Thursday, January 28, 2021

LAKHS OF FARMERS HOLD HISTORIC KISAN TRACTOR PARADES ON REPUBLIC DAY

LAKHS OF FARMERS HOLD HISTORIC KISAN TRACTOR PARADES ON REPUBLIC DAY

AGENT PROVOCATEURS OF BJP GOVERNMENT AND POLICE FAN VIOLENCE   

FARMERS STRUGGLE TO STRENGTHEN, NATIONWIDE CALL GIVEN FOR JANUARY 30


India had never seen such a magnificent sight in its history. On Republic Day, January 26, 2021, lakhs of farmers rode over one lakh tractors on the outskirts of the national capital Delhi. Each tractor proudly held aloft the national flag and the flag of the kisan organization to which it belonged. It was an unprecedented show of peasant unity that crowned the two month long, entirely peaceful struggle by lakhs of farmers on the borders of Delhi, being led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), comprising over 500 farmers organizations in the country.

The most heart-warming aspect of these Kisan Tractor Parades was the love and affection showered on them by the common people in and around Delhi. Thousands of them came out on the streets to welcome the farmers, showered rose petals on them, and offered them sweets, water bottles and other eatables. This showed strong public support to their cause.

Central and state leaders of the AIKS, CITU, AIAWU, AIDWA, SFI and DYFI participated in the Kisan Tractor Parades at all the Delhi borders. Red flags of the AIKS flew high along with others.     

The same picture was replicated, albeit in smaller proportions, in all the states and hundreds of districts in the country. Lakhs of farmers and workers came out on the streets in their tractors, trollies and other vehicles and held massive rallies at their state and district centres.

The farmers around Delhi and all over the country were demanding the immediate repeal of the three anti-farmer, anti-people and pro-corporate Farm Laws that were bulldozed by the BJP central government through Parliament after murdering democracy; the withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill that would lead to the privatization of the power sector, ending of cross subsidy and massive hikes in electricity rates across the board for all sections of working people; and a new law that would guarantee a remunerative MSP as well as procurement.

AGENT PROVOCATEURS AND POLICE FAN VIOLENCE

The SKM had originally wanted the tractor parade to go along the Outer Ring Road of Delhi. But the police refused and gave alternative routes which avoided central Delhi. Not wanting to complicate matters, SKM leaders agreed, with the clear understanding that the parades must take place, but must take place peacefully. It was decided to begin all the Kisan Tractor Parades from 10 am on January 26, after the official Republic Day Parade ended.

In the serious review discussion which took place in the SKM meeting at the Singhu border on the evening of January 27, at which Hannan Mollah and Ashok Dhawale of the AIKS were present, it became clear that 99.9 per cent of the protesting farmers in all the borders around Delhi enthusiastically participated in the Kisan Tractor Parades through the designated routes in an entirely peaceful manner.

It was 0.1 per cent of the fringe elements among the protestors who flouted discipline and began their marches between 7 and 8 am. They were not stopped by the police, and it was they who entered various parts of Delhi. Some groups went up to the Red Fort and the ITO. One group, without touching the national flag that flies from the Red Fort, hoisted the Sikh Nishan Sahib flag from another empty flag pole. This was clearly wrong. Police unleashed barbaric repression with tear gas shells and lathi charges. One young farmer Navreet Singh was killed when his tractor overturned in the melee. Hundreds of farmers were injured in police lathi-charges and some of them are still in hospital.

The SKM immediately condemned this unfortunate turn of events in a statement released in the afternoon of January 26, and in another statement issued a few hours later, appealed to all farmers to stop their tractor rallies with immediate effect and return to their camps.

WHO WERE THE CULPRITS? 

Who were the culprits in this episode? The SKM meeting concluded that there were three main culprits – Deep Sidhu, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) led by Satnam Singh Pannu, and the BJP central government with its Delhi police, all of whom were acting in connivance.

Deep Sidhu is a Punjabi actor who was the election agent of BJP candidate Sunny Deol who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Gurdaspur. Sidhu’s photos with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have become viral all over the country. From the night of January 25, he was seen instigating young farmers at the main stage of the Singhu border to storm Delhi. He is seen in a video clip at the Red Fort instigating some youths to put up the Nishan Sahib flag. The same video shows several farmers loudly arguing with him and denouncing him for this act. He is then seen escaping on a motor cycle.

As per a report in the Indian Express of January 28, Deep Sidhu on January 20 went on Facebook to livestream several tractors en route from Punjab to Delhi and said, “Picture toh abhi baaki hai mere dost.” (The picture, my friend, is still remaining.) On January 23, he shared a web channel interview in Punjabi, in which he said, “We can’t plan what will happen on January 26. It would be out of our calculations. It would be unpredictable. It is up to the Almighty what happens on January 26.” For Sidhu, ‘the Almighty’ was the Modi regime!

