Tag: Farmers Protest Against Agri Bills

Are The Farm Laws Legal?

By Jasdev Singh Rai

Apart from the unconventional way the laws were rushed through Parliament, a hallmark of Modi regime, where every policy appears to be an ‘emergency’, there are serious concerns about the legitimacy of these laws in relation to international norms and treaties. Denial of access to independent justice, lack of independent evaluation of crop prices and failure to consult before enacting policy or law breach international treaties. The Indian government cannot really claim it is an internal matter of sovereignty.

A scrutiny of these laws in Parliament would have revealed that they are violating some substantial undertakings that the Indian State has committed to at the international level and that are part of UN treaties.

Foremost is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that India had joined as early as 1948 and is the mother of all human rights laws in the world now. Article 7 states that, ‘everyone is equal before the law and is entitled without discrimination to equal protection of the law’

In the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 2 guarantees every individual remedy by competent judiciary

Article 2

(1) Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as ….. property …. or other status.

(2) Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes:

(b) To ensure that any person claiming such a remedy shall have his right thereto determined by competent judicial, administrative or legislative authorities, or by any other competent authority provided for by the legal system of the State, and to develop the possibilities of judicial remedy.

The current Farm Laws deny access to independent justice and make a difference between farmers who have small farms as property and the rest of Indian citizens. In any contractual dispute, contesting parties can go to a competent independent court. However, farmers will have to take their contractual disputes with big corporations to a Government officer. When do Government officers become ‘independent’ of Government policy particularly in a country where there is a large trust deficit in government officers.

Farmers have been holding massive protests against Central Agriculture Laws 2020

The second obligation that India has signed up to at the UN is the setting up of a process of independent evaluation of farm produce. In 2018, after 17 years of deliberations and debates, the United Nations passed a Declaration on Rights of Peasants (UNDROP). The United Kingdom was one of the countries opposing it. But India voted in favour, signed it and accepted it.

The Declaration states that there is a need to give farmers a fair price in relation to inputs. This is appreciated by all major international institutions. In UNDROP

Article 11

(3) ‘States shall take appropriate measures to promote the access of peasants and other people working in rural areas to a fair, impartial and appropriate system of evaluation and certification of the quality of their products at the local, national and international levels, and to promote their participation in its formulation.’

A minimum price for crop is an essential basis of small scale farming. The normal rules of business cannot be applied to much of the world’s farming. Small farming is an occupation rather than a business. About 80% of the world’s farming is small farming, whether in Africa, China or USA.

WATCH: ‘Won’t Go Back Till Black Laws Are Withdrawn’

Modern farming has become very mechanised. It is not profitable at small scale. The costs of mechanised inputs, such as fuel, tractors, electricity can be considerably high. The demand for the crop may be low. The crop may also be substandard at times due to climate or other factors. Farming is not like manufacturing industry where one can adjust the quality of the final product depending on inputs and labour.

Large scale farming however can be a sustainable business with known inputs, some crop diversity and economies of scale. If all farming becomes large scale, nearly half a billion people will join the unemployment market in the world. In India this will be around 125 million.

Small farming is also good for the environment. Farmers tend to grow hedges around their farms, a few trees for shelter from the sun and rain and grow a diversity of crops catering to local market and a few lines for the national market.

Hence most governments prefer small farms. Realising that small farming is not sustainable if run on commercial terms, Governments subsidise farming. It is a form of social security. It provides food security, a diversity of produce and keeps one of the oldest occupations thriving.

International institutions such as United Nations, International Labour Organisation and World Bank also recognise this. The ILO states, ‘Fair Trade is a trading partnership based on dialogue, transparency and respect. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions, such as securing the rights of, marginalised producers and workers…

The 2018 United Nations Declaration on Rights of Peasants also ensures that there is independent pricing that is not left to the big corporates.

Article 11

(3) States shall take appropriate measures to promote the access of peasants and other people working in rural areas to a fair, impartial and appropriate system of evaluation and certification of the quality of their products at the local, national and international levels, and to promote their participation in its formulation.

India is a signatory to the above provision. It is breaching its commitment if it fails to provide this.

The UNDROP also promotes the idea of local markets, or Mandis as called in India.

Article 16

(2) States shall take appropriate measures to favour the access of peasants and other people working in rural areas to the means of transportation, and processing, drying and storage facilities necessary for selling their products on local, national and regional markets at prices that guarantee them a decent income and livelihood.

