Expressing solidarity with Assam’s tea estate workers, the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP) and Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan on May 18, 2022 condemned the state government for bulldozing a part of Doloo Tea Estate to pave the way for a Greenfield Airport project.

On May 12, 2022 thousands of police and CRPF personnel, public administrative officers, along with hundreds of bulldozers barged into the Doloo tea estate, located in Cachar, Assam. Their mission was to evict nearly 2,000 tea estate workers to build an international airport. This will effectively dismantle the tea state comprising 30 lakh trees and 2,500 hectares of fertile land.

“Labourers and plantation workers of Doloo tea state are in grief. Their many videos being circulated it is observed that they are demanding the officials and paramilitary forces to leave their tea state. On ground at this moment the only ally of the tea workers struggle has been led by Assam Majoori Shramik Union (AMSU), an affiliate of NTUI,” said the AIUFWP.

According to the government, the MoU for the project was signed between the Doloo Tea Company Limited and three major unions in the region, namely: the Bhartiya Cha Shramik Union (BCSU), the Akhil Bhartiya Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ABCMS) and the Barak Valley Cha Mazdoor Sangh (BVCMS).

However, the AMSU pointed out that the MoU did not provide any concrete assurance to workers. Further, it does not mention the exact compensation that the state government will pay to the company.

In response to this, the AIUFWP appealed to other rights groups to mobilize and resist the “anti-people bull-dozer government” at the central-level and state-level. Members condemned the Centre amending labour laws and introducing three labor codes. This has allowed for rampant abuse, putting the dignity of labour of all working people at peril, said the AIUFWP.

Similarly, the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan condemned the state repression and illegal land grab affecting marginalised folk in other states like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha as well. In Delhi, AIUFWP’s Ashok Choudhury and Roma Malik, AIKS’s Hannan Mollah, Krishna Prasad and N. K. Shukla, AIKM’s Prem Singh, and other Delhi Solidarity Group members attended the meeting.

The group recollected and condemned the alarming wave of violent repression of land defenders across the county this year. The extractive industrial model together with the state repression is destroying the forest, land and water, said the leaders in a joint press release. The meeting also discussed on-going issues of the government allegedly communally attacking the working class via bulldozer demolitions for corporate benefits.

“This act of govt was condemned and it was resolved that BAA will oppose this kind of politics tooth and nail,” said members.

They resolved to organize state-level conventions in June followed by a national-level convention in July at Raipur Chhattisgarh. Mollah announced that a detailed report compiling all land grab issues titled “land grab issues in the interest of corporate” will be released before the national convention.

Singh called for unity of activists, social movements urgently against the state repression and present model of land grab. Meanwhile, Roma Malik from the extended solidarity to the prolonged organized struggles against eviction of the indigenous communities and marginalized sections across India by the state governments.

Indigenous struggles in other regions

Members also talked about how over 4.5 lakh plants covering 1,70,000 hectares of land in Hasdeo Aranya, Chhattisgarh is being brought down by the state government for coal mining. In Deocha, Birbhum, West Bengal the state government proposed for open cast mining without any consultation with affected families or environmental experts. This despite the project affecting 4,314 households and displacing 21,000 people, of whom 9,034 are from the Santhal community (Scheduled Tribe) and 3,601 from the Scheduled Caste.

In Odisha, seven untouched forests were auctioned by the state government for bauxite and iron ore mining. Similarly in Dhinkia, tribals report brutal police repression on the anti- Jindal protestors, who refuse to hand over their land to the Jindal group. In Koraput, the government conducted a public hearing for getting the environment clearance without allowing dissenting voices in the public hearing. In 2021 a fresh lease for 6 million tons bauxite for 50 years was given without any consent from the Gram Sabha.

In Bihar, Adivasis, who were residing in what the members called the government waste-land, were recently being forcefully evicted without giving any notice. Gujarat’s indigenous folk near Narmada district are allegedly being harassed by the state machinery for upgrading the area surrounding the ‘Statue of Unity’.

Meanwhile, the Rajasthan government proposed a nuclear plant at Banswara which will acquire 107.3 Ha forest land for Mahi Banswara Rajasthan Atomic Power Project. Lastly, in the southern region, the Madras High Court banned cattle grazing inside forest area, and directed the Tamil Nadu government to prohibit cattle–rearers from using forests for grazing.

Related:

Doloo tea estate workers protest Greenfield Airport project
Chhattisgarh police arrest tribal rights defender, allegedly on fabricated charges
Were only 1,064 Tribal families displaced in Odisha for mining in the last 10 years?
SC sets aside NGT order shutting down factories operating without Environmental Clearance
Dhinkia: A story of perseverance against administrative oppression

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Stating that the amendment proposal for the Forest (Conservation) Act (FCA) is a violation of Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006, the Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan called for a nationwide demonstration on November 12, 2021.

