By Abdul Bari Masoud
For the first time in the last six years, the Modi government seems to be pushed on the back foot on the agri bills issue. Even the ruling party’s (BJP) oldest ally,
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) not only quit the government but also from the ruling alliance the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in protest over the farm bills issue.
The unprecedented response to the peasant and workers organizations strike across the country has unnerved the government which tried to pacify the agitating farmers by hiking MSP.
However, it cannot escape from the wrath of farmers by using the diversionary tactics such as giving communal tinge to the issue.
Farmers and their organizations worried these legislations will ‘destroy’ the agriculture sector in the country and will not ensure Minimum Support Price (MSP) on agricultural produce. Small farmers felt that they would soon become the ‘bonded labourers’ of Ambanis and Adanis.
The PM Modi and his cabinet have promised several times that they will double the income of the farmers by 2022. They have also given a formula of doubling the income, which are Cost Price+50% of the CP. The bill that has been passed in the Rajya Sabha stated that the farmer can sell his/her produce anywhere without having any consideration and concern for Cost Price and MSP, and they are left to fend for themselves.
Therefore, it is obvious that the farmers are up in arms over these new legislations which are waiting for the assent of the President of India. Responding to the farmers’ organizations’ call, they on Friday blocked national highways, rail networks and staged protests and burnt the effigy of PM Modi at many places across the country.
The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), a coalition of dozens of peasants and workers groups, has given the call of ‘Pratirodh Diwas’ against the agri bills passed by Parliament earlier this week.
According to reports, protesting farmers have blocked the Delhi-Amritsar highway, and huge traffic jams have also been reported from Ayodhya-Lucknow highway. Punjab and Haryana also witnessed total shut down while farmers in Punjab started a three-day rail blockade against the bills, squatting on tracks at many places on Thursday. The farmer outfits have also decided to call an indefinite rail blockade from October 1.
Former MP, and General Secretary of All India Kisan Sabha, Hannan Mollah said response to the Pratirodh Diwas call of AIKSCC against the Anti-Farmer Bills has been unprecedented. Despite corona pandemic, restrictions, repression and rain in many States the participation in the protest action was overwhelming.
The Bandh called in Haryana and Punjab was total and widespread in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Many leaders were arrested in these States. Many Districts of Rajasthan also witnessed massive protests and Bandh like situation. In Bengal the National Highway was blocked at 92 places and State Highways were blocked at 89 places.
He said over 6 lakh farmers and toiling masses participated in the State alone. In Kerala Dharna and protests were held in front of 250 Central Government offices and many places across the State.
In Bangalore and several places in Karnataka, farmers and workers held against the government’s anti-people and anti-labour policies. Taking a dig at the Modi government, Center of India Trade Union leader K N Umesh said India is not of Modi and Yeddyurappa, it belongs to the workers, who have built this country. At a time when COVID-19 afflicted tens of millions of people, the Modi government used this crisis to push its anti-poor agenda and amended the labour laws and privatized Public sector Undertakings ( PSUs).
In Bihar and Jharkhand too farmers hit the streets in large numbers, roads were blocked across all districts and Rail Roko was also done. Odisha, Assam, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh witnessed spontaneous response from farmers and workers.
Effigies of PM Modi and the Bills were burnt in numerous places. The widespread nature of protests and massive response has exposed the concerted campaign of Narendra Modi, the BJP Government and corporate media that the protests were restricted only to a few pockets in Punjab and Haryana only. The bills aim at scrapping the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism and abolish the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMC) which is undoubtedly going to render a big blow to the farmers.
Expressing concerns over the weakening of the democratic institutions, CITU State unit president Varalakshmi alleged that the Modi government instead of working for the welfare of the people was only working to push policies that favoured its crony capitalist and corporates.
The poverty rate was 28% before COIVD-19 has doubled, 14 crore people across the country had lost their jobs, while the government instead of ensuring job security had brought a contract system that had put working-class rights at stake.
Speaking with Muslim Mirror, farmers said it is a clear warning to the “arrogant” Modi-led Government and the message is loud and clear to him.
Vijyandara Singh, farmer from Budha Khera village Haryana’s Jind district, said “We want to warn the BJP, and the PM, the way you have tried to rob and deceive the poor farmers, they will also make you repent your bad deeds from the streets to the Parliament.”
I own a 8 -acre piece of land (richest in terms of land in my village) has a debt of Rs 6lakh to the Kisan Co-operative Bank and also owe Rs1 lakh to an arthiya (middleman), Singh said and added that “farmers don’t earn enough money to meet our end needs and have to take loans for everything, right from buying the seeds to children’s education”.
After harvesting his crops, Singh usually takes his produce to the mandi (Agricultural Produce Market Committee or APMC) which now the government wants to do away with this system.
Haryana and Punjab have set up nearly 7,000 APMC yards so that the farmers need not travel very long distances to sell their crops.
In APMC, Singh takes his harvested crop to an arthiya who verifies the crop and checks the moisture level, which cannot be more than 18% to sell to the government. Most of the farmers in Haryana and Punjab sow paddy crops that they sell to the government at the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
“I can still sell outside the APMC yard but no private mills or companies pay more than the MSP or even closer to that. MSP is the highest we get and in that as well, we cannot meet our end demands; that is why we always protest to increase the MSP,” Singh said and added that private mills never take crops at a good price.
Another farmer from Noah in Mewat, Ramzan Chaudhri underlined that not a single demand of the farmers and their organizations was accommodated in these bills.
These bills brought by this government were not demanded by any peasant organization or a political party but to facilitate profiteering by big players like Adani Wilmar, Ambani Reliance, Walmart, Birla, etc, he told Muslim Mirror. He also objected to contract farming saying it would push the poor farmer at the mercy of corporate houses.
According to the 2015-2016 agricultural survey that around 80 percent of farmers in India have less than 2 acres of land, those farmers cannot even carry their produce from their villages to other villages for selling.
Deen Mohammad Mamluka, another farmer from Mewat region told Muslim Mirror that Modi is simply bringing corporates into our fields, after first undermining the MSP system and mandis.
Whenbeing asked why the farmers of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh are protesting against the bills, he said because the government procurement infrastructure in these areas is very good and they very much depend on it to sell their farm produce.
Echoing the same sentiments, Dr Rafiq Azad, functionary of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, said they (BJP) will try to fail the Kisan agitation by giving it communal colour. He told Muslim Mirror that we will thwart such designs and resist these bills tooth and nail.
Demanding the Modi government to take back these ‘anti-farmer laws’, the Jamaat-e- Islami Hind Vice President Engineer Mohammad Salim said, “the government should seriously consider the demands of the farmers, and address their concerns and apprehensions and also talk to their representatives and withdraw the bills.”
Meanwhile, opposition parties particularly Congress is exerting pressure on the BJP allies to abandon the NDA on the farmer’s issue. It began with Punjab’s Shiromani Akali Dal. After Alkali Dal bowed out, in neighbouring Haryana, the pressure is mounting on Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janata Party to pull out from the BJP-led state government.
Stepping up its agitation, Congress has launched the online campaign to this effect, reflecting the mood of the farmers and the general public, and was quick to resonate on twitter as lakhs joined the campaign online. #SpeakUpFor Farmers trended on twitter in India with nearly 2 lakh tweets and yet counting.
Certainly, the farmers issue pushed the Modi government in a quandary as it may cast a shadow on the forthcoming Bihar assembly and crucial bye-elections in Madhya Pradesh.