(3) States shall take appropriate measures to strengthen and support local, national and regional markets in ways that facilitate, and ensure that peasants and other people working in rural areas have, full and equitable access and participation in these markets to sell their products at prices that allow them and their families to attain an adequate standard of living.

Even if the Government agrees to introduce amendments to the laws, it is breaching another fundamental right under UNDROP that India has already signed up to. That is the duty to consult farmers before enacting policy and recognising food sovereignty.

Article 10

(1) Peasants and other people working in rural areas have the right to active and free participation, directly and/or through their representative organizations, in the preparation and implementation of policies, programmes and projects that may affect their lives, land and livelihoods

Article 15

(4) Peasants and other people working in rural areas have the right to determine their own food and agriculture systems, recognized by many States and regions as the right to food sovereignty. This includes the right to participate in decision-making processes on food and agriculture policy and the right to healthy and adequate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods that respect their cultures.

While the government may have bypassed the normal procedures of enacting law in India and obstructed any meaningful debate and while it may say that it has enacted the bills legally, the fact is they breach several international treaties and norms. When domestic law breaches international law, it gives scope to other countries to take up the issue. The principle of sovereignty and ‘internal affair’ as the British Foreign secretary used to skirt around the farm laws, does not actually hold.

ALSO READ: When The Farmer Fights Back

In giving power to international law and agreements, Article 253 of the Indian constitution states, ‘Parliament has power to make any law for the whole or any part of the territory of India for implementing any treaty, agreement or convention with any other country or countries or any decision made at any international conference, association or other body.’

Admittedly India’s commitment made at the UN is only enforceable if it introduces it in domestic law. However India should not be making laws that contravene these agreements. It may exercise sovereignty and take the position that the law is legitimate, The fact is the three farm laws breach international commitments and treaties and are against international conventions.  

The Protesters at Singhu Border

‘Our Songs Give Voice To The Defiance Of Farmers’

By LokMarg

Jagjit Kaur, popularly known as Nikki, an artiste from Sangrur, and her troupe have been belting out songs by revolutionary Punjabi poet like Paash to keep the protesters at Singhu border in high spirits

I am an artiste, a singer who believes that art challenges the status quo like nothing else can. I have been registering my voice, both literally and metaphorically, right from the beginning of the farmers protest at Singhu Border with our troupe.

Since November-end we have given more than 50 performances. The songs begin at daybreak and go well into the night. Most performances are impromptu, but almost always manage to bind the protesters together.

Our songs are mostly couplets written by revolutionary Punjabi poets like Sant Ram Udasi and Avtar Sandhu Paash, besides some contemporary writers like Raj Kakra and Gurpreet Doni. Inqilabi geet satta se sawal poochne me madad karte hain (These revolutionary lyrics defy and question those in power). These songs infuse a new life into the protesters when they see that their sentiments are being represented so powerfully to defy the government.

Jagjit Kaur draws inspiration from revolutionary Punjabi poets like Paash

German poet Bertolt Brecht, in his Svendborg Poems, described their motto thus:
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing.
About the dark times.

So, in these moments of hardships faced by our farmers, we have to sing about the dark times. For, art isn’t a solitary vocation, it takes from and gives back to society. It is the duty of an artiste to be active both in times of peace and unrest.

Singing impromptu in public often takes its toll on our vocal chords. Gaane gaa-gaa kar gala baith jaata hai, magar himmat badhti jaati hai (The recurring singings often leave us with sore throats, but our spirits do not dampen one bit).

ALSO READ: ‘Providing Food To Protesters Is Sacred Duty’

I have the full support of my family to be a part of these protests. My maternal uncle, brother and my partner are part of our troupe. We have had to sleep in trolleys. And after the number of protestors increased, proper space is scarce in this cold weather. But it’s okay. We don’t mind minor discomforts from the greater purpose of keeping the protesters spirited.

I have always been a part of protests related to socio-political issues, be it during the CAA-NRC demonstrations or other issues of social concerns. I have been an active member of Panjab University’s students’ organisation SFS (Students for Society).

The current government that didn’t even think it was worth their time to talk to Shaheen Bagh protestors but now they have now been forced to talk to the farmers. Punjab is an agrarian economy and if agriculture is ruined here, everything will be ruined. But we are hopeful that we will win and the Farm Bills will be taken back.

