July 18, 2020
Dr Ashok Dhawale
Respected Comrades S R Pillai, Hannan Mollah, Amra Ram
and my dear comrades
I welcome and greet all of you to this first-ever
online meeting of the CKC in the 84-year old history of the All India Kisan
Sabha (AIKS) that is being held during the Covid pandemic, which has underlined
the age-old basic contradiction of man versus nature.
We pay our respectful homage to our former general
secretary Comrade K Varadha Rajan, who was very close to all of us, our former
vice president and renowned tribal leader of Tripura Comrade Bajuban Reang, and
to other leaders of the AIKS and our fraternal organisations who have passed
away since our last meeting.
We condole the deaths of thousands of our countrymen
who have lost their lives to Covid, cyclones and floods. We mourn the deaths of
hundreds of our migrant workers who have met unfortunate deaths due to hunger,
exhaustion and road and rail accidents. We salute the martyrdom of 20 of our
jawans in the recent border clashes.
We extend our revolutionary greetings to our veteran
leader from Tamil Nadu and our former general secretary and former president,
Comrade N Sankaraiah, who has entered his 100th year.
We are holding our meeting on July 18, the 103rd
birth anniversary of one of the worldwide icons of the national liberation
struggle, Comrade Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years of his life in apartheid
jails and who was the first universally elected President of South Africa, a
towering leader of the African National Congress (ANC) and a former member of
the central committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP).
It is also the 7th death anniversary of
Comrade Samar Mukherjee from West Bengal, freedom fighter, a top leader of the
Left, an effective parliamentarian and former general secretary of the CITU;
and the 51st death anniversary of Comrade Anna Bhau Sathe from
Maharashtra, a gifted Dalit poet, writer and shaheer. We salute the memory of
these extraordinary leaders.
UNPRECEDENTED TIMES
Comrades, we are meeting in unprecedented times of the
Corona pandemic. Over 210 countries have been affected worldwide. The USA with
37 lakh cases as of today, Brazil with 20 lakh cases and India with 10 lakh
cases, are the first three countries in the world so far as the rising Covid
cases are concerned. It is no accident that all three of them have extreme
right-wing leaders and governments. Most of the other countries in the list of
the first ten are advanced capitalist countries. The pursuit of neoliberal policies in these
countries for the last several decades, putting profits before people, have led
to crass privatisation and commercialisation of their public health systems.
This has far worsened the situation in them.
On the other hand we have the socialist countries like
Vietnam, Cuba, Laos and DPRK, who, because of their universalised public health
systems, have minimum Covid cases. Vietnam and Laos have zero Covid deaths. Although
Covid began in China, it has been largely controlled there. Some of these socialist
countries have sent doctors, PPEs and medicines to several other countries. They
have again shown the world the vast superiority of socialism over capitalism.
In India, too, while the utter failure of the BJP
central government and many state governments has been thoroughly exposed, the
silver lining is the admirable performance of the LDF state government and
people of Kerala, led by their chief minister Comrade Pinarayi Vijayan – both
in controlling Covid and in substantially helping all sections of people
through a Rs 20,000 crore package. This performance has won international
acclaim from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and even from influential
sections of the imperialist media. We salute the LDF government and the people
of Kerala for this remarkable achievement.
The Covid pandemic has greatly aggravated the global
economic crisis and has pushed the world into a deep recession. Unemployment,
poverty, inequality and suffering of millions of working people has increased
exponentially, but so has the wealth of the corporate lobby.
BANKRUPTCY AND HEARTLESSNESS OF BJP REGIME
The Narendra Modi-led BJP central government stands
exposed for its bankruptcy and heartlessness in tackling the Covid pandemic and
in helping the people in distress. For three full months, from January to
March, the Modi regime did nothing to combat Covid. But on the contrary it was
busy spreading the red carpet to welcome its ideological soul mates Brazilian
president Jair Bolsonaro on Republic Day in January, and American president
Donald Trump in February. The BJP-RSS then put its energies in inciting and
carrying out the ghastly communal riots in Delhi in February. They then shamelessly
toppled the elected state government in Madhya Pradesh. They are even now trying
to repeat this dastardly manoeuvre in Rajasthan.
It was only on March 24, one day after installing his
own government in Madhya Pradesh, that Narendra Modi clamped his first three
week nationwide lockdown, with just a four hour notice. He bragged that just as
the Mahabharata war was won in 18 days, so also India would triumph over Covid
in 21 lockdown days. On March 24, the
active Covid cases in India were only 564 and the deaths were just 10. Today, on
July 18, despite constant lockdowns, the same figures have crossed 10 lakh
cases and 25 thousand deaths, and they are still growing very rapidly.
The lockdown with just a four hour notice led to
unprecedented misery and suffering for millions of migrant workers, including
pregnant women, children and the aged, all of whom were forced to walk home for
hundreds of kilometres in the scorching sun. Their shocking images have deeply
moved all of us on our TV screens. Hundreds of them died on the highways from
hunger, exhaustion and accidents. Most of them hailed from the peasantry.