How is it ever possible, given the massive police and Army security around Red Fort, that too on Republic Day, for some youth to hoist any flag at the Red Fort? It could evidently not have happened without ‘instructions from the top’. The Nishan Sahib flag was not pulled down immediately and was allowed to flutter there for a couple of hours, evidently to oblige the servile Godi media. The conspiracy clearly was to drive a religious wedge between Punjab and the rest of the country and disrupt the united farmers struggle.

The KMSC did not join the protests at the Singhu border on November 26 when it began. Its adherents joined over two weeks later and were escorted to a separate enclosure away from others by the police themselves. They repeatedly asserted that they would flout the designated route of the tractor parade and would go along the Outer Ring Road straight into Delhi. They also began their march at 8 am, two hours before the designated time. The police made no attempt to stop them, and when the farmers reached Delhi, police unleashed their repression.

There are many more complaints against the police. At the Palwal border, although the route decided was 45 Km, the police began its lathi charge when the paraders had only covered a distance of 15 Km. At the Ghazipur border, the police refused to remove the barricades on the designated route, and allowed the fringe elements to take another route.

CONSPIRACY OF BJP CENTRAL GOVERNMENT  

The conclusion that these agent provocateurs were set up by the BJP government to defame and discredit the two month long peaceful struggle of the peasantry, is inescapable. On January 22, in the 11th round of talks with the SKM, the union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar is reported to have told the farmers delegation, “So now you begin your preparations for January 26. We shall begin ours.”  What their ‘preparations’ were has now been exposed for the world to see. It is gratifying that at least some sections of the mainstream media and many more sections of the social media have exposed this conspiracy of violence of the BJP regime.

The BJP central government led by Modi and Shah is culpable on four more counts. First, it has let an unprecedented nationwide struggle of lakhs of farmers to drag on for over two months in the bitter cold of Delhi, exposing its sheer adamance, utter insensitivity, and more importantly, its complete servility to the Ambani-Adani-led corporate lobby, under pressure of which it has enacted these Farm Laws and the Labour Codes. Second, it was the BJP state government of Haryana and the BJP central government that began tremendous violence against its own farmers through tear gas shells, water cannons and lathi charges when the peaceful struggle to enter Delhi began on November 26, 2020. Third, it was top BJP-RSS leaders who have constantly tried to defame and discredit the valiant farmers struggle by dubbing it as the handiwork of Khalistanis, Maoists and Naxalites, and also as agents of Pakistan and China. Fourth, the Delhi police under Home Minister Amit Shah have filed over 25 FIRs against several farmers and also against several leaders of the SKM, in an attempt at a crackdown. The farmers struggle has triumphed over all earlier conspiracies; and it will surely triumph again this time.   

SKM PRESS CONFERENCE SHOWS THE WAY AHEAD

Drawing the proper conclusions from all these events in its meeting held on January 27, SKM leaders addressed a joint press conference the same evening at the Singhu border. While hailing the predominantly peaceful nature of the Kisan Tractor Parades around Delhi and all across the country, the SKM completely disassociated itself from the violence indulged in by fringe elements that were in connivance with the BJP government and the police. It exposed these elements by name and called for their social boycott. It boldly accepted the moral responsibility for what had happened since January 26 was an SKM call, expressed regret, and decided to postpone the Farmers March to Delhi on February 1 to coincide with the placing of the union budget. But it gave a clarion call all over the country to observe the Martyrdom Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, who was assassinated by an RSS man Nathuram Godse and his accomplices on January 30, through large public meetings and by observing a one day fast for truth, peace and non-violence. Most important, it announced that the farmers struggle will continue and intensify throughout the country until its demands are won.

Ashok Dhawale

Massive Mass Actions in Maharashtra Strengthen Nationwide Farmers' Struggle

 From January 23 to 26, massive mass actions took place in Maharashtra to further strengthen the nationwide farmers' struggle for the repeal of the three hated Farm Laws and for a law to guarantee MSP and procurement. These politically significant actions were excellently covered by most of the mainstream national and state media, and of course by the social media. 

 

BUILDING UP THE STRUGGLE

 

From December 21 to 25, 2020, over 1,000 peasants from several districts, led by the AIKS Maharashtra unit, had led a five-day Vehicle March from Nashik to Delhi, which stayed at the Shahjahanpur border for a week. This had been reported in these columns earlier.

 

With the intensification of the nationwide struggle, there arose a need to greatly broaden and strengthen the struggle in Maharashtra, so as to involve all political and social forces opposed to the BJP government at the centre. The AIKS Maharashtra State Council drew up this strategy in its first post-Covid physical meeting after a year that was held at Belapur, New Mumbai on January 10.