Jagjit Kaur (middle) with her troupe

More and more youngsters and artistes should speak up whenever injustice is meted out to the marginalised. We are all connected. We need to ensure that food is easily available to all, that the benefits of a robust agricultural system are ‘reaped’ by all. I am glad that all major Punjabi artistes and litterateur have lent their voice to the protests. I personally will be releasing a song related to the farmers’ protests soon.

I draw my inspiration from the famous lines of Paash poem, Sabse Khatarnaak Hota Hai Sapnon Ka Mar Jana. Looselytranslated it says:

The most dangerous occurrence is to be filled with dead silence
Not feeling any agony against the unjust and bearing it all
Trapped in the routine of home to work and from work to home
The most dangerous occurrence is the death of our dreams.

We aren’t going to be filled with dead silence on the matter of Farm Bills; we shall hold the truth even if the government doesn’t really know how to listen to the very people it claims to serve. Sapnon ko nahi marne denge hum…We won’t let our dream die down.

Jagjit Kaur and her troupe at Singhu border

‘This Govt Underestimated The Grit Of Sikh Farmers’

By LokMarg

Gauravdeep Singh, 24, founder of Initiators of Change, a Ludhiana-based NGO, is running medical service camps for protesting farmers at Singhu border with the help of his team and young volunteers

The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev Ji spent his last years (1521-1539) as a farmer on the banks of River Ravi (now known as the Kartarpur corridor), and therefore Sikhs revere farming as a service to humanity. Farming is the foundation on which all other services are built, which is why I thought it was important for me to come out and help the farming community in these trying times.

So I came here along with my team members at Singhu border to provide basic medical support to the farmers. We are a group of nearly 200 volunteers, divided in about 20 teams spread across both the Singhu and Tikri borders. The volunteers are drawn largely from the NGO I run, Initiators of Change as well as the Gurmat Gian Missionary College which was started by my family. We also have dedicated pharmacists and paramedics working with us.

Young volunteers and pharmacists work in shifts at Singhu and Tikri border protest sites

We have been here from day one of the protests. I believe if we can take care of their physical wellbeing by way of medical support, they will gather more strength to nurture the soul of this country. Tending to the wounds of the farmers who had faced batons, water cannons, rough handling etc was one of the first tasks we had to take up at Delhi borders. We have carried on since.

We provide basic medicines like pain killers, antacids, throat lozenges, pain relief gels, warm bandages etc. In addition, we keep supplies of facemasks, hand sanitizers, sanitary pads with us to encourage hygiene among protesters.

My day starts at 6 am. We visit each trolley in a zone to distribute blankets. There is breakfast at 9 am and thence to the medical camps. Along with medicines we also provide daily-use items like toiletries, books etc. The teams work in shifts, so everyone, including me, gets sufficient rest. The entire supplies, so far, have been managed from our own pockets.

The medical camps provide basic medicines as well as daily-use items

Hum Sikhs kisi se nahi darte, hum sar ko hath pe rakhte hain, humein sirf sacchai pyari hai (A Sikh is not afraid of anything. We hold truth higher than life). The government perhaps underestimated the power of the common man. They removed Shaheen Bagh protesters in the name of coronavirus, but they have to answer the farmer now.

I find the demands of farmers completely valid, which is why I am giving my whole-hearted support to this protest. I was given the National Youth Award in 2017 for creating voting awareness among the youth of Punjab. I decided to return my award for the voters’ will was not given due respect by this government.

ALSO READ: ‘Providing Food To Farmers Is Sacred Duty’

India is majorly an agrarian economy, so shouldn’t farmers be included in the policy making? Should they be conveniently ignored and side-lined as has been done by the Union government? A government is answerable to the public.

One cannot expect the corporates to behave on the basis of goodwill, for they operate on the basis of profitability. Ye jo langar system hai na jisne poori insaniyat ko sath bandh rakha hai, ke duniya me jahan bhi koi bhookha hoga, aur koi Gurudwara hoga, wahan khana zaroor milega, wo bhi khatm ho jayega agar ye farm bills pass ho gaye toh. (These farm laws are anti-thesis of our langar service, which binds humanity by feeding one and all). We can provide medicines to the body, but the government must step forward to heal the wounds that are festering in the hearts of farmers.

Singh (middle) with fellow members of Initiators Of Change

When The Farmer Fights Back

By Amit Sengupta

Iconic moments captured on camera often express a historical event which shakes the conscience of the civil society for all times to come. Captured in a fleeting flash, they remain etched in public memory: the Afghan girl, Sharbat Gula, then nameless, shot by Steve McCurry in June 1985 in a Pakistani refugee camp, celebrated on the cover of National Geographic; one thin man standing in defiance against a row of tanks at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, June 1989; earlier than that, naked children running from a napalm bomb during the Vietnam war; and Che Guevara’s dead body somewhere in a jungle in Bolivia, shot dead by CIA mercenaries.

