Uttar Pradesh, with 80 Lok Sabha seats, gave 43 seats to the INDIA bloc, an increase of 37 compared to 2019; it gave 36 seats to the NDA, a drop of 28. One independent has won there. There is no doubt that there was an extraordinary performance by the INDIA bloc in UP.

Significant Victory for MVA-INDIA

Coming to Maharashtra, the 2019 Lok Sabha election result for 48 seats was as follows: BJP – 23 seats (27.84 % votes), SS – 18 seats (23.5 % votes), NDA – 41 seats (51.34 % votes), NCP – 4 seats (15.66 % votes), INC – 1 seat (16.41 % votes), UPA – 5 seats (32.01 % votes), AIMIM (Aurangabad) – 1 seat (0.73 % votes), Independent (Amravati, later pro-BJP) – 1 seat (total of all independents and other smaller parties 3.72 % votes), Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA – Prakash Ambedkar) – 0 seats (6.92 % votes), Total – 48 seats (100 % votes).

In sharp contrast, in 2024, the people gave 30 of the 48 seats to the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA-INDIA), an increase of 25 seats compared to 2019; they gave only 17 seats to the NDA, a drop of 24. An independent Congress rebel has won, and he is likely to return to the MVA.

While this is certainly a welcome development, the voting percentage of the two fronts is too close for comfort. For MVA-INDIA it is 44 %, and for NDA it is 43.6 %.

The number of seats won and the votes secured by each party in Maharashtra is as follows: MVA-INDIA – Congress – 13/17 seats (16.9 %), Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) – 9/21 seats (16.7 %), NCP (Sharad Pawar) – 8/10 seats (10.3 %). NDA – BJP – 9/28 seats (26.1 %), Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) – 7/15 seats (13 %), NCP (Ajit Pawar) – 1/4 seats (3.6 %), Rashtriya Samaj Party – 0/1 seat (0.8 %). The Mumbai North West seat was won by the Shinde Sena over the Thackeray Sena by only 48 votes, after recounts. The result will be challenged in the courts.

The MVA fought this election with its back to the wall. So far as the SS (UBT) and NCP (SP)were concerned, under pressure of the BJP, the Election Commission of India (ECI) gave both the name of the party and its symbol to the rebel factions led by Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar respectively. The original parties led by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar were forced to take new election symbols. Money and media power were obviously controlled by the BJP. But the MVA fought back unitedly with grit and determination, and the people supported it.

The Maharashtra Lok Sabha results have become even more significant because the state faces its Vidhan Sabha elections within just four more months, in October 2024.

In a detailed write-up titled “The Maharashtra Lok Sabha Election Scene”, written and published before the results were declared, we had concluded as follows, “To sum up, if it is a reasonably fair election, it surely seems to be advantage MVA-INDIA, which should be able to win more than half the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra this time, as against only five seats which the opposition had won in the state in 2019. That in itself would be a big and significant advance in this crucial nationwide battle for the defence of the livelihood of the people, and for the defence of democracy, secularism, and the Constitution itself.” This assessment has been vindicated by the results.

What Led to this Result?

A preliminary analysis of the Maharashtra Lok Sabha election results will reveal the following main reasons for the NDA setback and the MVA victory.

First, the people were sick of the BJP and its corrupt and immoral acts in the state in the last two years, which resulted in the splits in the SS, and then in the NCP, and then again nibbling at some of the Congress leaders. Over 80 MLAs out of the 100-odd MLAs of the SS and the NCP together were induced to support the BJP by using a combination of threats and blandishments. It was through such dirty conspiracies that the discredited Shinde-Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar state government was brought into existence. The corrupt and unprincipled splintering of the SS and NCP led to a big sympathy wave for their original leaders and activists.

In such a situation, the veteran NCP leader of many battles Sharad Pawar, SS leader Uddhav Thackeray, and INC leader Nana Patole, spearheaded the resistance of the people against this political chicanery, and strengthened the unity of the MVA, which was further buttressed by the formation of the INDIA bloc at the national level. In the 2019 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections also, Sharad Pawar had played a salutary role of fighting against the BJP. The most high-profile Lok Sabha election contest in Maharashtra this time was between Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule, and Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar. Supriya Sule won by over 1.5 lakh votes. MVA leaders addressed scores of huge public meetings as part of their election campaign. In several constituencies, it became like an election of the people against the BJP.

The second factor was clearly economic distress. The growing crisis in unemployment, inflation, agrarian distress, education, health, food security, and other sectors, and also the growing struggles on these issues in the state over the last few years, played a major part in ensuring the alienation of the people from the BJP-NDA. In the agrarian sector, the falling prices of onions, cotton, soyabean, sugarcane, and milk, became a major issue. So also were the recurring droughts, unseasonal rains, and hailstorms, for which no relief was forthcoming. The anger of the scheme workers and other unorganised sections was palpable. Naturally, the issue of economic distress had repercussions in all the regions of the state. As against the election campaign by Modi, Shah, Yogi, Nadda, Fadnavis, and other BJP leaders who only tried to create and intensify communal polarisation, the MVA-INDIA election campaign concentrated on these burning issues of the people and tried to put forth alternatives.

The third factor was that of caste, and reservations. This was a direct result of the agrarian crisis and burgeoning unemployment. We have briefly dealt with this in our last piece, hence no repetition is necessary. But it should be noted that in the Marathwada region, where the Maratha quota stir was the most intense, the BJP could not win even a single of the eight MP seats in the region. In other regions also it hit the BJP. Another significant feature of this election was the massive support of Muslims and other minorities to the MVA-INDIA bloc. This support also extended to the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) group, because of it being a part of the MVA along with the Congress and the NCP, and also because Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister, and later, had taken a secular stand, which was the opposite of his father.

The fourth factor was the people themselves isolating the traditional spoilers like the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Prakash Ambedkar, the AIMIM led by Asaduddin Owaissi, and others. Although the VBA put up its candidates in around 35 Lok Sabha seats, unlike in 2019, it could not achieve its desired aim of helping the BJP win, except perhaps in the Akola Lok Sabha seat in Vidarbha, which Prakash Ambedkar himself contested, and where he came third behind the BJP and the Congress. This trend was one of the welcome features of this election.

The fifth factor was the attack on Maharashtrian identity and pride. In the past few years, a large number of industries and projects which had been earmarked for Maharashtra were arbitrarily shifted to Gujarat by the Modi regime. This was a source of great heartburn, because it adversely affected employment and development. On top of that, in his election speeches in Maharashtra, Modi insulted MVA leaders by calling Sharad Pawar a “bhatakti aatma” (wandering soul). He also called Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena a “nakli” (fake) Sena. All this was naturally used by the MVA campaign to attack the BJP-NDA for insulting Maharashtrian identity and pride. This issue had big repercussions throughout the state.

The sixth factor was that, even so far as the media is concerned, this time several popular independent media outlets and YouTube channels were seen by lakhs of people, giving a stiff competition to the corporate Godi media, and exposing its increasing loss of credibility. Also, several social organisations came together and hit the streets by organising their own public meetings and other imaginative programmes under different banners, like the ‘Nirbhay Bano Andolan’, ‘Vote for Democracy’, ‘Nirdhar Maharashtracha (Determination of Maharashtra)’, and so on. With the encouraging poll results in the country and the state, this trend is sure to intensify in future.

And the seventh and last factor was, of course, the paramount issue in this whole election throughout the country – the defence of democracy, secularism, and the Constitution. The ‘400 paar’ slogan of the BJP was rightly interpreted by large sections of the people as showing its malignant intention to change and destroy the Constitution, and attack the rights given therein to the economically exploited and the socially oppressed. This became a major issue for Dalits, because Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar is regarded as one of the prime architects of the Constitution of India. But it was not an issue only for Dalits. It influenced vast sections of the patriotic people in the state and the country. And the MVA-INDIA election campaign rightly concentrated on this issue. This concerted campaign had the desired impact.

After this great victory in the Lok Sabha elections, the MVA-INDIA bloc will have to be even more vigilant, and redouble its efforts and its inclusivity to throw the rascals out in the ensuing Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra which will take place in October 2024.

The post M’tra: A blow to BJP-NDA, a shot in the arm for MVA-INDIA appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In a different context, all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten the hands of Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and Devendra Fadnavis, for what they and their ilk have done to the entire country and to Maharashtra in the last ten years, and particularly to Maharashtra in the last two years.

Never in the last 77 years of independent India, and in the 64 years of the existence of Maharashtra, has the state been subjected to such crass immorality and corrupt manipulation as has been done by this BJP leadership.

And this has become one of the key issues in the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Maharashtra. Let us take a quick look at the background to the recent unsavoury events.

In the last Vidhan Sabha elections in October 2019, the BJP got a setback. The total strength of the state assembly is 288. The strength of the four major parties was as follows: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – 105, Shiv Sena (SS) – 56, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – 54, Indian National Congress (INC) – 44. The first two and the last two had fought in alliance as the NDA and UPA respectively. Although the NDA had a clear majority of 161 out of 288, there arose serious differences between the BJP and the SSover the Chief Ministership.

With the initiative taken by Sharad Pawar, the BJP was trumped by an unprecedented combination of the SS, NCP, and INC, which came into power as the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Uddhav Thackeray was elected Chief Minister and Ajit Pawar Deputy Chief Minister. The MVA government lasted for two and a half years, from November 2019 to June 2022, and handled the Corona crisis and other issues reasonably well.

It was in June 2022 that the BJP struck back in revenge. With a combination of threats from central agencies like the ED, CBI, and IT, together with massive monetary incentives running into several crores each, the BJP broke SS leader Eknath Shinde along with 40-odd SS MLAs. Many of them were dramatically taken by cars to Surat, and then by air to Guwahati and Goa – all BJP-ruled states – and put up there in lavish seven-star hotels, before being brought back to Mumbai for a trial of strength in the state assembly.

Uddhav Thackeray, having lost his majority due to the SS split, resigned as Chief Minister. Eknath Shinde was promptly installed as Chief Minister and Devendra Fadnavis as his Deputy. Others from the BJP and SS became Ministers. But from the very start it was perceived as a completely immoral, corrupt, and discredited regime by the people of Maharashtra.