 

At the initiative of the AIKS, a broad meeting of more than 100 organisations was convened in Mumbai on January 12. Representatives of most of the state level organisations in the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), Trade Unions Joint Action Committee (TUJAC), Struggle Committee of Mass Movements (JASS), Nation for Farmers and Hum Bharat ke Log participated. 

 

PROGRAMME OF ACTION

 

The name of the Front spearheading the movement was decided as Samyukta Shetkari Kamgar Morcha - (SSKM Maharashtra) - United Peasant Worker Front.

 

The action programmes that were decided upon were as follows: January 14-15 - Public burning of Farm Laws and Labour Codes; January 18 - Women Farmers Day; January 23 - Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Birth Anniversary - Farmers to leave from their respective districts in vehicles and come to Mumbai for the massive MahaPadav; January 24-26 - Farmers to conduct MahaPadav at Azad Maidan, Mumbai; January 25 - Mass Rally to Raj Bhawan; January 26 - Republic Day hoisting of the national flag at Azad Maidan. An SSKM press conference was held in Mumbai on January 15 and again on January 21 to announce this programme. 

 

On January 14-15, thousands of working people in Maharashtra made bonfires of the Farm Acts and Labour Codes. On January 18, the Mahila Kisan Day was observed widely all over the state, with thousands of women and men taking part in innumerable actions. The AIDWA played an important role in mobilising women across the state. 

 

MAIN DEMANDS

 

The main demands of this struggle are: Repeal the three Farm Acts and four Labour Codes; Enact a central law to guarantee a remunerative MSP and procurement; Withdraw the Electricity Amendment Bill; Give regular pension from the Centre to farmers and agricultural workers; Withdraw the anti-people New Education Policy. 

 

Some issues are also related to the state government. They are: Implement the Mahatma Phule Loan Waiver Scheme; Implement the Forest Rights Act and vest forest lands in the name of the tillers; Vest temple lands, pasture lands etc in the name of the tillers; Repeal the 2018 Land Acquisition Act enacted by the previous BJP state government and restore the earlier 2014 Act.

 

On January 14, the SSKM committee met former Union Agriculture Minister, former chief minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, state revenue minister and Congress state chief Balasaheb Thorat and requested them to support this struggle on behalf of the Maha Vikas Aghadi. All of them assured full support to the struggle. Sharad Pawar and Balasaheb Thorat agreed to address the state convention at Azad Maidan. Uddhav Thackeray agreed to send a Shiv Sena representative to the convention.

 

The SSKM delegation requested the above leaders to convene a special session of the state assembly to deal with the agrarian crisis and related issues; to adopt a state assembly resolution asking the Centre to repeal the three Farm Acts and the four Labour Codes; and to enact an Act for ensuring MSP and other demands. 

 

AIKS VEHICLE MARCH TO MUMBAI

 

All India Kisan Sabha's (AIKS) Maharashtra unit began a statewide Vehicle March of 15,000 farmers hailing from 21 districts of the state, from Nashik to Mumbai on January 23 on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The March began from the Golf Club Maidan in Nashik in hundreds of tempos, pick-ups and other vehicles. A large public meeting held before the march began was addressed by leaders of all mass fronts.

 

On the night of January 23, the marchers halted for the night at Ghatandevi near Igatpuri. On the morning of January 24 they began their march on foot down the 8 Km long Kasara Ghat joining Nashik and Thane districts. Comprising a large number of women farmers and youth farmers, the three hour march began at 9 am and ended at 12 noon. The peasants were followed down the Kasara Ghat by hundreds of their vehicles. 

 

The Kasara Ghat march and the Vehicle Jatha was led by AIKS national president Dr Ashok Dhawale, state president Kisan Gujar, state general secretary Dr Ajit Nawale, state office bearers Sunil Malusare, Barkya Mangat, Ratan Budhar, Radka Kalangda, Savliram Pawar, Subhash Choudhary, Dada Raipure, Arjun Adey, Shankar Sidam, Uddhav Poul, Umesh Deshmukh, Uday Narkar, Manik Avaghade, CITU state secretary and CPI(M) MLA Vinod Nikole, AIDWA national general secretary Mariam Dhawale and state general secretary Prachi Hatiwlekar, AIAWU state president Maroti Khandare, DYFI state general secretary Preethy Sekhar, SFI state president Balaji Kaletwad and state general secretary Rohidas Jadhav, and many other AIKS state council leaders. 

 

The Vehicle Jatha then proceeded towards Mumbai. On the way, hundreds of CITU-affiliated factory workers from Igatpuri and Shahapur tehsils warmly welcomed their peasant compatriots by showering them with flowers.