In contemporary India, as thousands of farmers wait steadfastly at the Delhi-Haryana-UP borders, deciding their next move, some images have already captured the imagination: A dignified old Sikh farmer, totally non-violent, with flowing white beard, in a white kurta -pyjama and jacket, being threatened by a young, wiry cop, belligerent, aggressive and remorseless, his fingers clenched around a rod, his body tensed up with machismo and power.

There are other iconic images too of the struggle:  a young protester jumping from a trolley to a police water cannon vehicle, switching off the tap showering dirty water on a cold day on farmers, and jumping back. (He and his father have reportedly been charged now for murder)

Many endearing moments have arrived yet again: women and men cooking in community kitchens on the highway; women driving a convoy of tractors in protest; and farmers giving food and water to grateful cops.

The last image would have been appreciated by the likes of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. This is because the cops, many of them children of hardworking farmers from humble rural backgrounds, had earlier gone all out against the peaceful protesters. They had drenched them with water, in this cold, teargassed them, threatened them with lathis, dug medieval war-like trenches, brought in iron barricades, sand and mud trucks, huge cement slabs, sand bag walls, ship containers, barbed wires, and an endless row of cops in full gear, ready to charge.

REFERENCE POINT: Making Sense Of Central Farm Laws

The farmers have been protesting in Punjab and Haryana since September. November 26 was a national protest day organized jointly by farmer organisations and trade unions against the labour laws being unilaterally enacted by the Centre despite the economic collapse and mass unemployment of millions in the organized and informal sector. These might include draconian provisions like hire and fire, 12 hours work, mass sackings, major changes in pro-worker acts like the Inter-state Migrant Workers Act, Contract Workers Act, the Factories Act, the Industrial Disputes Act, etc, and changes in wages, safety and compensation, while contractors will be calling the shots with no regulations. These trade unions are also opposing unbridled privatisation of the public sector, including banks, railways and airports, whereby certain favoured industrialists of the ruling regime in Delhi are being brazenly backed.

Significantly, there are more than 250 farmers’ organization in the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, and they actually joined hands with the workers on November 26 all over the country, including in West Bengal and South India. The farmers march to Delhi from Punjab and Haryana, and also other Hindi heartland states like Uttarakhand, UP and Rajasthan, however, became the epicenter of this mass uprising, and it is not going to die down so soon.

Police used water cannons on protesting farmers

The question is, why the government is so adamant after pushing the three farm bills in Parliament without consensus? Why is it refusing to make the MSP a law? And why is it so rigidly refusing to budge, to negotiate with flexibility, using strong-arm tactics? What is that unsurmountable, one-dimensional pressure on the Narendra Modi regime that it is ready to alienate farmers, while choosing to block, barricade and brutalise them?

“The BJP government is toeing the line of corporate cronies,” said Vijoo Krishnan, speaking to Lokmarg. He is a top leader of the Left-led All India Kisan Sabha, which led the massive long march of farmers to Mumbai. “The intention of this government is total corporatization of Indian agriculture. But the resistance is unprecedented. Except for the BJP and RSS unions, all other workers and farmers’ unions have joined this resistance. Even state governments like Punjab and Rajasthan are exercising their federal rights in support of the farmers. Kerala has declared MSP for 16 agricultural products, and has protected the farmers during and after the lockdown. Besides, it is providing food to 90 lakh people, including ‘guest workers’ (migrant workers).”

Farmer leader J Hooda from Shamli, Western UP, speaking to Lokmarg at the UP-Delhi barricades, said: “The farmers have always known their sinister motives – to sell our land and agriculture to corporates. Modi is doing precisely that to favour his favourite industrialists. Now the farmers are not going to relent. Drop the farm bills. Make a new law on MSP.”

Hooda says the farmer makes huge losses in the open market, because it is based on market whims, unscrupulous private players and demand and supply ratio. Often, distress sale becomes a norm. Without government support in states, or a central MSP, farmers will be doomed. “They want to abolish local mandis. So where will we go to sell our produce – can we compete in the international market with massive, mechanized farming and huge multinational farmer lobbies? Why are they pushing us into the hands of unethical corporates who are now trying to capture Indian agriculture through the backdoor backed by the BJP regime?”