Millions of unorganised and daily wage workers, peasants, agricultural workers,
artisans were, and are still being, severely hit by loss of employment and fall
in income. Women, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, backward castes, students and
youth are bearing the brunt in myriad ways.
For nearly two months since the lockdown began, all
that the Prime Minister did was to give calls to the country to clap, bang
vessels or light lamps. There was not a word of relief to the people. Finally,
in the third week of May, the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister announced
a so-called Rs 20 lakh crore Covid relief package, which they claimed was 10
per cent of the GDP. Eminent economists have calculated that only Rs 2 lakh
crore of this will actually be shelled out by the central government out of its
treasury, which is barely 1 per cent of the GDP. The rest is pure jumlebaji.
The vast peasantry has been given a ‘princely’ sum of just Rs 5,000 crore!
There is hardly any help from the centre to the states who are bearing the brunt
of the pandemic. Even the GST arrears to the states for several months remain
unpaid. The charges for the Shramik trains to take migrants home were foisted
on the state governments, some of whom even charged the destitute migrant
workers themselves.
CRISIS FOR PEASANTRY
Peasants and agricultural workers in India
were already in dire straits due to the neoliberal policies of successive
governments even before the Covid lockdown began. Farmer suicides and
indebtedness were on the rise. Over four lakh farmers have been forced to
commit suicide due to indebtedness in the last 25 years. The prices they
received for their produce were nowhere near the Swaminathan Commission formula
of one and a half times the cost of production (C2 + 50 per cent). The same was
the case with tribal farmers vis a vis their minor forest produce. The Prime
Minister Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), meant to shield farmers against drought,
floods and other natural calamities, was helping not farmers, but insurance
companies. And funds for MNREGA, the lifeline for agricultural workers, had
been slashed during the first five years of the Modi regime, thus undermining
the scheme itself.
The peasantry, especially the poor and middle
sections, the annadatas of the country, were hard hit by a chain of insurmountable
lockdown problems. The disruptions caused by the lockdown resulted in great
additional economic burden because of higher costs, increased debts, lack of
transport, closure of mandis, inability to sell the produce at reasonable
prices and resultant crop losses. A massive number of farmers, especially of
vegetables and fruits, milk and eggs, pulses and oilseeds, were forced to sell
their produce at ridiculous prices to local traders because of disruptions in
the markets. Even the Rabi state procurement of wheat and paddy was limited to only
a few states and was much less than last year.
In a press briefing on June 1, the Union Minister
for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare announced the MSP for Kharif crops. The
Government falsely billed it as a massive increase of 50 to 83%! But what was
the reality? The government announced an increase of just Rs. 53 (2.92 per
cent) for common paddy and just Rs. 33 (1.8 per cent) for Grade A paddy. For
most crops, the increase in MSP over last year was less than 5 per cent. For
none of the crops was the MSP anywhere near the Swaminathan Commission formula
of C2+50%. Since almost no state procurement happens for any crop other than
paddy and wheat, and that too in a limited number of states, the MSP anyway
does not have any meaning. Farmers are thrown to the mercy of the market. Even
last year, the market prices that the farmers received for most crops were well
below the MSP. The situation this year is much worse.
The government’s response to this distress
was a mockery since it merely announced payment of the already pending installment
of Rs. 2,000 through PM-Kisan. As per the data released by the Finance
Minister, even this has amounted to only Rs. 18,700 crore. This implies that
only 9.35 crore farmers were provided this installment rather than the 14 crore
farmers that were supposed to be covered in the scheme. Many crore tenant
farmers and tribal farmers were not covered by the scheme at all. Even among
those who were covered, there were persistent complaints from lakhs of farmers
that, except for the election-eve instalment of PM-Kisan, some of the later
instalments were never received.
With the Rabi season ending disastrously due
to the factors enumerated above, farmers prepared for the coming kharif season
in great distress. Their loans remained unpaid due to their massive losses, and
hence getting fresh loans from banks was a far cry. As always, this pushed
large numbers into the hands of rapacious private money lenders who charge
exorbitant rates of interest. There were innumerable problems about the quality
and price of seeds, fertilizers and insecticides. In spite of the sharp fall in
international oil prices over the last six years, the centre constantly
increased the price of diesel and petrol. On top of all this, the central
government on June 3 promulgated three ordinances that were totally anti-farmer
and pro-corporate, thus carrying forward its nefarious and vicious neoliberal
agenda.
