The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and Kerala Karshaka Sangham that represents the largest group of rubber producers from the state of Kerala have, along with rubber farmers sought to intervene against the monopoly tyre companies that have formed a cartel against the interests of consumers and farmers. Vijoo Krishnan, AIKS General Secretary, Valsan Panoli, Kerala Karshaka Sangham General Secretary, and four farmers representing different rubber growing regions of Kerala have filed an intervention application in an ongoing case in the Supreme Court.
Background: The Competition Commission of India had fined the major tyre companies including MRF, Apollo, CEAT, JK Tyres etc. a sum of Rs.1788 crores for having formed a cartel in the price fixation of tyres even when the price of the raw material, natural rubber, was falling. The case is now pending in the Supreme Court as the companies have challenged it. At the same time, on enquiry, it was also found that there was a cartel formation even in the procurement of natural rubber working in tandem with the tyre cartel while the matter is sub-judice. These insidious activities have ensured that the domestic price of rubber is pulled down through imports and market manipulations.
The Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN has hit the interests of rubber farmers in India in a significant way, says a press release issued by the AIKS and Indian farmers are now competing with highly subsidised farmers of the ASEAN countries. The present BJP Government’s policies that have intensified similar policies pursued earlier by the Congress have been responsible for the dire straits that rubber farmers find themselves in. A kilogram of rubber fetched Rs.230/- in 2011; now it fetches as low as Rs.120/-.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) state government in Kerala has spent about Rs.1800 crores over the last few years to ensure that the base price of at least Rs.180 per kilogram accrues to farmers. Some more details suggesting complicity between the BJP and even Congress and a conflict of interests have emerged from the revelations around the paybacks in the recently exposed Electoral Bond Scam, states the AIKS statement. Both parties have got crores as kickbacks from MRF, Apollo Tyres, CEAT and others. Even the revelation that the Union Home Minister has shares in MRF is not a coincidence, states the AIKS.
Adopting a strong stance against the Corporate Tyre Manufacturers and cartelisation, the AIKS and Kerala Karshaka Sangham have joined other rubber farmers in taking up a legal battle against the tyre monopolies and have filed an application to intervene on behalf of millions of rubber farmers of India. The Kerala Karshaka Sangham had united eleven other organisations and held a joint March to the offices of MRF and Apollo Tyres on December 30, 2023 with AIKS office bearers participating. A Parliament March was also held with the participation of rubber farmers from all the rubber growing states of India.
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