That is precisely why the BJP was still feeling insecure. But its response was only to compound its guilt. A year later, in July 2023, using the very same combination of threats and incentives, the BJP similarly split the NCP. Ajit Pawar and 40-odd NCP MLAs broke away. In both the instances of the SS and the NCP, the defectors and their leaders were derisively referred to as “Alibaba and his 40 Chor (thieves)”. Ajit Pawar was made the second Deputy Chief Minister along with Fadnavis, and some others from the NCP were added as Ministers.

These new events underlined in even darker colours the immoral, corrupt, and discredited nature of this regime, which for all practical purposes was led by the BJP due to its numbers.

Using its clout over the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Modi-Shah regime ensured that the SS and the NCP names and their election symbols remained with the defectors. Last week, in fact, Eknath Shinde in one of his election campaign speeches openly and shamelessly thanked Modi and Shah, and not the ECI, for bestowing this favour on them.

All these machinations vertically split the Pawar family, and also some other political families. As a result, one of the most bitterly fought election contests in Maharashtra this time is the one in the Baramati seat in Pune district between Sharad Pawar’s daughter and three-time MP Supriya Sule, and Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar, who is a political novice.

A few months later, in February 2024, the BJP preyed upon former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan of the INC, who joined the BJP and was promptly elected to the Rajya Sabha. Ashok Chavan’s father Shankarrao Chavan was the Congress Chief Minister of Maharashtra during the Emergency, and he wasalso the Union Home Minister under Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, when the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992. Unlike the SS and the NCP, however, noother Congress leader went with Ashok Chavan when he defected to the BJP.

Den of Corruption

How did it become possible for the BJP to bait so many fish in Maharashtra into its net? The reason has been well analysedby Deeptiman Tiwary in his excellent investigative report that appeared in The Indian Express on April 3, 2024. The title of the report itself makes things crystal clear: “Since 2014, 25 Opposition leaders facing corruption probe crossed over to BJP, 23 of them got reprieve”.

A full 12 of these 25 leaders were from Maharashtra – four each from the NCP, INC, and the SS. They are Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, and Hasan Mushrif of the NCP; Ashok Chavan, Kripashankar Singh, Baba Siddiqui, and Archana Patil of the INC; and Pratap Sarnaik, Bhavana Gawli, and Yamini and Yashwant Jadhav of the SS. Pratap Sarnaik, SS MLA from Thane, is very close to Eknath Shinde, and targeting him was a warning shot aimed at Shinde himself.

The other 13 ‘luminaries’ from the rest of the country who crossed over to the BJP are as follows: Himanta Biswa Sarma, now BJP Assam Chief Minister, ex-INC; Digambar Kamat, ex-INC Chief Minister of Goa; Raninder Singh, son of ex-INC Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh;Geeta Koda, wife of ex-INC Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Madhu Koda; Naveen Jindal, Haryana industrialist, ex-INC;Jyoti Mirdha, ex-INC; Suvendu Adhikari, now Leader of Opposition in West Bengal, ex-TMC; Sovan Chatterjee, ex-TMC Kolkata Mayor; Tapas Roy, ex-TMC leader; C M Ramesh and Sujana Chowdary, both ex-MPs of the TDP; K Geetha, ex-MP of the YSRCP; and Sanjay Seth, ex-MP of the SP.

The corruption cases against all the above are serious, but most of them have been ‘washed clean’ by putting them through the ‘special’ washing machine of the BJP, using the ‘special’ Modi washing powder! For instance, the charges against Ajit Pawar include the Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam and the Rs 25,000 crore Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank scam; Praful Patel has been named in the scam for the purchase of 111 aircraft for Air India, and in the Air India-Indian Airlines merger; Ashok Chavan is involved in the Adarsh Society scam for which he had to quit as Chief Minister; Chhagan Bhujbal is charged with scams in the Public Works Department (PWD) and in the construction of the Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi; and Pratap Sarnaik is involved in several assorted scams and frauds.

In 2019, Raj Thackeray of the MNS had campaigned stridently across the state for the UPA, and against the NDA.But this time he was effectively silenced by the ED and other central agencies of the Modi regime, and over a month ago he meekly announced his ‘unconditional’ support for Modi, without even fighting or claiming a single Lok Sabha seat in the state.

It is thus little wonder that many political leaders, MPs and MLAs of the NCP, SS, INC, and MNS, when faced with the stark choice of going either to the BJP, or going to jail, chose the former!

However, most of these turncoat leaders have been exposedand discredited in the people’s eyes, and they are generally looked upon as betrayers and traitors. That explains the strong sympathy wave flowing across the state for the 83-year-old NCP leader Sharad Pawar, and the 63-year-old SS leader Uddhav Thackeray. Both of them, along with INC state chief Nana Patole, have stood firm against the BJP and its conspiracies. The massive rallies of the MVA that are now taking place all over Maharashtra are an indication of which way the wind is blowing.

We shall come to the role of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and the AIMIM a little later.

Agrarian Crisis and its Fallout

Like in the rest of the country, people’s issues like the agrarian crisis, unemployment, price rise, ration, education, health, have become burning issues in the election in Maharashtra too.

So far as the agrarian crisis is concerned, Maharashtra has for years led the country in suicides of debt-ridden farmers, as per the figures released annually by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) until 2022. According to the petition taken up suo moto by the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court, 1,439 farmers from the Vidarbha region and 1,088 farmers from the Marathwada region committed suicide in the year 2023. This was an increase over the previous year. The state is staring both at severe drought, and also unseasonal rains and hailstorms. Both have led to tremendous crop losses. Already, by the beginning of May, over 3,500 water tankers are providing drinking water daily to over 10,000 villages in 23 districts of the state. These figures are certain to greatly increase in the next few weeks.

Onion farmers from Nashik, Ahmednagar, Pune, and other districts are up in arms against the BJP central government because it imposed a ban on onion exports in December 2023. As a result, the price got by farmers plummeted to Rs 1200 to 1500 per quintal, which was much less than the cost of production.

Seeing the anger of onion farmers, the central government lifted the ban on exports in the first week of May. But it imposed conditions that the minimum export price must be 550 dollars per tonne, and the export duty must be 40 per cent. These conditions made it difficult for Indian onions to compete in the international market with onions from China, Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan. The end result was that, immediately after the lifting of the ban on exports, the price of onions got by farmers in the domestic market went up for two days to Rs 2200 to 2500; but as soon as the realisation sunk in that exports were difficult, the prices again plummeted to Rs 1200 to 1500. Onion farmers also lost hundreds of crores of rupees due to the ban on exports from December to May. The farmers’ anger was reflected in the ruckus they created in Modi’s public meeting in the Dindori constituency in Nashik district on May 15.

In the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, the two main crops are cotton and soyabean. Lakhs of these farmers have been short changed and have got prices even below the MSP, which is Rs 6,620 to 7,020 per quintal for medium and long staple cotton respectively, and Rs 4,600 per quintal for soyabean. These prices do not even cover the cost of production. Together with natural calamities, unremunerative prices account for the largest number of farmers suicides due to indebtedness in these two backward regions of the state.

In Western Maharashtra, sugarcane and dairy farmers are facing equally serious problems. Due to the traditional one brand dairy policy in Gujarat and Karnataka, ‘Amul’ and ‘Nandini’ respectively are capturing the dairy market in Maharashtra, where the rulers have allowed several dairy brands to mushroom.

A remunerative milk price for dairy farmers has always been a contentious issue, on which there have been repeated struggles.

Although Maharashtra topped sugarcane production in the country last year with 109 lakh tonnes, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 105 lakh tonnes and Karnataka with 50 lakh tonnes, the ban on sugar exports and the ban on ethanol production imposed by the central government has created havoc for the sugarcane farmers and the sugar mills.

Due to the ethanol ban, an estimated 5.5 lakh litres of molasses worth Rs 3,000 crore are lying idle with the sugar mills. On the other hand, instead of using molasses for ethanol production, the Modi government decided to divert food grains for ethanol production, thereby denying cheap food grains to the starving poor in the country.

Unemployment and Reservations

Two recent news items indicate the enormity of the unemployment problem in Maharashtra. Recruitment to the Maharashtra Police Force began from March 5, 2024, and April 15 was the last date for making applications. For 17,471 posts, as many as 17 lakh 76 thousand young men and women submitted their applications! Of these, 41 per cent were graduates and post graduates, and they included engineers, doctors, lawyers, and management graduates! In another instance, 1,800 jail guards were to be recruited in Maharashtra. There were over 3 lakh 72 thousand applications for the same! These are all official government figures. The implementation of the MGNREGA in Maharashtra is notoriously poor for the last several years.

One more issue that has gained traction in these elections is that several industries and other large projects, which had earlier been earmarked for Maharashtra, were shifted to Gujarat, due to the pressure of the Modi-Shah-led BJP regime. This has led to great resentment, because it means an axe on employment opportunities and on the prospects of development.

It is these two aggravating phenomena – the agrarian crisis and unemployment – that have led to tremendous social unrestwhich is reflected in the demand for reservation in education and employment. The burning issue of reservation for the Maratha caste must be seen in this context. The upper crust or creamy layer of the Maratha caste has historically been a politically and economically dominant section in Maharashtra. But the agrarian crisis and unemployment have played havoc with all social groups in the state, and Marathas have been noexception. A huge statewide agitation of Marathas for reservations began before the Covid pandemic. It was recently revived under the leadership of one Manoj Jarange-Patil.

Last month, on April 4, the report of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC), led by retired Justice Sunil B Shukre, became public. An earlier MSBCC headed by retired Justice M G Gaikwad had submitted its report in 2018. The 2018 Commission surveyed 43,629 families from two villages each of 355 tehsils with more than 50 per cent Maratha population. The 2024 Commission surveyed 1,58,20,264 families across the state on a massive scale and found that Marathas constituted 28 per cent of the state’s population.

Some of the main findings of the 2024 Commission as regards the Maratha community were as follows: 43.76 per cent of women and 44.98 per cent of men are involved in manual labour for a livelihood. There is an alarming rise in the girl child marriage rate, from 0.32 per cent to 13.7 per cent in the last six years. The representation of Marathas in government services has declined from 14.63 per cent in 2018 to 9 per cent in 2024. Landlessness in the Maratha community hasincreased from 8 per cent in 2018 to 31.17 per cent in 2024. There is a drastic increase highlighting a severe community crisis as the share of Marathas in farmer suicides has gone up from 80.28 per cent in 2018 to 94.11 per cent in 2024.