BONANZA FOR CORPORATES
On the other hand, the BJP central government
has started a totally non-transparent and non-accountable private PM Cares
Fund, in which corporates and government employees have been made to contribute
thousands of crores of rupees and in which large scale corruption has already
raised its ugly head. The BJP regime refuses to give a loan waiver to farmers,
but it writes off loans worth Rs 68,000 crore to its crony corporates, some of
whom have fleeced our banks and have fled abroad. PM Modi refuses to transfer
Rs 7,500 per month during the Covid period to 23 crore Indian families who are
outside the Income Tax net, but has embarked on spending Rs 20,000 crore for
the Central Vista project in Delhi, to build a new palace for himself and a new
parliament. He refuses to give 10 Kg of grain per head to the poor or to expand
MNREGA, but aims to go ahead with spending Rs 1.10 lakh crore for his pet
Bullet Train project by evicting thousands of farmers from their land.
The shameless sale and privatization of
valuable national assets like the railways, coal mines, banks, insurance,
telecom, electricity, and even defense production, ordinance factories and
other sectors is going on unabated. This
loot of national resources is accompanied by callous moves to dilute labour
laws. Many states have increased working hours from 8 to 12. All these steps
are leading to a bonanza for the corporates, both Indian and foreign. Mukesh
Ambani during the lockdown period has emerged as the fifth richest person in
the world.
ATTACKS ON DEMOCRACY, SECULARISM AND
FEDERALISM
Taking advantage of the lockdown, the
BJP-RSS-led central government is attacking the pillars of our Constitution -
democracy, secularism and federalism - with a vengeance. This is not confined
only to removing these chapters from the CBSE syllabus, which is serious
enough. Akin to an undeclared Emergency, several intellectuals, activists,
student and peasant leaders have been incarcerated under draconian laws like
UAPA, some of whom are in jail without trial for over two years. They are
detenus in the Bhima Koregaon case, detenus from Jamia Millia Islamia and
Jawaharlal Nehru Universities, from Assam and elsewhere. The cases of three month pregnant student
Safoora Zargar, of poet Varavara Rao and peasant leader Akhil Gogoi who
contracted Covid in jail, of intellectuals and activists like Sudha Bharadwaj,
Shoma Sen, Dr Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navalakha are shocking.
Just the other day, a Dalit farmer couple’s
standing crop was destroyed by the police of the BJP-led MP state government,
forcing both of them to consume pesticide. Goonda Raj is rampant in BJP-ruled
UP, where journalists and minorities are regularly killed in ‘encounters’.
Repression is the rule in BJP-ruled Gujarat and Tripura, and also in TMC-ruled
West Bengal. Adivasi farmers are being mercilessly attacked and evicted from
their lands in several states by the police and forest department. Prominent
lawyers and journalists are being targeted.
The BJP regime is attacking federalism in
every way possible. Laws and ordinances are being enacted without consulting
the states, and by cutting down their powers unilaterally. Financially, states
are being starved and even their dues are being withheld by the centre.
Rabid communal propaganda and actions by the
BJP regimes at the centre and in the states continue unabated. On August 5,
2020, which is the first anniversary of the repeal of Article 370 and
revocation of the special status of Jammu & Kashmir, a massive function
will be held at Ayodhya to lay the foundation stone for the Ram Temple. Throwing
all Covid norms to the winds, Prime Minister Modi and other BJP-RSS bigwigs
will be present. This will be another occasion for inciting communal
polarization and diverting attention from the Covid danger.
OUR CRUCIAL TASKS
My dear comrades, we have to fight back with
grit and determination in this situation. AIKS units all over the country have
done magnificent work during this lockdown to help the peasantry and the
working class in distress. They have also fought on burning peasant issues. I
warmly congratulate all our comrades for the admirable work that they have
done.
But we have to strengthen it much further. We
must bend all our strength to make the August 9 nationwide joint struggle call
a massive success. Our sister class organizations like the CITU and AIAWU, our
sister mass organizations like the AIDWA, DYFI and SFI, large and powerful
joint platforms like the AIKSCC, BAA and CTUs will fight shoulder to shoulder
with us in these struggles against the policies of the Modi regime, and also to
secure relief to all sections of the working people. Worker-Peasant Unity is
the paramount need of these times.
August 9 is the anniversary of the Quit India
Movement. This year, we will observe it nationwide with the slogans: India Not
For Sale! Save India! Save Agriculture! Save Industry! Stop Corporate Loot!
Long Live Worker Peasant Unity! We must build a strong and credible left and
democratic alternative to the neoliberal, communal and authoritarian Modi regime.
Along with this, we must take up every local
issue of the peasantry through struggle and try to ensure that it is resolved.
This will require us to make concerted efforts to activate all our village and
local committees. We must continue to expand our membership and strengthen our
organization manifold. Our General Secretary Comrade Hannan Mollah will place
before you our note on the “Current Political Situation and the Tasks ahead of
the Peasant Movement”. This must be taken to every AIKS activist and enthusiastically
implemented.
Let the great slogan of our AIKS Hisar
Conference be our guide to action in the coming days: “Kisan Sabha in Every
Village! Every Kisan in Kisan Sabha!”
Long Live AIKS! Long Live Worker-Peasant Unity! Inquilab Zindabad!