During a press conference on October 11, members of the All India Union of Forest Working Peoples (AIUFWP) and other farmers union leaders like Hannan Mollah highlighted how the FCA changes threatening rights of Adivasis (India’s indigenous people) and other forest-dwelling communities. They condemned the government for excluding the Tribal Welfare department from this decision, even though tribal communities are the primary affected group in this case.

AIUFWP General Secretary Roma Malik said, “These changes also go against the spirit of the Bio Diversity Act. Further, the government is trying to make the FRA, tribal rights and gram sabhas obsolete.”

Therefore, the leaders called for a pan-India protest at the grassroot level, on November 12, to condemn the “corporate” acts, akin to the farmers’ struggle that has continued for the past year. On the day,

“The forest department is the biggest mafia in India that owns 23 percent of land. To continue mining and other activities in these areas, they have introduced these changes,” said Malik.

She stressed that the ruling government in 2004 had already acknowledged the inclusion of forest rights in the legal field. Forest-dwellers and tribal groups demonstrated outside the Parliament for the same. She feels that the recent changes were introduced for corporatisation of another public resource – forests.

Similarly, Mollah said, “The intention of these amendments is fundamentally handing over the natural resources to the hands of corporates and denying the rights of natural-resource-dependent communities on forests. This amendment has bypassed the FRA entirely which acknowledged the historical injustice rendered to forest dwelling communities.”

He stressed that this is all the more apparent by the fact that the changes were announced in the English language alone, excluding many concerned communities. Core member of the Andolan Satyavan said that the news must be well disseminated to various stakeholders by translating the draft into other Indian languages. The group claimed that these changes work for better initiation of project proposals. As a result, the changes also supersede state government rights regarding forests.

“They are trying to concentrate all power in the Centre. They say state governments are arbitrary and subjective. If you talk about the people, it is called arbitrary,” said Mollah.

Moreover, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) member Vijoo Krishnan said that the hidden agenda is to allow corporates to start cultivation of oil-palms and plantations by giving them access to forest land.

“It in  no way can provide any solution to address climate change; rather the people in the forests have their traditions of protecting the forests and technical solutions without vision will only hamper nature further and displace people,” he said.

Related:

Forest Conservation Act: GoI suggests fundamental changes Act, despite widespread objections
Protect Maliparvat: Odisha Adivasis prepare for another struggle to protect their land
UP: Merely 20% land rights claims approved by district committees
Climate change policies will never work until Adivasis are included: AIUFWP Roma Malik
Forest resource rights and Land rights as per Forest Rights Act

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Well-known civil rights activist Akhil Gogoi of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, speaking at a BAA meet in Delhi, said that Assam as also other North Eastern States are already in the throes of deep economic crisis because the special category status of the region has been “removed” by the Government of India. Gogoi has faced the wrath of state oppression and been implicated in allegedly false cases to curb his organisational prowess and freedoms. Both he and the organisation he represents, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti have faced state wrath and incarceration.

According to Gogoi, who was reelased on bail recently, this deep economic crisis, has resulted in “stopping the flow of central fund, centre-sponsored schemes and also limiting the state’s taxation powers by imposing Goods and Services Tax (GST).” Gogoi said, “In the light of these changes the picture that emerges is that the government has deliberately halted the infrastructural and developmental activities along with the funds for government schemes to cripple the economy of the region and create a state of emergency.”

Instead of the special category status, the Government of India, he said, was imposing special industrial policy for the North-Eastern states. While the North East Industrial Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP), which accelerated industrial growth in the region with subsidies and incentives for small scale as well as big enterprises, has been suspended, it been replaced by the North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS).

Announced recently by Central cabinet, the new scheme, he told the meet, imposed budgetary curbs to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore for the interim period till 2020 for all the eight states of the North East, further escalating the economic crisis. Those who are suffering the most, according to him, are marginal farmers and landless people, forming 32 per cent and 28 per cent of the population, respectively.

According to him, “There is no intention to implement land reform in the region, or a policy framework to address the flood and erosion problem of the state”, Gogoi said, adding, instead the government is coming up with diversionary tactics like the citizenship amendment bill, “which tries to disrupt the social and cultural fabric of Assam.”

Joining in, Jitendra Chaudhary, joint secretary of All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), member of Parliament from Tripura, said that that Assam “was once one of the most economically prosperous regions of the Indian subcontinent, but after the partition it has been reduced to being the chicken corridor due to neglect and underdeveloped.*

“The North Eastern region could have been a buffer for the country, we could have contributed more for the development of the country but the government is dividing the people against caste lines and it has no intention to address the issue of livelihood that they face”, he said.

Former MP and senior CPI(M) farmer leader Hannan Mollah stressed on the need to intensify struggle. He informed the meet that BAA has now 14 state chapters and has initiated the process of state committee formation. “Our focus is on the need to have extended reach and bring together issues of farmers from across the country and form a collective strength”, he added.