Space does not permit a detailed discussion of the Maratha reservation issue, which is a complex one. Suffice it to say that the BJP-led state government in March 2024 adopted legislation in the state assembly providing for 10 per cent reservation to Marathas, over and above the existing 62 per cent reservation in the state, which already includes a 10 per cent quota for economically weaker sections (EWS). However, this did not satisfy the Maratha stir leaders who wanted reservation from the OBC quota. This is strongly opposed by the OBCs. It is not clear if the latest legislationwill be accepted by the Supreme Court, which has earlier struck down similar legislations. The political point to note is that this agitation has set the Marathas against the OBCs in the state, especially in the Marathwada region. This social divide will have its ramifications in the Lok Sabha elections.

Education, Health, Ration

So far as education is concerned, the NDA state government in February made some reactionary changes in the Right to Education (RTE) provisions. It directed through a circular that RTE admission to private schools for children of economically weaker and deprived sections would not be given if these private schools were within a one Km radius from government schools or granted schools. Under the RTE Act private schools must reserve 25 per cent of their seats for such poor children. The state government’s decision was clearly a violation of the RTE Act. Fortunately, the Bombay High Court on May 6, 2024 struck down the state government’s circular which it said was a violation of the fundamental right of citizens. The state government has also ordered the closing down of hundreds of government schools.

The state government’s ham-handed handling of the recent statewide agitations and strikes of the Anganwadi workers, the Asha workers, and Mid-Day Meal workers, was widely condemned. The government betrayed lakhs of these poor women, refusing to give them anything substantial. This exposed its reactionary attitude to the working class of the state. No efforts have been made to increase public investment in, and improve the government health care services, despite the disastrous experience of the Covid pandemic.

While the Centre has been crowing that it is giving 5 Kg grain per head per month free, it has discontinued the entitlements of cheap food grains through the public distribution system (PDS), throwing crores of beneficiaries at the mercy of the market. The state government also refuses to spend a single paisa of its own for the PDS. New ration cards are not only not given, but thousands of existing and genuine ration cards have been cancelled under the false plea that they are bogus. As a result, malnutrition is growing throughout the state, in both rural and urban areas. Malnutrition-related child deaths in tribal areas are on the rise.

The impact of all these sins of commission and omission of the BJP-led central and state governments will be reflected in the results of the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.

2019 Election Picture and Prospects for 2024 

The 2019 Lok Sabha election result for the 48 seats in Maharashtra was as follows: BJP – 23 seats (27.84 % votes), SS – 18 seats (23.5 % votes), Total NDA – 41 seats (51.34 % votes), NCP – 4 seats (15.66 % votes), INC – 1 seat (16.41 % votes), Total UPA – 5 seats (32.01 % votes), AIMIM (Aurangabad) – 1 seat (0.73 % votes), Independent (Amravati, later pro-BJP) – 1 seat (total of all independents and other smaller parties 3.72 % votes), Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA- Prakash Ambedkar) – 0 seats (6.92 % votes), Total – 48 seats (100 % votes).

This one-sided result of 2019 was similar to that in many other states in the country, and owed much to the jingoism created by the Modi regime around the Pulwama and Balakotincidents. An additional negative factor in Maharashtra was the VBA-AIMIM alliance putting up all 48 seats, the AIMIM narrowly winning only one, the VBA winning none but polling a substantial almost 7 per cent of the vote. The VBA was squarely responsible for the NDA winning, and the UPA losing, at least 10 Lok Sabha seats in this election. Its clear purpose was to help the BJP. The RPI led by Ramdas Athavale is, of course, a part and parcel of the NDA, and throwing Dr B R Ambedkar’s teachings to the winds, Athawale is part of the Union Ministry led by Modi.

In 2024, the MVA held a largely-attended press meet in Mumbai on April 9 and declared its seat distribution as follows: SS (Uddhav Thackeray) – 21 seats, INC – 17 seats, NCP (Sharad Pawar) – 10 seats. In contrast, there was tremendous infighting and tensions in the NDA, and it was not until three weeks later on May 2 that the final NDA seat distribution became clear, but without the NDA daring to take a press meet to announce it. It was as follows – BJP – 28 seats, SS (Eknath Shinde) – 15 seats, NCP (Ajit Pawar) – 4 seats, Rashtriya Samaj Party – 1 seat.

Factors Favouring BJP-NDA

In the 2024 election, there are the usual factors that favour the BJP-NDA. The most important is, of course, the overarching communal Hindutva consolidation that it has tried to achieve over the last one decade by harping on issues like the successful construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and its rules, the entire Kashmir question, the Uniform Civil Code, and its constant campaign of inciting hatred against Muslims, led by no less a person than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

The second factor is the concerted BJP campaign across the country to reach out to, and influence, the lakhs of beneficiaries of its various schemes. The BJP is carrying out this outreach in a very systematic manner.

The third point is the massive combined power of corporate money and media, and organisation, that the BJP has been displaying in every election in the recent past. There are confirmed reports of lakhs of rupees being distributed by the BJP in thousands of villages and urban bastis throughout the state. No prizes for guessing where this money came from!

The fourth and last point is the extremely dubious role of the Election Commission itself, and the refusal of the Supreme Court to intervene. The total lack of transparency about the number of votes polled in each seat, the sudden announcement by the EC of the increase in polled votes several days after the polling, tell their own story. There is no need to dilate on what all that implies.

Advantage MVA-INDIA   

In spite of all the above factors that favour the BJP-NDA, it is most unlikely that in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-NDA will be able to repeat, or come anywhere near, its 2019 performance. Some of the main reasons behind this conclusion have been analysed in this piece earlier, like the anti-incumbency discontent on people’s issues, the public revulsion against the corrupt and immoral acts of the BJP-NDA, the sympathy wave in favour of the original SS, NCP, and MVA, and so on.

The second element is the caste equation. How they will actually play out in each seat and region will of course differ. But overall, as analysed above, since the dissatisfied Maratha-Kunabi caste cluster is likely to generally vote against the BJP-NDA, the latter are making concerted efforts to rope in the OBCs to vote for it. Similarly, it has been an old game of the BJP to attract Hindu Dalits, because it has never been sure about neo-Buddhist Dalits. For the latter, defence of the Constitution of which Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was one of the main architects, against the nefarious attempts of the BJP-RSS, has become a major issue now. The minorities, namely Muslims and Christians, are fully with the MVA this time.

Thirdly, it is also unlikely that the VBA will be able to play the spoiler role like last time, since people have generally seen through its game, and there is now no alliance between the VBA and AIMIM. The VBA this time tried to pull wool over people’s eyes by staging a drama of negotiating with the MVA for several weeks. The MVA declared that it was willing to give the VBA four, or even five, Lok Sabha seats. But the VBA kept on changing its positions, and as expected, eventually broke with the MVA and, like in 2019, put up its candidates in several seats. The hypocrisy of the VBA is evident from the fact that its leaders loudly attack the BJP in words, while actually helping it in deeds. Some leading Marathi newspapers in their editorials have now openly ascribed this dubious VBA role to financial dealings with the BJP.

Fourthly, the formation and consolidation of the MVA in the state since 2019, and of the INDIA bloc in the country in 2023, has led to a new enthusiasm which has been fuelled by the discontent of the people around their rising problems and by their anger against the corrupt immorality of the BJP and its servile partners in Maharashtra. Except for one seat Sangli, the MVA constituents in Maharashtra have generally gelled very well and are working in unity.

Fifth, even so far as the media is concerned, this time several popular independent media outlets and YouTube channels are being seen by lakhs of people, giving a stiff competition to the corporate Godi media, and exposing its increasing loss of credibility. Also, several social organisations have come together and have hit the streets by organising their own public meetings and other imaginative programmes under different banners, like the ‘Nirbhay Bano Andolan’, ‘Nirdhar Maharashtracha (Determination of Maharashtra)’, and so on.

By the time this piece appears in print, the fifth and last phase of voting in Maharashtra will have been completed on May 20, 2024. To sum up, if it is a reasonably fair election, it surely seems to be advantage MVA-INDIA, which should be able to win more than half the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra this time, as against only five seats which the opposition had won in the state in 2019. That in itself would be a big and significant advance in this crucial nationwide battle for the defence of the livelihood of the people, and for the defence of democracy, secularism, and the Constitution itself.

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The post The Maharashtra Lok Sabha scene 2024 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

One of the martyrs is 79-year old Gian Singh, who died of a heart attack on February 16, 2024 while protesting at the Shambhu border; the second martyr is 21-year old Shubhkaran Singh, who was shot dead by the trigger-happy police of the BJP controlled Haryana government on February 21 at the Khanauri border. Both these borders separate Punjab from Haryana.

These killings were preceded by the shocking act on February 13 of throwing tear gas shells on farmers from drones at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders, firing pellets and rubber bullets, unleashing lathi charges, making arbitrary arrests, and erecting huge iron spikes, barbed wire, and concrete barricades on the highways, just to prevent the farmers from marching to Delhi.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the Central Trade Unions (CTU), and several left and secular political parties have strongly denounced the BJP-RSS government for its savage repression. The SKM and CTU also condemned the February 13 repression on farmers during the nationwide rural Bharat Bandh and industrial strike on February 16, a protest that was announced to focus on their pressing demands.

The SKM and CTU also denounced the cold-blooded murder by the Haryana police of the young farmer Shubhkaran Singh through nationwide protests on February 23. In this connection, the SKM also demanded the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij.

Cynical immorality

As if this violent state repression was not shocking enough, the brazen decision of the BJP –taken on March 3 –to award a ticket from Lakhimpur-Kheri, to Ajay Mishra Teni, the sitting member of parliament (MP) for contesting the coming Parliament elections is more than telling. Teni and his son were accused of the brutal massacre, (by running down) of four farmers and one journalist on October 3, 2021. Ajay Mishra Teni remains the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, more than two and a half years after he and his son have been accused of crushing and killing four farmers and a journalist under their cars and severely injured many other. This incident took place when on October 3, 2021, when the SKM-led nationwide farmers’ struggle against the three black Farm Laws was still ongoing.

While such an incident and the following non-accountability would be unheard of in a functioning, civilised democracy, in the India under this dispensation, Ajay Mishra Teni remains in Parliament rather than in jail. It may be recalled that the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, incidentally a Tory, was forced to resign from his high post because he was hosting drunken parties at his official residence 10 Downing Street in London when the nation was reeling under the Covid pandemic. In stark contrast, by “rewarding” Ajay Mishra Teni a ticket to Parliament—a man accused of the brute running down of four farmers and a journalist– Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and the entire BJP-RSS top brass have not only displayed their utterly cynical immorality, but they have also insulted the entire farmer community of India and rubbed salt into their wounds.

