New Delhi: Eight months after the farmers’ movement for the repeal of the three farm laws concluded, leaders of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) met in the city on Monday to recall the heroic struggle in its various dimensions.

The occasion was a seminar titled ‘The Future of the Farmers Movement’, held at the Gandh Peace Foundation, which saw the participation of farmer leaders, Hannan Mollah, Ashok Dhawale, Rakesh Tikait, Darshan Pal and Yogendra Yadav.

The topic of discussion was All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader Dhawale’s book When Farmers Stood Up, which was launched earlier this year in Kannur, Kerala

After a brief musical performance by Jana Natya Manch, Archana Prasad, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), while giving an introduction to the book, said: “It is essential that this book reaches everyone, as it gives hope against the struggle of fascism. I must emphasise that while the book has been written by Dr Dhawale, indeed, through it speaks the voices of all the workers and farmers who participated headfirst in the movement.”

Prasad said there was pre-history to the farmers’ movement as it erupted September 2020 onward, with the struggle against BJP-led National Democratic Alliance-I’s Land Acquisition Bill. “This book underlines the fact the movement was not simply built by 500 organisations, but through a long protracted struggle 2014 onward,” she added.

Darshan Pal of Krantikari Kisan Union congratulated Dhawale for his “rigorous efforts” to compile the various moments in the farmers’ movement. He gave personal anecdotes on the various ups and downs of the movement.

On the ‘Delhi Chalo’ call given by SKM on November 26, 2020, Pal said: “To be frank, there were many options in front of us. After reaching the Punjab-Haryana border, our long cavalcade could have stopped where the police set up barriers. Some of us thought that we must push through. In the end, it was the sheer will of the people, especially of Punjab, that showed us the way.”

Dr Darshan Pal

“By the time we reached the Singhu border, SKM had truly become the face of the movement. Even organisations who chose to ignore our efforts earlier now happily chose to come on this umbrella,” Pal recalled. He also stressed the unifying bonds created in the year-long movement. “Muslims of Uttar Pradesh and Gujjar-Meenas of Rajasthan were brought together in this struggle, bridging the religious divisions between them,” he added.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait) leader Rakesh Tikait, a prominent face of the movement in Western Uttar Pradesh, expressed his gratitude to Hanna Mollah, Dhawale and others from AIKS for patching up scattered and parochial movements into more united fronts in the early days of the movement against the farm laws. He then went on to talk about his recent visits to rural areas, where the necessity of a new farmers’ movement became clear to him.

Rakesh Tikait

“I was in Bihar some weeks ago: there, the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) Acts were axed 15 years ago. Now, agents of big companies sit where the mandi once was. Some of the lands here have simply been sold off,” he claimed.

“We assume migrants from Bihar to be labourers. This is a misconception; many of them have some land back home, but they have been forced to leave agriculture since they no longer get adequate prices. This is what happens when MSP (minimum support price) is lacking,” he said, adding that “this is why SKM says that our movement has only been suspended, not finished. For MSP, against the Electricity Amendment Bill, for crop insurance and pension for farmers, our fight continues.”

Giving a hint of SKM’s future plan, Tikait said: “We are now planning for Mission 2024, and we will work with Opposition parties on this. After all, they need us, too: farmers are the spine of the country’s democratic movement.”

Dhawale, president of AIKS, in his address, expressed his gratitude to Rajinder Sharma of Loklahar, who pushed him to write weekly about the farmers’ movement right from December 2020. “It is owing to him that I could compile meticulously weekly happenings in the movement. Second, I would also thank Sudhanva Deshpande of Leftword Books, who encouraged me to write a book immediately after the struggle concluded on December 9, 2021.”

Dr Ashok Dhawale

He spoke about the impact the movement had on him. “I can say without a doubt that in contemporary times, the world has not seen a movement as massive as ours. I give my red salutes to the toiling people who made it such a grand success.” He went on to emphasise the solidarity between workers and farmers that was built during the movement.

“I remember how Rakesh Tikait ji and I went to Vishakapatnam in the thick of the movement to extend our solidarity to about 30,000 workers striking to save the Vizag steel plant there. They, too, extended their support to our cause. It was through these actions that we were able to build a movement that covered the span of the country: from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and from Gujarat to Guwahati,” Dhawale stated.

Representatives of the industrial unions and rural working class too joined the seminar. Tapan Sen, general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, highlighted how the farmers’ movement saw three back-to-back general strikes, called jointly by SKM and the central trade unions. “The farmers’ support to workers gave us immense confidence and encouraged to struggle against the labour codes militantly. Even after the movement concluded, SKM gave it complete support to the two-day national strike held on March 28-29 this year,” Sen said.

