Farm and Forest

The objective of the KMC is to go “beyond the recommendations of Swaminathan Commission in the light of challenges arising out of the growing corporate control on the supply of farm inputs resulting in the rising cost of production for farmers and on the markets for agricultural produce leading to the loss of incomes from farming”.  

The CPI-M affiliated All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has urged Prime Minister Modi to stop shedding crocodile tears for rubber farmers when his party has received money from leading tyre monopolies to buy government silence on “illegal caretelisation”

“Dismantling of land-related laws in Jammu and Kashmir is promoting unregulated sale and conversion of agricultural lands, leading to shortfall in foodgrains”

The Union environment ministry issued a notification last month saying corporations and other private entities can take up plantations on forest land

Two of the deceased were elderly farmers between the age of 75-80, while the third farmer was 40-years-old; farmer unions allege that the tear gas shells thrown by the state police force led to farmers inhaling toxic gas

Calling the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) a “betrayer of the freedom struggle,” AIKS has asserted that “the RSS has no right to question the patriotism of Indian farmers”

Farmer protestors in their thousands, from 37 Unions under the umbrella of the Samyukta Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (SKM) gathered at the protest site in the capital, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait says that the protest will not end till the government finds a solution to their demands

Another death of protesting farmer reported, seventh since the beginning of the protest

The film, inspired by the 2020-2021 Indian farmers protest against the now repealed three contentious farm laws offers viewers a unique insight; it explains how MSP is nothing but a levelling of urban & rural incomes at no cost to the consumer; director, Bedabrata Pain and two others drove over 10,000 kilometres, at the height of the pandemic, through the food bowl of America, capturing the heart-wrenching accounts of American farmers who became victims of the “mind-set of the market” 40 years ago.

The last month has seen a strong resurgence of the farmers’ movement in the country. It has also seen an equally repressive push-back by the BJP-RSS regime against farmers, which has led to the deaths of two farmer so far, and many more seriously injured.