SKM-CTU struggle calls get enthusiastic response 

The SKM National Coordination Committee and the General Body which met at Chandigarh on February 22 took a number of important decisions. It briefly reviewed the massive success of the January 26 Nationwide Tractor Parades and the February 16 Rural Bharat Bandh and Industrial Strike.

Both these SKM-CTU actions, the Chalo Delhi call by other organisations (we are at the moment refraining from commenting on these organisations for the sake of forging farmers’ unity) and the repression by the government, served two vital purposes. One, they brought home to the entire country that the struggle of farmers and workers for their rights was far from over and would be intensified. Two, all these struggles succeeded in partly neutralising the impact of the January 22 Ayodhya Ram Mandir inauguration spectacle.

The most important decision of the Chandigarh SKM meeting was to organise a massive Mahapanchayat at the Ramlila Maidan on March 14. The CTU declared that it would also mobilise for this Mahapanchayat in solidarity. Hectic preparations are now underway to ensure that the March 14 programme is a great success, especially to ensure mass mobilisation from the North Indian states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. There will be representative mobilisation from the other states too. It will have to be seen what the response of the authoritarian Modi regime will be, but the SKM has decided to go ahead with the Mahapanchayat, come what may.

The other major decisions taken in the February 22 SKM Chandigarh meeting were: Nationwide Black Day protests denouncing the police murder of Shubhkaran Singh; and demonstrations all over the country on February 26, the day that the Ministerial Summit of the WTO began at Abu Dhabi, to warn against any likely surrender by India to WTO diktats to dilute the demands for a remunerative MSP and a strong and universal PDS. Tens of thousands of farmers participated in both these protest actions throughout the country.

The SKM Chandigarh General Body decided to form a six-member committee to hold consultations with all former SKM members to launch a united action plan for achieving farmers’ demands and develop issue-based unity and to unite all Kisan organisations which were part of the SKM. The members include Hannan Mollah, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Balbeer Singh Rajewal, Yudhvir Singh, Darshan Pal and Raminder Patiala.

The main demands of the SKM-CTU joint struggle, adopted in the National Convention of Workers and Farmers at the Talkatora Stadium in Delhi on August 24, 2023 are as follows:

• Minimum Support Price (MSP) @C2+50% for all crops with guaranteed procurement, Reduction by half of all input costs with restoration of fertilizer subsidy;
• Complete loan waiver to small and middle farm households and agricultural workers to ensure their freedom from indebtedness;
• Radical strengthening and expansion of the Public Distribution System (PDS);
• Comprehensive pro-farmer crop insurance scheme to combat natural calamities;
• No hike in electricity tariff, no to prepaid metres, 300 units free electricity to all rural households and shops;
• Minimum wage of Rs 26,000 per month for workers;
• Repeal of the four Labour Codes;
• No privatisation of PSUs including Railway, Defence, Electricity, Coal, Oil, Steel, Telecom, Posts, Transport, Airports, Port & Docks;
• Banks, Insurance, Education and Health, Employment must be made into a Fundamental Right;
• No Contractualisation of jobs, Scrapping of Fixed Term Employment, Strengthen MGNREGS with 200 days’ work per person per year and Rs 600 as daily wage;
• Restoration Old Pension Scheme, Pension and social security to all in formal and informal economy;
• Welfare Boards for all categories of unorganised workers on the lines of Construction Workers Welfare Board;
• Implementation of the LARR Act 2013 (Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013);
• Implementation of the Forest Rights Act, dismissal of Ajay Mishra Teni and registration of murder case against him, among others.

The SKM also reiterated that it will carry forward the struggle against communalism, casteism and authoritarianism to save basic principles of democracy, secularism, federalism, and socialism enshrined in the Constitution of India.

Hypocrisy of the Modi Government Exposed 

On February 10, the Modi Government announced that India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, would be conferred on Choudhary Charan Singh and Dr M S Swaminathan. The AIKS exposed the Modi regime through the following press release: 

“The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) is of the clear opinion that the BJP Central Government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi deciding to confer the Bharat Ratna Award on Choudhary Charan Singh and Dr M S Swaminathan on the eve of the 2024 general elections is the height of hypocrisy. By this step, the Modi regime is trying to hide its extreme anti-farmer, anti-agriculture, and pro-corporate policies of the last ten years. But farmers will see through its game, and it will never succeed in hoodwinking the rural populace.

“Firstly, it must be underlined that during the tenure of the Modi regime more than 750 farmers from different parts of the country were martyred during the year-long iconic and victorious nationwide farmers’ struggle against the three hated Farm Laws in 2020-21. Many families of these farmer martyrs have still got no compensation whatsoever, despite written assurances by the central government. The Modi regime is also the only government in independent India which has the ignominy of one of its own Union Ministers of State Ajay Mishra Teni being directly responsible for the crushing to death of four farmers and one journalist under cars directed by him at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, which is the native state of Choudhary Charan Singh, a renowned anti-feudal farmer leader himself. What is worse, this Minister, instead of being in jail for murder, still retains his post in the Modi Cabinet.

“As per the information of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which is directly under the Union Home Ministry, over one lakh farmers and agricultural workers have been forced to commit suicide due to indebtedness in the last ten years of the Modi-led BJP government alone. The main reason for this terrible human tragedy is the outright refusal of this government to implement the most seminal recommendation of the National Commission on Farmers (NCF), headed by Dr M S Swaminathan, of giving a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) at one and a half times the comprehensive cost of production (C2 + 50%).

“The BJP Election Manifesto of 2014 had said that “it will enhance the profitability in agriculture, by ensuring a minimum of 50% net profit, cheaper agriculture inputs and credit”. The same assurance was given by Modi in over 400 election speeches during the campaign. But what did the government actually do after coming to power? On February 15, 2015 it filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that it was not possible to increase the MSP for food grains and other farm produce to input cost plus 50% as it would “distort the market”. Ever since then, it has consistently refused to honour any of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations.

“The other assurance that was given by Modi in his 2014 election speeches was that of a loan waiver to the peasantry. But not a single rupee of peasants’ loans has been waived in the last ten years by the Modi-led central government. The Modi regime, while stubbornly refusing a peasant loan waiver, has written off loans worth over Rs 15 lakh crores that had been taken by a handful of its crony corporates.

“Modi’s talk of doubling farmers’ incomes in six years has also been exposed for the ‘jumla’ that it was in the first place. In fact, as the latest Union Budget has proved, there have been huge cuts in outlay on agriculture and allied sectors, including on food subsidy, fertiliser subsidy, irrigation, and also for MNREGA. It has also been recently revealed that the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Ministry of the Modi regime shamelessly returned an amount of over Rs 1 lakh-crore that was earmarked for agriculture in the last five budgets.

“The entire thrust of the Modi government in the last ten years has been to fatten its crony corporates at the expense of the peasants and workers, and the entire country itself. This was seen in its attempt to steamroller the three Farm Laws, and earlier the reactionary amendments to the LARR 2013. Both these attempts were defeated by united farmers’ struggles.

“Choudhary Charan Singh and Dr M S Swaminathan in their entire life, thought, and work, were diametrically opposed to this entire trajectory of rural development that the Modi regime has been pushing at the behest of its corporate masters, both domestic and foreign. This trajectory has already led to the ruin of Indian agriculture, and the Indian peasantry.

“The peasantry of India will surely see through this new hypocrisy of the Modi government, and will show its anger by defeating this regime in the coming elections. Its determination will soon be seen in the great success of the Rural Bharat Bandh and Industrial Strike called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and Central Trade Unions (CTUs) on February 16, 2024.”

(The author is National President, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS))

Views and opinions expressed in this article is solely that of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views or position of SabrangIndia and this site.

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The post SKM calls for massive Mahapanchayat at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on March 14, denounces BJP Regime’s repression on farmers, and MP ticket to Ajay Mishra Teni appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The CPI (M) captured 93 posts of the Sarpanch (Gram Panchayat President) by direct election in the recently concluded round of Gram Panchayat (Village Panchayat) elections in the Maharashtra. The party has done reasonably well, especially in its traditional Adivasi strongholds of Nashik and Thane-Palghar districts. This round of Gram Panchayat elections was not state wide, since only 1165 Gram Panchayats in the state went to the polls. The voting was on October 16, 2022, and the counting was on October 17. 

The earlier system in Gram Panchayat elections was such that the election of Gram Panchayat members from different wards in a village. These members then elected their Sarpanch. But in this round, due to a change in the rules made by the present BJP-dominated state government, there were direct elections to the post of Sarpanch, with the entire village voting for this post. Gram Panchayat members were simultaneously elected from the various wards in the village. 

The 93 Sarpanch posts that were won by the CPI (M) district-wise as follows: Nashik (59), Thane-Palghar (26), Ahmednagar (6), Nandurbar (1) and Pune (1). In some Gram Panchayats the Party lost the Sarpanch post narrowly. However, it could win a majority of the elected Gram Panchayat members in many such cases. It therefore now has a majority in over 100 Gram Panchayats in the above districts. The Party won hundreds of Gram Panchayat seats in over 150 villages. 

Most of the winning candidates in these districts work in the AIKS, AIDWA, DYFI and AIAWU.  

The number of Sarpanch posts won tehsil wise in Nashik district is as follows: Surgana – 33, Kalwan – 8, Tryambakeshwar – 7, Dindori – 6, Peth – 5. The total number of Gram Panchayat seats won in the district runs into hundreds.    

The number of Sarpanch posts won tehsil wise in Thane-Palghar districts is as follows: Dahanu – 8, Jawhar – 5, Talasari – 4, Wada – 4, Vikramgad – 3, Shahapur – 1, Murbad – 1. Of these 26 Sarpanches, 11 are women. In these two districts, which are under one district committee since they were in the undivided Thane district earlier, the Party won 291 Gram Panchayat member seats. 159 of them are women. 

Felicitation 

A large function to felicitate the winners in Thane-Palghar districts was held on October 23 at Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar Bhawan at Talasari in Palghar district. They were all felicitated by presenting them with red scarves of the Party and a book of revolutionary songs in Marathi and Hindi, titled ‘Woh Subah Kabhi To Aayegi’, recently published by the AIKS Maharashtra State Committee. Along with the winners, over 1,000 main activists of the Party and mass fronts from all the above tehsils attended.

