea which costs Rs 3,000 outside India is made available to farmers at less than Rs 300.

The PM also spoke upon the creation of Nano urea where a small bottle makes up for a sack of fertilisers, thereby reducing consumption and saving money. He informed that the government has transferred Rs 2.75 lakh crores in the bank accounts of farmers under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.

Underlining the contribution of farmers in agriculture and agro-economy, the PM mentioned the continuous expansion of the ambit of cooperatives. He listed primary agriculture co-operative credit societies and farmer produce organisations as measures for strengthening the small farmers.

He said that co-operative bodies are being promoted for sale purchase, loans, food processing or exports. PM Modi also mentioned the world’s biggest storage-related schemes under which a network of cold storage is being created in the entire country.

Reiterating the government’s push to modernise the farming sector, he said that Nari Shakti (women) can become a huge medium for this. He mentioned the ‘NaMo Drone Didi’ scheme where women self help groups are being trained to become drone pilots.

The PM also spoke about “building crores of pucca houses, toilets, tapped water connections, pension facilities for farmers and labourers, PM crop insurance scheme where more than Rs 1.5 lakh crores have been handed out to farmers in case of crop failure, free ration scheme, and Ayushman Bharat scheme”.

“It is the government’s endeavour that no beneficiary is deprived of the government scheme and for this, Modi Ki Guarantee vehicles are reaching every village and enrolling lakhs of people even in Uttar Pradesh,” he added.