Plans Afoot To Destroy Farmers' Unity?

Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) an umbrella organisation of several farmer groups across the country has accused the Central government of trying to divide the farmers and dilute the crucial issue of minimum support price (MSP). They have hit out at the government for having ‘secret’ deliberations’ with two organisations, SKM (Non Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) that have given the call for the Delhi Chalo march.

Late night reports confirmed that the farmer organisations that are protesting at Haryana border points of Shambhu and Khanauri have also rejected the Centre's proposal on MSP. They have reportedly decided to resume their Delhi March on February 21.

The SKM has also rejected the Union government’s proposal on crop diversification and procurement for five years. It called this as the government’s move aimed at ‘diverting and diluting the focal demands of the farmers’. Its leadership has expressed hope that the organisations with whom the government was holding talks would also do the same.

The top brass of the SKM including leaders like Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Darshan Pal, Rakesh Tikait, Hannan Mollah, Avik Saha, P Krishnaprasad, Baldev Singh Nihalgarh, Joginder Patiala and Venkiah Ravula have said that the government is trying to make the farmers’ movement ‘Punjab centric’ and reduce it to just MSP while ignoring other demands.

The SKM has rejected the proposal by Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda and Nityanand Rai at Chandigarh to have a “five year contract with the farmers to procure five crops namely maize, cotton, arhar/tur, masoor and urad at MSP of A2+FL(cost incurred by the farmer and value of family labour) +50% and promote crop diversification”.

“This proposal, in the view of SKM, is to divert and dilute the demand of MSP@C2+50% (Swaminathan formula) for all crops with guaranteed procurement which was promised in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto in 2014 general election and originally recommended by National Farmers Commission chaired by M. S. Swaminathan and submitted in 2006.

“SKM declared that nothing below MSP@C2+50% for all crops with guaranteed procurement is acceptable to the farmers of India. If the Narendra Modi government is unable to implement the promise made by the BJP, then let the Prime Minister be honest to tell that to the people,” SKM stated.

They underlined that, “The ministers are not ready to clarify whether the MSP they proposed is based on A2+FL +50% or C2+50%. There is no transparency in the discussion though discussions have taken place four times. This is against the democratic culture established by SKM during the 2020-21 historic farmers’ struggle at Delhi borders. During those negotiations, every point of discussions and the stand of farmers were placed for public information by the SKM.”

The SKM leadership said that at that time the discussions used to be with at least 40 representatives which has come down considerably. They demanded that the union government explain the silence on the demands of loan waiver, no privatisation of electricity, comprehensive public sector crop insurance scheme, Rs 10000 monthly pension to farmers above 60 years age, dismissal and prosecution of union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni for Lakhimpur Kheri massacre of farmers among others.

"They just want to reduce our demands and run away," Ugrahan said. The SKM leadership questioned why the government did not talk to them while they had organised a series of programmes in coordination with trade unions in the last two years. These had included three day mahapadavs in state capitals last year, the tractor marches and the recent Bharat Bandh.

Tikait said that even on Monday there had been a Mahila Panchayat and a meeting of farmers in Ghaziabad just 13 km away from Delhi’s Ghazipur border. “Rumours are being spread that giving a legal guarantee on MSP will lead to inflation. This is to defame us," Tikait added while also pointing out attempts to defame the Sikh community.

The SKM leaders said that currently they were not in talks with the leaders of organisations who have “given a Delhi Chalo call and [yet] have been holding parleys with the government”. They added that the SKM leadership will be meeting on February 22 to decide upon the future course of action.

Meanwhile, it has called upon the farmers across India to hold mass protests against the Bharatiya Janata Party MPs along with those from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in support of their demands, and to expose the ‘corporate corruption’ revealed through the significant Supreme Court verdict on electoral bonds.

In Punjab, the SKM has decided to hold day and night mass protests in front of the houses of MP’s, MLAs, ministers and district presidents of the BJP for three days starting February 20.

Condemning the ‘legalising of corruption’ through electoral bonds and piling up thousands of crores of rupees as party funds, the SKM welcomed the Supreme Court verdict to strike down the same. It alleged that the pro-corporate farm laws, labour codes, Electricity Act Amendments, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in which insurance companies have amassed over Rs.57,000 crores at the expense of farmers, pre-paid smart metres, sale of profit making public sector undertakings, privatisation of airports and ports, a host of such legislations and policies are all favours returned to ‘corporate cronies’.

It expressed hopes that the SC verdict will also spur a movement to clear doubts over the EVMs by making it a fool-proof mechanism. “Along with election funding this is also an important issue that matters for ensuring credibility of elections and governance. SKM demands that the list of donors and amount accrued to BJP and other parties must be made public and should be recovered from them,” SKM stated.

Meanwhile, political slugfests continue over the contentious issue of MSP in Punjab. Senior Congress leader and leader of Opposition in the state assembly Partap Singh Bajwa on Monday dared the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Punjab Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister, Anmol Gagan Maan to fulfil their promises by providing MSP on 22 crops.

“Before the Punjab Assembly elections in 2022, both of them had vowed to provide MSP on 22 crops once the Aam Aadmi Party managed to form the government in the state. Meanwhile, it's been two years since the AAP formed the government, and it must fulfil its long pending commitment,” Bajwa said.

“Now they owe an explanation to the people of Punjab about what stopped them from fulfilling their promise. At a time when farmers of Punjab have been struggling to cross the Haryana border to protest in Delhi with the demand for MSP, the AAP must fulfil its own promise,” he added.

On Sunday, Mann had batted for a guarantee of MSP on the alternative crops to safeguard the interests of the farmers. After the meeting attended by the union ministers with representatives of farmer unions, the Chief Minister said that he had raised the issue of import of pulses from Mozambique and Columbia.

He said that this import is more than Rs 2 billion dollars adding that if MSP is given for this crop then Punjab can lead the country in production of pulses. Mann said that it will be a second green revolution though Punjab had suffered due to the green revolution by loss of its only natural resources in terms of over exploitation of fertile soil and water.

He said that farmers of the state can adopt cotton and maize only if they get the MSP on these crops. He said that the assured marketing of these crops can encourage the farmers for crop diversification.

Meanwhile, senior Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) leader Bikram Singh Majithia demanded compensation for families of martyred farmers at Shambhu border “at par with soldiers martyred on borders as per the saying ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ by Bhagwant Mann and other leaders”. The Akali leader strongly condemned the Bhagwant Mann government for “inaction against guilty Haryana cops for seriously injuring Punjab farmers on their own land”.