The meeting began by paying homage to CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and former Central Committee member Kumar Shiralkar. Polit Bureau member Dr Ashok Dhawale outlined the sterling contributions made by both these leaders. The CPI (M) district secretary and state secretariat member Kiran Gahala made the speech of introduction, state secretariat member and MLA Vinod Nikole presided, and state secretariat member Kisan Gujar greeted the winners. 

Dr Ashok Dhawale made the concluding speech in which, while warmly congratulating all the winners and Party activists, he dealt with the current political challenges, and the responsibility of the newly elected members and the local party leadership in running the Gram Panchayats in a clean, transparent and pro-people manner. He also pinpointed the weaknesses in this election that must be overcome at the earliest. 

In another 500-strong felicitation meeting held at Surgana in Nashik district on October 23, Central Committee member J P Gavit, ex-MLA, and state committee members Subhash Choudhary, Bhika Rathod and Indrajit Gavit felicitated all the winners from Surgana tehsil.   

The Maharashtra State Committee of the CPI(M) thanked the voters for showing their faith in the Party, which had striven hard to solve the people’s problems at the grass roots. The recent peasant struggles in Maharashtra led by the AIKS also had a good impact on the results. The Party congratulated all the winning candidates and the Party workers for an impressive show. 

In this round of elections in the state as a whole, it was good that the opportunist, corrupt and communal BJP-Shinde combine was clearly edged out by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

Within a few months, a mini general election will be held in Maharashtra. Most of the Municipal Corporations, many Municipal Councils, and most of the Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis will be going to the polls. Actually, these elections were due in the beginning of 2022. But due to factors like Covid, OBC reservation, etc they were postponed. 

The gains in this round of elections must be consolidated by the CPI(M) and by the Left, democratic and secular forces in the next vital round of elections.

(The writer is a polit bureau member of the CPI-M)

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The Bharat Bandh on September 27, 2021 was truly historic. In breadth, sweep and intensity, it surpassed the earlier two Bharat Bandhs that took place on December 8, 2020 and March 26, 2021 in solidarity with the unprecedented farmers’ struggle. It was called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) to coincide with the completion of 10 months or 305 days of this struggle, which has made 605 Kisan martyrs so far.

It was exactly a year ago on September 27, 2020, that the President of India Ram Nath Kovind had given presidential assent to the three anti-farmer, anti-people and pro-corporate Farm Laws, which were rammed through Parliament by the Modi regime by murdering parliamentary democracy, on September 17 in the Lok Sabha and September 20 in the Rajya Sabha. A few days later, on September 29, the same government rammed through Parliament three of the four anti-worker and pro-corporate Labour Codes. The first Code on Wages was enacted by the same Modi regime in 2019.

Political support

The Bharat Bandh was actively supported by several opposition parties, all central trade unions, and hundreds of organizations of agricultural workers, employees, traders, transporters, women, youth, students, teachers and lawyers. Thousands of images of the Bharat Bandh success have appeared on the social media handles of SKM, AIKS, CITU and others. Many of the mainstream print and electronic media had to give coverage to this massive action.

The state governments that publicly supported the Bharat Bandh were the LDF government of Kerala, the DMK government of Tamilnadu, the YSR Congress government of Andhra Pradesh, the JMM-led government of Jharkhand and the Congress government of Punjab. Left Parties like the CPI-M, CPI, AIFB, RSP, CPI-ML (Liberation), CPI-ML (ND), SUCI(C), in addition to many other parties like INC, AAP, SP, TDP, NCP, DMK, YSRCP, JMM, RJD, JD(S), BSP, SAD-Samyukt, Swaraj India and others extended their support to the Bharat Bandh. The Central Trade Unions organised protest rallies at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and in many other centres.

The hypocrisy of the TMC regime in West Bengal was on full display when, on the one hand, it made empty noises in support of the farmers, but on the other, not only opposed the Bandh call but also ensured that the Bengal police rain blows on CPI(M) and Left activists on the Bandh day. The BJP government in Tripura too launched several repressive attacks on the CPI(M) and the Left.

The Bharat Bandh was clearly directed against the anti-people and pro-corporate policies and also the communal and authoritarian conspiracies of the BJP-RSS regime led by Modi and Shah. Some of the main issues that were highlighted in the Bharat Bandh were: Repeal of the three Farm Laws and the four Labour Codes; withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill; central law to guarantee Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all agricultural produce at one and a half times the comprehensive cost of production (C2+50 per cent); an end to the privatization drive aimed at selling off the public sector and the country to corporates for a pittance; halving the astronomical prices of diesel, petrol, gas and other essential commodities; doubling the days of work and wages in the MGNREGA, and extending this scheme to urban areas; and defending democracy, secularism and the Constitution against the attacks of the RSS-BJP.

Widespread response   

The detailed SKM press statement released on September 27 stated, “Reports have come in from hundreds of locations from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Pondicherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal about the Bandh, and numerous events to accompany the same. In Punjab alone, there were more than 500 locations in which people gathered to express their support to the Bandh, and their participation in the farmers’ movement. Similarly, the Bandh witnessed numerous non-farmer associations stand in solidarity with farmers, and also raise their own issues. Lakhs of citizens took part in the Bandh events today. 

“Life came to a near standstill in several states like Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand and Bihar. Reports indicate that in several parts of southern Assam, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, the same was the situation. Scores of protests marked the day in states like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In Jaipur and Bangalore, capital cities of Rajasthan and Karnataka, tens of thousands of protesters joined protest rallies taken out in the cities. The overall mood across the country was of anger and frustration with BJP-RSS policies that the Modi Government is enforcing, curbing basic freedoms and democracy, and putting most citizens on the path of survival struggle. It is patently clear that the people of India are tired of the Modi Government’s adamant, unreasonable and egoistic stand on protesting farmers’ legitimate demands, and anti-people policies in numerous sectors.

The response to this Bandh call was more widespread than before. Nearly all Opposition political parties had extended unconditional support to the Bandh and were in fact keen on not being left out. Trade unions were firmly with the farmers, showcasing the unity of farmers and workers once again. Various trader, merchant and transporter associations, student and youth organisations, women’s organisations, taxi and auto unions, teachers’ and lawyers’ unions, journalists’ unions, writers and artists and other progressive groups were firmly with the farmers of the country in this Bandh. People were highly sympathetic to the cause of the annadaatas of India. Even while hundreds of volunteers were detained across the country, the Bandh remained peaceful. The most remarkable aspect of the Bandh was its scale and expanse. Reports of the Bandh emerged from every state of India, and it reached farmers in far and distant places of India.
 

International solidarity

The ongoing farmers’ movement and the Bandh call got support from the Indian diaspora in various countries, along with farmers’ organisations of other countries. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent overseas trip to the US, supporters of farmers organised protests in America, in Washington DC outside the White House. They held up placards that said, ‘We Support Farmers’, ‘No Farmers, No Food, No Future’, ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’, ‘Indian Government Suppressing Farmers’, and so on. Farmers’ supporters turned up with flags even in so-called celebration events organised to mark the American trip of PM Modi. Protests were also held near the United Nations building in New York. There was a Kisan Car Rally organised in Sacramento, California, to extend support to the protesting farmers. Protests were led by the Indian Workers Association of Great Britain in the United Kingdom, at London, Birmingham and Glasgow, in addition to a protest in Dublin, Ireland. There was a solidarity demonstration by the Indo-Canadian Workers Association at Surrey, and a solidarity walk in Toronto, both in Canada.

Multiple hashtags pertaining to the farmers’ movement have been trending for a long time in India, where Twitterati also reached out to the United Nations General Assembly’s 76th Session President on the farmers’ agitation. In the past too, farmer leaders have reached out to the United Nations highlighting the fact that India is violating multiple articles under the ‘UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas’, adopted in 2018 by the United Nations.

AIKS welcomes Bandh success, condemns gruesome killings

The countrywide role and initiative of the AIKS, CITU, AIAWU, AIDWA, DYFI and SFI in the campaign for, and execution of, the Bharat Bandh was impressive. The AIKS statement released on September 27, expressed its profound happiness and extended hearty congratulations to all sections of the people who made the Bharat Bandh called by the SKM a grand and historic success. Stating that the main slogan of the Bandh was ‘Corporate Forces, Hands Off Agriculture, and Modi-Shah Quit Power’, the statement concluded by saying, “The political direction of today’s Bharat Bandh is that the last few years of joint struggles with the solid class character of worker-peasant unity now paves the way towards building a larger people’s united front against corporate exploitation especially in agriculture, industry and services. Those political parties who stand for protecting the corporate interests will face the people’s ire and will be pushed back in the face of the emergence of this movement of people’s resistance.”   

Just before the Bharat Bandh, came the horrific news of the police of the BJP’s Assam government gunning down two Muslim farmers, one of whom was a 12-year-old boy. The AIKS held an immediate press conference in Delhi on September 25, which was addressed by general secretary Hannan Mollah, president Ashok Dhawale, joint secretaries N K Shukla and Vijoo Krishnan and finance secretary P Krishnaprasad.

The AIKS statement said, “AIKS expresses shock and anger at the manner in which brute force has been used to forcibly evict thousands of poor peasants in the Dholpur-Gorukhuti area of Sipajhar in Darrang district of Assam. Two farmers are reported to have been killed and many are injured in police firing. The horrific manner of the police action and the brutality inflicted on a farmer already shot dead is a blot on humanity. The eviction drive took place even as a case was pending with the Gauhati High Court on the matter, without even giving enough notice to the people. Constitutional guarantee of equality and security for all citizens is being grossly violated. AIKS demands dismissal of the authorities responsible for the killing and resignation of the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma holding the Home Affairs portfolio, who is directly responsible for encouraging such action. AIKS demands Judicial enquiry by a sitting Judge of the High Court into the incidents.

The Chief Minister, a couple of days ago, displayed extreme insensitivity justified the eviction of the farmers who are Bengali Muslims cultivating land for decades, and expressed happiness as well as complimented the district administration and Assam police “for having cleared about 4500 bigha, by evicting 800 households, demolishing four illegal religious structures and a private institution.” How can an elected representative be happy that thousands of people are forcibly evicted without any mutually agreed upon rehabilitation and resettlement plan? The entire eviction drive in the name of ‘illegal migrants’ is with an ulterior motive of communally polarising the State by pitting communities against one another. If the Government was actually promoting a policy of community farming, it could have involved these 800 households who were cultivating the area for decades. After the Haryana BJP Government brutally killed a farmer Sushil Kajal, now the Assam BJP Government has also followed suit by shooting down two farmers with a sinister agenda of pitting communities against one another. 