 

At the Kalyan-Bhiwandi crossroad, the CPI(M), CITU and DYFI led by P K Lali, Sunil Chavan, Parveen Khan and Jyoti Tayde, and the Amrut Vela Gurudwara welcomed and provided thousands of food packets to all the Kisan marchers. 

 

The Jatha crossed Mumbai at the Mulund Check Naka in the afternoon and was warmly welcomed at the Kannamwar Nagar at Vikhroli by hundreds of activists of the CPI(M), CITU, DYFI and AIDWA in Mumbai, led by Party CCM Mahendra Singh and Hemkant Samant.

 

It then proceeded to the Azad Maidan, where it was resoundingly welcomed at the joint sit-in struggle at Azad Maidan organised by the SSKM from morning.

 

Massive Joint Convention in Mumbai

 

On January 25, on the eve of Republic Day, a massive joint statewide convention of around 40,000 peasants, workers and all other working sections was organised by the SSKM at the famous Azad Maidan in the heart of Mumbai. It included thousands of women and youth. This was on the second day of the Mahapadav that began on January 24.

 

The political significance of this convention was that it was the first time after many years in Maharashtra that all political and social forces opposed to the BJP came together on one platform. 

 

The main speakers were former union minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress state chief and state revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat, AIKS national general secretary Hannan Mollah, PWP general secretary Jayant Patil, MLC, AIKS national president Dr Ashok Dhawale, renowned journalist P Sainath, anti-communal fighter Teesta Setalvad, Shiv Sena leader Rahul Londhe, CPI(M) state secretary Narasayya Adam, Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi, MLA, CPI state secretary Tukaram Bhasme, AAP secretary Dhananjay Shinde, RPI (Kawade) leader Ganesh Unhavne, AIDWA national general secretary Mariam Dhawale, AIKS state general secretary Dr Ajit Nawale, CITU state vice president Dr Vivek Monteiro, NAPM leader Medha Patkar, former Mumbai High Court Justice B G Kolse Patil, Hum Bharat ke Log leader Feroze Mithiborwala, MFUCTO president Tapati Mukhopadhyay, NCP leader Vidya Chavan, ex-MLA, Congress Mumbai chief Bhai Jagtap, MLA, Sarvahara Jan Andolan leader Ulka Mahajan, Kashtakari Sanghatana leader Brian Lobo, Satyashodhak Shetkari Sabha leader Kishor Dhamale and many others. The presidium comprised Raju Korde, S K Rege, Milind Ranade and Shailendra Kamble. 

 

Sharad Pawar was outspoken in his criticism of the BJP regime and of the three Farm Laws, insisted on an MSP guarantee law and warned that if the central government tried to destroy farmers, they would destroy it instead. 

 

Balasaheb Thorat also attacked the Modi government on the Farm Laws and said that the state government was seriously thinking of bringing in legislation to annul their effects and protect farmers.

 

Hannan Mollah gave the experience of the two month long historic farmers struggle around Delhi and exposed the sheer bankruptcy and insensitivity of the Modi regime while dealing with it. 

 

P Sainath stressed on the fact that these Farm Laws attacked not only farmers, but all sections of the people and gave several examples to prove this point.

 

Ashok Dhawale attacked the pro-corporate and neo-liberal character of the Farm Laws and the Labour Codes and accused the Modi regime of trying to sell off the country. Now it was targeting our agriculture and our land.

 

All the speakers flayed the Modi government for its pro-corporate Farm Laws and Labour Codes and came down heavily on the BJP govt's crony capitalist connection with the Ambanis and Adanis. Many leaders called for intensifying the boycott of their products and services. They also demanded a law guaranteeing a remunerative MSP and procurement.

 

GOVERNOR ABSENT, FARMERS TEAR MEMORANDUM

 

After the convention, a huge rally began for the Raj Bhawan. On learning that Governor Koshyari, in spite of having given an appointment to the SSKM delegation, had fled away to Goa, the people got angry. After an immediate SSKM meeting, Dr Ashok Dhawale announced its unanimous decision to cancel the delegation to the Governor and to publicly tear up the memorandum prepared for him. The public meeting then dispersed amidst great enthusiasm with the resolve to broaden and intensify the struggle manifold against the Farm Laws and the Labour Codes and for an MSP law.

 

On the morning of  January 26, the national flag was hoisted at the Azad Maidan by Yamunabai Jadhav, a 73 year old Adivasi woman from Nashik district, who had herself walked the entire 200 Km stretch of the AIKS-led Kisan Long March from Nashik to Mumbai two years ago. The Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly, Nana Patole specially remained present for the flag hoisting, along with SSKM leaders.

 

The January 23-26 actions in Maharashtra had a wide impact in the state and also across the country.


Ashok Dhawale