All India Kisan Sabha, Maharashtra: July 2019

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

MASSIVE 25,000-STRONG RALLY, PUBLIC MEETING & GHERAO BY AIKS & AARM AT KALWAN, NASHIK

On July 23, a massive 25,000-strong rally and public meeting was held by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch (AARM) at the SDO office at Kalwan in Nashik district of Maharashtra.

The huge meeting primarily denounced the BJP-led central and state governments for their heinous attacks on the rights of Adivasis. This was a part of the national protest call given by the AIKS, AARM, Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan and other Adivasi organisations.

It also took up burning local issues of the people like water, ration, pension, health and employment. Until these local demands are conceded, it was decided to continue the massive gherao of the SDO office.

Among the main leaders who addressed the public meeting were CPI(M) politbureau member and AARM vice president Brinda Karat, ex-MP, CPI(M) central committee member and AIKS President Dr Ashok Dhawale, CPI(M) central committee member and former AIKS state president J P Gavit, MLA and many others.

HUGE PROTEST IN DAHANU, PALGHAR FOR ADIVASI FOREST RIGHTS

On July 22, as per the nationwide call of the AIKS, AIAWU, AARM and other Adivasi organisations, a large protest demonstration was held at the SDO office at Dahanu in the Palghar district of Maharashtra.

The demonstrators denounced the move of the BJP central government to bring draconian, anti-Adivasi and pro-corporate changes in the Indian Forests Act, 1927 and they also vowed to oppose those who had challenged the Forest Rights Act, 2006, in the Supreme Court.

The Dahanu demonstration was led by Radka Kalangda, Edward Vartha, Vinod Nikole, Lahani Dauda, Ramdas Sutar and other leaders of the AIKS, CITU, AIDWA, DYFI and AARM.

On July 23, a massive districtwide rally will be organised by the CPI(M) and the AIKS at Kalwan in Nashik district on the same issues. It will be addressed by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, AIKS national president Dr Ashok Dhawale, AIKS former state president and seven-term sitting MLA J P Gavit and other leaders.

About Us

All India Kisan Sabha (अखिल भारतीय किसान सभा; AIKS), is the largest national organisation representing peasants in India, with a membership of 2,25,81,308 (22.58 million). The AIKS, which was formed at its first conference on April 11, 1936 at Lucknow, has a glorious 75-year history. It played a stellar role in arousing the peasantry against British imperialism in the movement for national freedom. It was able to unite various sections of the peasantry in the struggle against feudalism, big traders and monopolists. The AIKS led historic peasant struggles in Telangana in Andhra Pradesh, Tebhaga in West Bengal, Punnapra-Vayalar and North Malabar in Kerala, Surma Valley in Assam and tribal movements in Tripura and Maharashtra.

In the period after independence, it has continued to organise peasants against the anti-peasant policies of the government. These policies have acquired a particularly disastrous nature during the last two decades of neo-liberalism, leading to suicides of over 2.5 lakh debt-ridden peasants in the last 15 years. The strong peasant movement built by the AIKS has contributed to the formation of the Left-led state governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

The AIKS believes that a powerful agrarian movement has to be built on alternative policies centred on the interests of the poor peasants and agricultural workers, both of whom constitute the overwhelming majority of the Indian peasantry. The AIKS is clear that only a thoroughgoing agrarian revolution can truly solve the deep and growing crisis in Indian agriculture.

Some of the towering peasant leaders of the AIKS have been Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, Muzaffar Ahmad, P Sundarayya, A K Gopalan, E M S Namboodiripad, M Basavapunnaiah, Hare Hrishna Konar, Benoy Krishna Choudhary, Dasharath Deb, M A Rasul, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Godavari Parulekar and Krantisimha Nana Patil.

This blog is managed by the Maharashtra State Committee of the AIKS. The Maharashtra State Committee functions out of Janashakti, P.B.Marg, Worli, Mumbai-400013; Phone: +91-22-24951576.