It has to be noted that the poor peasant households had settled here after displacement due to floods in the Brahmaputra; their lands in the riverine area Kirakara near the Darrang district Headquarters Mangaldoi had been washed away. They had been cultivating the land for decades now. The humanitarian concern not to brand them as encroachers and allow them to earn their livelihood by ensuring mutually agreed upon resettlement as well as rehabilitation including provision of cultivable land clearly was lacking in the present Assam Government’s drive. The right of the Muslim peasantry to peacefully earn their livelihood in their own land is being denied.  

AIKS demands a compensation of Rs 25 lakh and job to families of the deceased as well as Rs 5 lakh for the seriously injured. AIKS calls upon all its units to protest against the targeting of Muslim peasants and unleashing of brutal violence on them. We demand immediate halt to the eviction drive and proper rehabilitation and resettlement for the affected families.                                                         

The SKM also released a similar statement of condemnation. The AIKS and AIAWU will soon be sending their joint central and state team to Assam to visit the families of the martyrs. 

On September 28, the day after the historic Bharat Bandh, as per the SKM call, farmers from across the nation observed Shaheed Bhagat Singh Jayanti. Remembrance programs were held at all SKM morchas and protest sites where youth and students came together in large numbers, and remembered the great son of India who laid down his life in a supreme sacrifice for the values of freedom, democracy, secularism and socialism. Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s sacrifice will always inspire the farmers and the people of India in their fight against injustice.

*The writer is all India president of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)

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The post Historic Bharat Bandh draws response from millions appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Massive countrywide preparations are on in almost all states to ensure the success of the September 27 Bharat Bandh call given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), and supported by Left and other opposition political parties, all central trade unions, and numerous organisations of employees, teachers, traders, transporters, agricultural workers, women, youth and students. The Bharat Bandh has been called to coincide with the completion of ten months of the historic farmers’ struggle, and is directed at the anti-people and pro-corporate policies and also the communal and authoritarian conspiracies of the BJP-RSS regime led by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

The Bharat Bandh call was given by the SKM National Convention at the Singhu border that was held on August 26-27, 2021. The 10 lakh-strong Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat at Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh on September 5 reiterated that call and spread it far and wide.

Intensive campaign

Some of the main issues that are being highlighted in the Bharat Bandh campaign are: Repeal of the three Farm Laws and the four Labour Codes; withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill; central law to guarantee Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all agricultural produce at one and a half times the comprehensive cost of production (C2+50 per cent); an end to the privatisation drive aimed at selling off the public sector and the country to corporates for a pittance; halving the astronomical prices of diesel, petrol, gas and other essential commodities; doubling the days of work and wages in the MGNREGA, and extending this scheme to urban areas; and defending democracy, secularism and the Constitution against the attacks of the RSS-BJP.  

Impressive state level joint conventions and press conferences have been held over the past two weeks to plan the Bharat Bandh in states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. All constituents of the SKM and thousands of activists of other organisations have participated in these. Central and state leaders of the AIKS, CITU, AIAWU, AIDWA, DYFI and SFI have been in the forefront of organizing these joint conventions.

Besides, thousands of district, tehsil, city, town and village level meetings have been held to propagate the Bandh call. Lakhs and lakhs of leaflets have been distributed to the people. This has spread the message of the Bandh to millions of people across the country. The SKM has announced that the Bandh will be from 6 am to 4 pm, with only essential services excluded.

The Indian Workers Association (IWA) of Great Britain has organised a demonstration of solidarity with the farmers of India, outside India House in London at noon on September 25.     

The SKM has also extended active support to the All India Strike of Scheme Workers on September 24, which will have the massive participation of Anganwadi, ASHA, MDM, NCLP, SSA and NHM workers. These workers are demanding regularisation of their services as Workers, with provision of minimum wages, in addition to stopping of privatisation of public sector units and services and withdrawal of the four Labour Codes. SKM recognises that these scheme workers delivering basic services of nutrition, healthcare, early childhood care and education in even remote parts of the country, who are mainly women, are being exploited and do not get even sustenance level allowances. These workers have been at the frontline of fighting the Covid pandemic at the risk to their own lives. SKM has greeted lakhs of these workers, and has expressed full solidarity to their historic all India strike planned for September 24.

NSO survey reveals bankruptcy of Modi regime

Two events last week once again revealed the sheer bankruptcy of the Modi regime vis a vis agriculture and farmers. One was the report of the 77^th Round survey of the National Statistical Office (NSO). The second was the MSP declared by the central government for Rabi crops.  

The Modi Government has been dangling the elusive goal of ‘Doubling Farmers’ Income’ for years. The deadline for the promise made in 2016, for doubling farmers’ income in six years by 2022, is just three months away. While refusing the farmers’ demand for legally guaranteeing remunerative MSP on all agricultural produce based on the C2 + 50 per cent formula, the Modi Government chose to do direct income transfers of a meagre Rs 500 a month for land-owning agricultural households. Even this was done as a pre-election stunt in 2019.

And now, the report card on the Modi government’s jumla is officially out. NSO’s 77th Round survey shows that over 50 per cent of the agricultural households are in debt, with the farmers’ debt increasing by 58 per cent over the last five years. Income from farming has decreased in real terms, with more agricultural income coming in the form of wages or non-farm business than from cultivation. This confirms an overall trend of turning farmers into agricultural labourers in India. It also confirms that the remunerative price route is the most direct route of improving farmer incomes in India.

The 77th Round survey of NSO on the Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households (data of 2019) clearly shows that the income from farming (crop production and livestock farming) on an average at Rs 5380 per month is not significantly higher than income for an agricultural household from other sources like wages and non-farm business (at Rs 4838 per month). This is despite the fact that 92.7 per cent of the agricultural households are engaged in crop production during the Kharif season. Net average receipts from crop production at Rs 3798 per month are in fact lower than wage income at Rs 4063 per month for these agricultural households in India in 2019. Way back in 2013, as per the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) 70th Round survey, the net receipts from cultivation were Rs 3081 per month, whereas wages were Rs 2071 per month. This clearly shows the decline of farming in the past six years.

Moreover, in 15 states of the country, the net receipts from crop production are lesser than the national average of Rs 3798 per month, which in itself works out to a meagre income of around Rs 125 per agricultural household per day. It is clear that farmers of this country are being made into agricultural labourers when it comes to their main source of income.  

MSP for Rabi crops cheats farmers, again

Last week the Central Government announced the MSP for Rabi crops with the usual rhetoric of ‘greatest ever increase in MSP’, ‘extraordinary favour to the farmers’, etc. However, the fact is that the government has actually reduced the MSP of Rabi crops in real terms. While the retail inflation stands at 6 per cent, the MSP of wheat and chana has been increased by 2 per cent and 2.5 per cent only. This means that in real terms, MSP of wheat and chana has been reduced by 4 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively. The new MSP of Rs 2015 declared for wheat for 2022-23 is equivalent to Rs 1,901 when adjusted for inflation, which is Rs 74 less than Rs 1,975 declared for wheat for 2021-22. Similarly, the MSP of chana (gram) has been reduced from Rs 5,100 to Rs 4,934 in real terms. On the one hand, the farmers are facing the brunt of massively increased prices of diesel, petrol, fertilizers, other agricultural inputs and their daily necessities, and on the other hand, they are becoming poorer as their income is getting reduced.

The Government is also deceitfully misusing the term ‘Comprehensive Costs’ which has always been used to refer to the C2 Cost of Production. As pointed out by farmer organisations since 2018, the government is blatantly deceiving the farmers and the nation by using a lower cost measure (A2+FL) and claiming that it is providing MSP as 50 per cent above the comprehensive cost. For example, in 2021-22, the comprehensive cost of production (C2) for wheat was Rs 1467 which is 50 per cent higher than the lower cost (A2+FL) of Rs 960 used by the government.

Finally, without a Legal Guarantee for MSP, the MSP declared by the government will remain on paper for most of the farmers. Lakhs of farmers, particularly in states where the mandi (common market) system is weak, have to sell their crops below MSP. The legal guarantee for MSP has been the longstanding demand of the farmers, and one of the key demands of the SKM.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) in its statement condemned the callous manner in which the Narendra Modi-led BJP government announced the MSP for the Rabi Marketing Season, 2022-23 without following the C2+50 per cent formula or even taking into account increased costs of inputs and inflation. This statement said, “The increase in wheat prices is merely 2.03 percent from Rs 1,975 to Rs 2015 per quintal, the lowest increase in 12 years. The MSPs of other crops have a meagre nominal increase ranging from 2.14 per cent to 8.60 per cent, while in real terms in all crops the farmers will suffer huge losses. Besides, only a small section of farmers gets to sell their produce at MSP since there is no guaranteed procurement. In the absence of guaranteed procurement even this MSP is not ensured for farmers. This is precisely the reason why farmers are demanding MSP at C2+50 per cent as a legal right.”

Cynical corporate loot

Recently, apple farmers in Himachal Pradesh have led big protests against the government’s apathy towards their demands to ensure remunerative prices for apples, and against the open loot by corporates. This year Adani Agri Fresh has fixed the rate of A-grade premium apples at Rs 72 per Kg, against Rs 88 per Kg last year. Consequently, most of the farmers are making a loss. The apple farmers are joined by the farmers growing tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, cauliflower and other crops, who are demanding legal guarantee of MSP for all crops.

Lastly, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar was recently busy inaugurating Amazon India’s Kisan Store. After crops and insurance, the government has also handed over fertilizers and seeds to the corporates. The urea that IFFCO sells at Rs 266.50 for a 45 kg bag, is now selling at Rs 199 a kg on Amazon! On Flipkart, the price of 450 grams of urea is written as Rs 130! This is shameless black marketing of fertilizers on a platform launched by the Agriculture Minister himself!

It is this cynical loot and exploitation by corporate communalism, represented by the Modi-Shah-Ambani-Adani corrupt combine, which is being valiantly combated by farmers for the last ten months, and will again be fought tooth and nail by the Bharat Bandh on September 27.