The meet condemned what it called “state-sponsored atrocities” in Tripura after the BJP government came to power, and in order to saffronize the politics and society, is actively seeking to eliminate any opposition and dissenting voices in the state. The ground situation has been worsening with vigilantes backed by the ruling BJP government breaking into CPI(M) offices.

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Bhoomi Adhikaar Andolan challenged this brazen attempt at violating not only the constitutional spirit but also the democracy itself and resolved to launch a nation wide strike and struggle against this. BAA leaders collectively said that this attack is not only against Muslims but against farmers and workers as well. Cows and cattle’s have an intrinsic link to the agrarian economy and in our country farmers and workers are from all religions.

The BJP government in the name of cow and river protection is only promoting the corporate agenda and taking away all the rights and livelihoods form the working classes of this country. BAA is going to challenge each and every move and every attempt at diversion of the common property resources and village land for industrial purposes. BAA also supported the demands of the agitating farmers from Tamilandu who have been camping at Jantar Mantar for 36 days now. Comrade Hannan Mollah General Secretary of All India Kisan Sabha said, “the intentions of this government are clear and we should not be fooled by their agenda and the diversionary tactics they use. We have to fight the communal terror and also the corporate onslaught on farmers and workers of this country”.   

The protest was addressed by Krishna Prasad, N K Shukla, Amra ram, Badal Saroj, and other leaders of All India Kisan Sabha; Dr Sunilam and Madhuresh of National Alliance of People’s Movements; Ashok Choudhary and Roma, All India Union of Forest Working People; Com Satyavan of All India Krishak Khet Mazdoor Sangathan; Com Prem Singh and Aslam Khan of All India KISAN Maha sabha; Com Atul Anjan All India Kisan Sabha (Ajay Bhawan); Kavita Srivastava, People's Union of Civil Liberties; Com Thirunavukkarasu, President, AIAWU; Com Suneet Chopra (ABKMU); Anil Choudhary and Virendra Vidrohi of INSAF and others. The dharna was also adressed by Com Brinda Karat, Subhashini Ali, Polit bureau Members, CPI(M); D.Raja, National Secretary, CPI; Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, CPI(ML); K.C.Tyagi, former MP and leader, JD(U); D.P.Tripathi, NCP leader and MP. In addition, representatives from different Left and Democratic Parties as well as Organisations of Peasantry, Agricultural Workers, Workers, Women's, Students, Youth Dalit and Adivasis, Trade Unions, people's movements were present in solidarity.

The dharna was attended by a number of farmers and civil rights organisations from Haryana and Punjab who extended solidarity and also launched their own agitation in the States demanding justice. They resoled to continue their fight until justice for the victims of the Alwar is achieved and also to stop any further terror in the name of the cow protection.

Earlier, AIKS President Amra Ram had sat on a Dharna on 18th April demanding justice for the dairy farmer's family. Hundreds of peasants from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan attended the Dharna. The family members of Pehlu Khan and other victims as well as villagers from Nuh attended the Dharna.

The Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan demanded the following :

1. Rs.1 crore compensation for Pehlu Khan's family and job for a family member, arrest of perpetrators of the crime, Government purchase of unproductive cows at market rate and protection of right to cattle trade as well as right to choice of food.
2. The Vasundhara Raje Government of Rajasthan must provide Rs. One Crore as compensation to the bereaved family of Pehlu Khan and Rs.25 lakhs each to the other victims, taking the responsibility of the incident and to ensure civil and democratic rights and to give a strong message to the anti national elements which are trying to disrupt communal harmony.
3. The Manohar Lal Khattar government of Haryana must ensure Immediate and free medical treatment to all the victims.
4. The state Government must provide government job to one family member of Pehlu Khan.
5. Immediate arrest of all culprits and ensure stringent punishment.  Withdraw false cases against victims. 
6. A special investigation team under direct supervision of Supreme Court must be assigned to ensure impartial investigation to the crime and role of the police
7. A high level enquiry under the supervision of the Supreme Court to unearth the conspiracy of RSS to create communal unrest on the issue of cow slaughter.   
8. Ensure farmers right to cattle trade and reopen all cattle markets immediately which had been closed down by the concerned state governments. 
9. Make provisions in the cattle protection law to obligate state governments to purchase unproductive cattle providing market rate to farmers. 
10. Protect the crops from stray cattle’s by incorporating clauses in the law to obligate state Governments to preserve all stray cattle in shelters ensuring  sufficient fodder, water and veterinary care
11. The Union Ministry of Agriculture shall call a meeting of all the peasant and agriculture worker organizations to discuss protection of the rights of farmers on cattle wealth.

Krishna Prasad, Madhuresh Kumar, Shweta Tripathi, Sanjeev Kumar
For Bhumi Adhikaar Andolan
 
Related Articles:

1. What I learnt in Pehlu Khan’s village: Not Muslims, starvation is killing cows and bullocks

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