“The biggest impact of the movement has been that India’s core productive classes have united and have correctly identified its enemy: the corporate-fascist nexus ruling the country today,” he said.

B Venkat, general secretary of the All India Agricultural Workers’ Union, spoke about the participation of dalits and tribals in the farmers’ movement.

The seminar was organised by the P Sundarayya Memorial Trust and Leftword Books.

All photographs were taken by the author.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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New Delhi: On a rainy Wednesday morning, after “thousands of petitions and suggestions” to the Union government’s pilot New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, hundreds of teachers from across the country reached the heart of the city to present a 25-point charter of demands in front of parliamentarians in the ongoing Monsoon session. 

Under the banner of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisations (AIFUCTO), educationists from various state and central universities gathered at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to reiterate their rejection of NEP, CUET, FYUP, HEFA, and several other structural changes being implemented in the educational sector. 

AIFUCTO is a leading body of university and college teachers’ associations in the country and represents more than six lakh teachers. It claims to be the world’s largest organisation in this field. 

Talking to NewsClick, Rajeev Kunwar, associate professor at Dyal Singh College, said that in the two years of the pandemic, the Union government pushed major policy changes in education. “A front attack was made on the teachers’ community during the pandemic. Be it the Academic Bank of Credits (ABCs), Four-Year Undergraduate Program (FYUP), or other schemes, the driving force is the desire to institutionalise the online mode of imparting education. The agenda is also to relegate the education budget to the mercy of the market,” Kunwar said.

He added, “If you look at the Central University Entrance Test (CUET), the direct implication is the total destruction of school education.” This year, the UGC implemented the Central University Entrance Test (CUET), which is now mandatory for undergraduate admission at any of the 45 central universities in the country. The move has raised concerns among students and academicians. “We see, therefore, that NEP, which is the guiding light of all such schemes, is against the entire education community – students, staff, and teachers,” Kunwar said.

Keshab Bhattacharya, president of AIFUCTO, who presided over the convention, said that the introduction of the online mode put immense pressure on the teaching community. “Already 12 online programs have been uploaded. It is certain that recruitment of teachers in certain subjects is going to be less now,” he said. Bhattacharya also lamented how upward mobility and security after retirement in the teaching sector have been made extremely difficult due to policies of the Union government. 

His concerns were echoed by a professor from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon. Surekha Palve, who teaches at the KBC North Maharashtra University, raised questions about the pensions and other perks received by MPs and MLAs even after their tenure is over. “They receive their pensions for life, while we teachers, who make such an important contribution to society, give 30-35 years into service and sacrifice our family life, receive nothing (under the present regime),” Palve told Newsclick. She echoed one of the key demands of the charter to bring back the old pension scheme (OPS).

Palve also highlighted the pitfalls of pushing the online mode of education. “My university is based in a tribal area. During the pandemics, when classes went online, my students would call me at 10 pm, saying that they had no network in their area and were worried about sitting for online exams the next day. Then there were parents who could not afford smartphones for their children. First, the government must ensure basic infrastructure before instituting an online mode of education,” she said. 

AIFUCTO Charter of Demands

Various unions like Punjab & Chandigarh College Teachers Union (PCCTU), All Kerala Private College Teachers’ Associations (AKPCTA), Haryana Government College Teachers’ Association (HGCTA), Bihar University Teachers’ Association (BUTA), Tamil Nadu Retired College Teachers’ Association, Rajasthan University & College Teachers’ Association, etc. joined the convention. Other organisations like the All India Peoples’ Science Network (AIPSCN) and All India Save Education Committee (AISEC) also joined in solidarity.

Arun Kumar, general secretary of AIFUCTO, asserted that NEP was a sure-shot way of killing the education sector. He said the administration of institutions was being hampered under the NEP in multiple ways: “The government and the ruling party is appointed board of governors for administering various campuses. Elsewhere, religious trusts are running colleges now. One can only imagine what will happen with education in these places.” 

Kumar also stressed the existing vacancies in universities. “About thousands of posts are lying vacant in Delhi University itself, while 4,000 positions have been filled on an ad-hoc basis. We demand that the vacancies be filled and that ad-hoc faculty is made permanent,” he said.

In a rousing speech that attracted applause from the audience, Sharda Dixit, a retired principal from Delhi’s Narela, shared how Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a nineteenth-century educator, had said that when reforms fail, it is only a revolutionary struggle that can bring victory. “Our universities are being eyed by private companies like jackals surrounding a vulnerable prey. We must stand up and defend public education with all our strength,” she said.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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