(The writer is all India president of the All India Kisan Sabha)

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The post Bharat Bandh: Massive preparations on, countrywide appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Thousands of farmers from different states of India are getting ready to take part in two important events of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) – the national convention of SKM on August 26-27, 2021 at the Singhu Border and the massive Muzaffarnagar rally to inaugurate Mission Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand on September 5. Over 1500 delegates from all over India will attend the national convention, which is being held to coincide with the completion of nine months of the historic farmers’ struggle.

The delegates will include not only farmers in large numbers, but also leaders of organisations of the working class, agricultural workers, women, youth, students, Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalised sections. The national convention will approve a plan of action as per the suggestions which come from participants for intensification and expansion of the movement all over India. This shall be announced on the concluding day.   

Punjab farmers win demands

The big victory of the sugarcane farmers of Punjab this week has set the tone for the SKM’s national convention. In the third round of talks held on August 24 between farmer union leaders and the Punjab government, the Punjab Chief Minister announced that the government will increase the sugarcane price upwards to Rs 360 per quintal. This significant increase of Rs 50 per quintal is a major achievement of the farmers’ collective struggle. Sugarcane farmers of Punjab fought a collective battle over five days in Jalandhar, blocking rail and road traffic from August 20. Farmer leaders thanked all the protestors including the ones running the langars. They also thanked the people who cooperated, despite some inconvenience caused to them. They announced that the protests will end in Jalandhar, and have urged all protesting farmers to get back to the Delhi morchas (marches) and strengthen them.  

Haryana BJP-JJJ regime wages war on its own people

Haryana’s BJP-JJP government was anti-farmer right from the beginning of this historic farmers’ movement. It was the Haryana government which placed numerous obstacles in the path of convoys of protesting farmers who were headed to the national capital in November 2020, to present their woes and demands to the Union Government. Many illegal detentions and arrests were undertaken in Haryana by the government, along with violence through tear gas shells and water cannons unleashed on farmers headed to Delhi.

Subsequently, over the past nine months, the state government has filed cases against approximately 40,000 farmers. It is as if it is waging a war against its own people. The administration has filed 136 different cases, in addition to two cases of sedition, against protesting farmers. In these cases, the government has named 687 protestors by name, and has also filed cases against 38,000 unknown persons as accused. The Haryana government, in its latest move, has even attacked farmers protesting against the Annapurna Utsav promotion gimmicks by slapping more cases on them. And these cases are being slapped for burning empty grain bags on which anti-farmer faces of BJP and JJP leaders Modi, Khattar and Chautala have been printed! The nervousness of the Khattar government is apparent even as the farmers’ movement is gaining greater momentum. It is clear that BJP and JJP leaders in the state are fearful of facing the public and being held accountable for their anti-farmer actions. 

Uttar Pradesh’s BJP government is no less guilty of an anti-people stance. As the farmers’ movement is getting stronger all over the northern Indian state, the Yogi Adityanath government is getting more nervous. Cases have been filed against protesting farmers in UP in the recent past. In Pilibhit, FIRs have been registered against 58 farmers by name, who participated in a peaceful black flag protest against a state minister. Farmer unions in the state are demanding the withdrawal of these cases. This is a violation of the citizens’ basic right to peaceful protest. 

Innumerable peaceful black flag demonstrations by farmers against the ruling BJP’s union(central) and state Ministers, MPs, MLAs and others are continuing unabated in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. They are almost too numerous to recount here.

Supreme Court recognizes the famer’s right to protest

At recent hearings before the Supreme Court, comments during the proceedings before a two-judge bench, the Court recognised once again the farmers’ right to protest peacefully. SKM pointed out that the blockades were not created by the farmers, but by the police and administration of multiple state governments and the Delhi Police under the control of Government of India. Farmers are not living on the streets for nearly nine months out of their wish and desire, but because blockades were put up by governments, when actually, farmers wished to go to enter Delhi to get their grievances heard. It is the government which is both unwilling to resolve the stalemate and trying to curtail the fundamental rights of the farmers to protest! The Supreme Court recently stated that the Union Government should take early steps to resolve the matter. Such a resolution will come from resuming dialogue with the SKM and fulfilling the farmers’ legitimate demands. Nearly 600 farmers have been martyred in this agitation so far, and the BJP government remains unmoved about the hardships of the protestors and is not even willing to acknowledge the deaths so far. 

PM’s ‘lies’ exposed

The SKM last week exposed the Prime Minister’s lies made during his Independence Day address from the Red Fort. Farmers of the country have realised fully that they can never depend on the Prime Minister’s hyped-up claims, false promises, spin-narratives, or his jumlas. The hollow claims around remunerative Minimum Support Prices (MSP) stand exposed fully, in addition to the jumla on ‘doubling farmers’ incomes’. The PM however continued to make a reference to “the important decision of increasing the MSP by 1.5 times” in his Independence Day Speech. MSPs have not at all been increased by 1.5 times. Besides MSPs announced for some crops are not being realised by lakhs of farmers, despite a commitment on the floor of Parliament by the Modi government. 

PM Modi chose to draw the attention of the nation to the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) during his speech. He claimed that small farmers of the country are the treasured constituency for this government and are the nation’s pride. In that context, he sought to showcase PMFBY as an effort to increase the power of the small farmer in the country. The reality of PMFBY is totally different. This reality exposes the hype and false claims being made about this crop insurance scheme, right from the beginning of its launch. The story is as false and cruel as the MSP story, where again the PM made untrue claims standing right under our national flag.  

As far as PMFBY is concerned, latest figures show that private insurance companies collected in 2018-19 and 2019-20 Rs 31905.51 crore as gross premium from farmers, state governments and the Union Government while the claims paid amounted to only Rs 21937.95 crore, with a margin of around 10000 crore rupees left for the private insurance corporations to operate and profiteer, over in just two years. The insurance claims of lakhs of farmers are never settled. States like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Telangana and West Bengal have opted out of PMFBY.

The number of farmers covered under this scheme has been falling significantly year after year. For instance, during the Kharif season, the number of farmers covered stood at 21.66 lakh in 2018, 20.05 lakh in 2019, 16.79 lakh in 2020 and only 12.31 lakh in 2021 (down by 57% over four years). The story of decline in coverage exists in the Rabi season too, year after year. The number of agricultural crops covered in 2018 Kharif was 38, which decreased to 28 crops by 2021 Kharif. In the case of horticultural crops, it fell from 57 crops in 2018 to 45 in 2021. The area insured during Kharif 2018 was 2.78 crore hectares, which saw a significant decline to 1.71 crore hectares in Kharif 2021. These numbers reveal the real story with regard to the failed PMFBY and it is shocking to see the Prime Minister make a mention of this scheme as one that has the potential to increase the power of the small farmer!  

For three years in a row, the Prime Minister has talked about ‘infrastructure’ investments to the tune of 100 lakh crore rupees, in his Independence Day speeches. In 2019, it was about ‘Modern Infrastructure’ and a decision to invest 100 lakh crore rupees on the same. In 2020, it was about ‘National Infrastructure Pipeline Project’, and Modi announced that 110 lakh crore would be spent on this project. In this speech, there was also a reference to the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) announced during the first Covid pandemic lockdown, and he had claimed that the Indian Government had ‘sanctioned’ one lakh crore rupees for this. “This infrastructure will be for the welfare of the farmers and they will be able to get better prices for their produce, and will be able to sell their produce in foreign markets”, Modi had claimed. Now, this year, it is the ‘Gati Shakti’ National Infrastructure Master Plan as a ‘scheme of more than 100 lakh crore rupees.’ 

The statements of the Prime Minister stand exposed when we look at the reality of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, more than a year after the pompous announcement. AIF is a 13-year scheme incidentally with disbursements till 2023-24. As on August 6, 2021, only 4503 crore have been sanctioned under AIF for 6524 projects including ‘in-principle’ sanctions (4.5% of the so-called ‘sanction’ announced last year itself). As per a Rajya Sabha response on July 23, 2021, only 746 crore rupees have been disbursed (0.75% of the grand announcement)!   

19 Opposition parties back farmers’ struggle

On August 20, 19 opposition parties in India jointly put out a statement announcing nationwide protests from September 20 to 30, on 11 burning demands of the country. One of the demands is to “repeal the three anti-agriculture laws and compulsorily guarantee MSP to farmers”. The statement says, “The historic struggle by our farmers continues into the ninth month now, with the government being obdurate in not repealing the three anti-farmer Laws and compulsorily guaranteeing and giving MSP to the farmers.  We, the undersigned, reiterate our support to the struggle launched by the farmers under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha.”

The Opposition parties’ statement further says, “The destruction of the Indian economy, with deepening recession, is pushing crores of our people into joblessness, escalating the levels of poverty and hunger. The run-away inflation and price rise is adding to people’s woes and destroying livelihoods…..The destruction of the economy is accompanied by a mega loot of our national assets; large-scale privatization of the public sector, including banks and financial services; the privatization of our mineral resources and public utilities to benefit the cronies of Prime Minister.  This will be strongly resisted.”

The statement also demands, “Stop and reverse the unbridled privatisation of the public sector; repeal the labour codes which dilute the rights of the labour and the working class. Restore the rights of the working people to protest and for wage bargaining….. Withdraw unprecedented hikes in central excise duties on petroleum and diesel, reduce prices of cooking gas and essential commodities, particularly cooking oil and control galloping inflation…..Vastly enlarge MGNREGA with increasing guarantee for 200 days with at least doubling of wages. Legislate an urban employment guarantee programme on similar lines.”

After giving the nationwide call for protests from September 20 to 30, the statement ends by saying, “We, the leaders of nineteen Opposition Parties, call upon the people of India to rise to the occasion to defend our secular, democratic Republican order with all our might.  Save India today, so that we can change it for the better tomorrow.”

*The writer is all India president of the All India Kisan Sabha.

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The post 9 months of historic struggle, Punjab sugarcane farmers win demands appeared first on SabrangIndia.

August 9, 2021, was a truly memorable day. The vibrancy and determination of the Left movement was on full display throughout India. Lakhs of people were mobilised by Left class and mass fronts AIKS, CITU, AIAWU, AIDWA, DYFI, SFI, and also by other progressive forces, in hundreds of districts in 25 states across India on the slogan of ‘Save India’ from Corporate Hindutva, comprising the bankrupt BJP-RSS regime and its unholy alliance with the rapacious corporate lobby. 79 years ago on the same day in 1942, the country had reverberated on the slogan of ‘Quit India’ given by Mahatma Gandhi against the hated British imperialist rulers.

