Today September 26, a
massive convention of thousands of farmers was held at Jalgaon by the
Coordination Committee of Farmers Organisations in Maharashtra. It gave a
clarion call for further struggle against the state government's betrayal of
its own assurance of a complete loan waiver, for the implementation of the
Swaminathan Commission, for pension at Rs 5000 per month for poor peasants and
agricultural workers, against arbitrary and unjust land acquisition, etc. The convention
gave a call to hold massive peasant (Baliraja) rallies at every district and
tehsil centre in Maharashtra on October 20, which is Balipratipada day in
Diwali. These state-wide rallies of thousands of peasants each will demand that
since the policies of the BJP state government are directly responsible for the
rising spate of suicides of debt-ridden peasants, cases under IPC section 302
(murder), 306 (abetment to suicide) and 420 (cheating) must be instituted
against it. It may be recalled that on August 14, 2017, over two lakh peasants
in the state had blocked all national and state highways in more than 200
centres in 31 districts in Maharashtra. The October 20 actions will also elicit
a similarly massive response. Prominent Kisan leaders like Raju Shetty MP,
Bachhu Kadu MLA, Raghunathdada Patil, Baba Adhav, Dr Ashok Dhawale, Dr Ajit
Nawale, Namdev Gavde, Pratibha Shinde, Kishor Dhamale, Sushila Morale, Ganesh
Jagtap, Karan Gaikar and others addressed this convention. This convention has
also given its full support to the 15-day old joint statewide strike of
Anganwadi workers that is now being valiantly fought for their just demands.
-Ashok Dhawale