The massive action evoked memories of the August 9 nationwide Jail Bharo struggle three years ago in 2018, at the joint call of the CITU, AIKS and AIAWU. Over seven lakh people had then courted arrest. This was immediately followed by the massive two lakh strong Delhi rally to Parliament by these three class organisations on September 5, 2018. Red flags dominated the capital  that day.

Unprecedented protest

From Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to the North, to Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to the South; from Tripura, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha to the East, to Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra to the West; and Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the centre; there were huge protest actions everywhere. They took myriad forms of Jail Bharo, Chakka Jaam, gherao of government offices, rallies, demonstrations and dharnas.

Along with workers, peasants and agricultural labourers, women, youth and students hailing from all religions, castes and creeds thronged these massive protests. They squarely attacked the abysmal failure of the corporate-backed fascistic and communal Modi government on all fronts. Hundreds of photos of the August 9 actions are still pouring in from all over the country.

Major demands of the struggle

The major demands of this struggle were the repeal of the three anti-people Farm Laws and the four anti-worker Labour Codes; withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill; central law to guarantee procurement at an MSP of C2+50% for all crops; end to privatisation and disinvestment of the public sector and selling off the country to corporates; immediate slashing of the massive and continuing price hikes of diesel, petrol, gas, cooking oil and all other essential commodities; increase the budget allocation on MGNREGA to ensure minimum 200 days work at Rs 600 per day; enact Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme; compensate job and wage losses during the pandemic; register all migrant and unorganised sector workers; address loss of jobs and livelihood issues and create more jobs; fill up all vacancies in government and public sector immediately; ensure minimum wages and social security and pension to all workers; cash transfer of Rs 7500 per month for all non income tax paying families; 10 kg free food grains per person per month for the entire period of the pandemic; ensure immediate free and universal vaccination to all with priority to frontline workers; ramp up vaccine production and bring the distribution under government regulation to ensure universal free vaccination within a definite time frame; scrap the pro corporate vaccination policy; allocate 6 per cent of GDP for health sector; strengthen the public health system and the health infrastructure to ensure adequate hospital beds, oxygen and other medical facilities to meet the Covid surge; strengthen public health infrastructure including recruiting the necessary health personnel; ensure that non-Covid patients get effective treatment in government hospitals; ensure availability of protective gear, equipments, wage rise etc for all health and frontline workers and those engaged in pandemic-management work including ASHAs and Anganwadi employees along with comprehensive insurance coverage for them all; withdraw draconian EDSO; and scrap new education policy and ensure good education to all students in the pandemic.

AIKS-led Tamin Nadu farmers reach Delhi

A powerful team of more than 1,000 famers hailing from Tamil Nadu, including women farmers, under the banner of the AIKS, holding red flags and raising slogans reached New Delhi on August 5. They had travelled a distance of nearly 3,000 Km by train to reach Delhi. At Delhi they were stopped on their way to Parliament by the police, where they held a public meeting. The protest was organised by the Tamilnadu state unit of the AIKS, to strengthen the all India struggle against the three Farm Laws and for a central law to guarantee a fair MSP.

Their state specific issues were also raised and a delegation submitted a memorandum to the President of India through his office. AIKS General Secretary Hannan Mollah, AIKS Vice President K Balakrishnan, General Secretary of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam (AIKS Tamil Nadu) P Shanmugam, President V Subramani, Treasurer K Perumal and President of the All India Sugarcane Farmers Federation D Raveendran were part of the delegation.

The public meeting was addressed by AIKS General Secretary Hannan Mollah, President Ashok Dhawale, Vice President K Balakrishnan, MP from Madurai S Venkatesan, MP from Coimbatore P R Natarajan, MP from Rajya Sabha Dr V Sivadasan, AIKS Joint Secretaries Vijoo Krishnan, N K Shukla and Badal Saroj, Finance Secretary P Krishnaprasad, AIAWU General Secretary B Venkat, Joint Secretary Vikram Singh, CITU Secretary Karumalaiyan, and the above TN leaders.

The AIKS team from Tami Nadu stayed for a week at the protest site at the Singhu border and joined hands with the farmers from Punjab and Haryana who are there for the last eight and a half months. On August 9, an impressive human chain and rally of peasants with the slogan of ‘Save India’ was organised by the AIKS with hundreds of red flags at the Singhu border.

Kisan Sansad concludes, No Confidence in Modi regime

On its 13th and concluding day on August 9, the all-women Kisan Parliament passed a unanimous resolution expressing no confidence in the BJP led government. This special session gave a clarion call to the people to oust the corporates from agriculture (Corporates Kheti Chhodo) and asked the BJP government to quit (Modi Sarkar Gaddi Chhodo) as it has failed the people by pursuing anti-farmer, anti-worker, anti-people, pro-corporate, authoritarian and communal policies ever since it came to power in 2014.

The no-confidence motion was tabled in the House on August 6 and it was debated for two days. It was based on the fact that the farmers’ demands were not being met, despite more than eight months of peaceful protests by lakhs of farmers across the country. Speakers launched a scathing attack on the BJP government which has lost the confidence of the people. During the pandemic it bulldozed the anti-farmer and anti-worker laws through Parliament. As many as 90 women speakers expressed their views on the motion.

The No Confidence motion pointed out that the Modi government had created a hoax of doubling farmers’ incomes, and had done nothing concrete towards this. The motion also mentioned that the BJP and the Prime Minister have reneged on their MSP related promises time and time again, including on making a C2+50% MSP a reality for all farmers. The Government has also cheated farmers on the much-hyped Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, where government expenditure increased, farmers coverage decreased and corporations’ superprofits escalated. On the import-export front, India’s exports have declined while imports have increased. When it comes to government support to farmers during natural calamities, it has been a massive failure.

Several issues of serious concern of ordinary citizens were also raised during the debate on the No Confidence Motion – these included unaffordable and unjustified hike in fuel prices affecting all ordinary citizens of the country, collapse of an under-invested and unprepared healthcare system in the Covid pandemic, unconscionable spying on citizens and elected leaders by the government putting our democracy into jeopardy, serious human rights violations in the name of sedition and other archaic, false charges on defenders of democracy in the country, foisting anti-worker laws in the country to protect big capital, and several anti-farmer measures by the government. Kisan Parliamentarians raised numerous issues concerning their livelihoods and violation of democratic values and basic human rights, while participating in the debate.

The Mahila Kisan Sansad on August 9 also deliberated on the issues of women farmers in India. August 9 was International Indigenous People’s Day too. Adivasi farmers are an important group of farmers in India, and the MSP legal guarantee demand of the farmers’ movement seeks to secure guaranteed MSP for forest produce also, in addition to other commodities. Adivasis in India are also waging struggles to uphold resource rights over various natural resources including land and forests. The Kisan Sansad fully supported all their struggles.

Some additional suggestions in the resolution on MSP, passed on July 5, were placed before the House and unanimously passed. The House also resolved to adjourn the Kisan Parliament sine die in view of the preparations for the next SKM programmes i.e. 15th August Independence Day to be celebrated as Kisan Majdoor Azaadi Sangram Divas and Mission UP-Uttarakhand.     

The house also passed a resolution hailing the performance of our players in the Tokyo Olympic Games by winning Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals for the country.

Adopts a MSP resolution

Earlier, on August 4 and 5, the Kisan Sansad discussed the current situation with regard to cost of production calculations by the Government of India wherein several costs are being suppressed. The Kisan Sansad strongly condemned the fact that wrong cost concepts are being used by the Modi government, in a deceitful manner, for MSP declaration. Instead of using a C2+50% formula, the Government is using the A2+FL (Family Labour) formula, flouting the recommendation of the Swaminathan Commission. There are many agricultural commodities which do not have any MSP declared, while the MSP that is declared is meaningless without mechanisms for guaranteeing such an MSP to every farmer. 

The Kisan Sansad passed a resolution directing the Government of India to immediately table a Bill that will fully address the current injustice in terms of cost calculations, MSP formula and guaranteed MSP operationalisation. Such a statute should cover all agricultural commodities and all farmers. It also asked for implementation of the many progressive recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission. The operative part of the resolution of August 5 was as follows:

A. The Government of India is directed to introduce a Bill that incorporates the following essential elements immediately and the Indian Parliament is directed to pass the same:-

– which will confer remunerative prices of at least 50% over comprehensive cost of production C2 as recommended by the National Farmers Commission, in addition to some agricultural commodities getting MSP at more than C2+50% to address skewed cropping patterns; 

– which will also address cost components that are being miscalculated and suppressed at this point of time, as well as improve the surveys which arrive at cost estimations as per Ramesh Chand Committee report; 

– that such a statute incorporate institutional architecture required for making remunerative MSP a reality for all farmers; 

B. the Government of India and state governments where required, are directed to implement immediately progressive recommendations in the National Farmers’ Commission reports (Swaminathan Commission) related to operationalisation of the definition of ‘Farmer’, prevention of acquisition of agricultural land, on provision of pensions to all farmers, on providing universal, effective and adequate crop insurance and disaster compensation to all farmers for all kinds of risks etc.

Opposition MPs visit Kisan Sansad

On August 6, MPs of different Opposition political parties visited the Kisan Sansad. They watched and listened to the proceedings of the Kisan Sansad in a specially arranged Visitors’ Gallery. These MPs said in their media bytes that they are extending their full support to the protesting farmers on their demands. MPs belonging to various parties like Congress, DMK, RJD, CPI(M), CPI, RSP, Shiv Sena, TMC, IUML etc. visited the Kisan Sansad. The Speaker of the Kisan Sansad thanked the Opposition MPs of India’s Parliament for their support.   

On the other hand, the Kisan Sansad also noted that parties like BJD, TRS, YSRCP, AIADMK, TDP and JD(U) have been participating against farmers in Parliamentary debates on various Bills. SKM warned them against their anti-people positions.

Independence Day on August 15 will be marked as Kisan Mazdoor Azaadi Sangram Diwas, and SKM has given a call to all its constituents to mark the day with tiranga marches. On that day, tractor/motorcycle/cycle/cart marches will be taken out to tehsil/block/district headquarters, or to the nearest kisan morchas by farmers and workers. All vehicles will fly the National Flag. 

*The writer is all India president of the All India Kisan Sabha.

Related:

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Kisan Sansad: Farmers reject APMC Bypass Act

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