Indeed, while Punjab and Haryana (with UP and MP) are the biggest producers of rice and wheat, there are 23 crops, including cereals, pulses, commercial crops, on the list. India is 80 per cent agriculture – the food chain begins at the land of the tiller and ends long distances in metros and small towns. In this complex and long chain, thousands of people are involved: farmers, entire families, landless farmers and sharecroppers, small and middle farmers, local services and ancillary networks, small markets, shopkeepers, loaders, truckers, workers, mandis, mills and factories, small scale and big industries, and others. It’s corporate and government propaganda that only 6 per cent of rich farmers are benefitting from MSP. What about the millions integrated to the entire process till the food reaches your table? ask farmers.

Argues Vijoo Krishnan: “MSP ensures at least that much for farmers if public procurement is there. In states where there is no effective public procurement, farmers get paid even below the MSP. For instance, while the MSP of paddy is around Rs 1860 per quintal in Bihar, Odisha etc, farmers are forced to sell at Rs 1000-1200 per quintal.”

ALSO READ: ‘MSP Must Be Fixed For All Crops’

Farmers are also arguing that even the MSP, based on state averages, is arbitrary. Kerala pays many times more per quintal for paddy, and the crop produce costs vary from state to state. But the government refuses to usher in serious policy changes for large scale benefits to the vast rural sector, even while pampering and subsidising big industrialists and waiving off their debts etc, while facilitating lucrative contracts for them, like the privatisation of airports and railways, or the Rafael deal.

Farmer are angry that the government is shy on implementing the comprehensive Swaminathan Commission recommendations, including the guarantee of 50 per cent more than the stated MSP, among other reforms, like compensating for land, labour, seed, pesticides, fertilisers, diesel, electricity, water, tractors, machines, and other things needed for agriculture. They are asking why the government has not returned the GST to them on all the additional things they have used for agriculture.

Indian economy is in crisis because crony capitalism by profit sharks have ravaged it with no signs of recovery during the pandemic. Now they are greedily eyeing the post-independence public sector and agriculture. If the farmers are driven to the edge, for the benefit of favoured industrialists and powerful MNCs, then there is no option left for them but to fight back. That is why, as of now, it is a do or die struggle for the thousands of defiant and non-violent farmers, now steadfast at the borders of the capital of India.

Central Agriculture Laws

Watch – ‘MSP Must Be Fixed For All Crops, Not Just Paddy, Wheat’

By LokMarg

LokMarg speaks to Gurvinder Singh Koom Kalan, state secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) to know about the impact of Punjab Assembly legislations to nullify Central Agriculture laws. Singh says while it was an unprecedented move when these state bills were passed by near-unanimous voting in the legislative assembly, there are several shortcomings in them.

Foremost, the farmers were demanding MSPs to be ensured for all crops, be it mustard, lentils or cotton, and the state government has only included wheat and paddy crops in their laws. For these and other reasons, Singh says farmers will continue their protest against “black laws” to adversely affect farmers.

Watch his interview here:

The Newly Enacted Agriculture Bills

Explained – Farm Bills And Farmers Protests

By LokMarg

Farmers across the country are protesting against the newly enacted Agriculture Bills. The Centre calls these laws key to reforms in the agriculture sector to benefit farmers, the protests continue to spread. There is fear among farmers that these laws will make them dependent on corporate houses mercy.

To understand the contentious provisions under the new law and the previous farm produce procurement system, LokMarg speaks to Dr Darshanpal Singh, a noted agriculturist and farmer leader from Punjab.

Dr Singh explains how farmers will be affected by the new laws and their grievances, as well the measures needed to support the farmer. Watch this interview here:

A Farmer and Social Activist from Patiala

‘New Agri Laws Will Turn Farmers Into Beggars’

By LokMarg

Angrez Singh, 56, a farmer and social activist from Patiala, Punjab, explains why he is protesting against the recently-passed Agricultural Bills

Ye Sarkar anndata ko bhikhari bana degi (This (Narendra Modi) government is bent on turning the farmer into a beggar). We can see it coming. First, this government made changes in the labour laws to suit large industrial houses; next it began to bypass environmental concerns for the benefits of mining magnates; and now come the Agriculture Bills. Can’t you see who the real beneficiaries are going to be?

Large corporate players coming in to invest in farming sector means only big farmers with resources and capacity to bargain with these business houses will benefit. Surely, albeit slowly, this will lead to one company having monopoly in due course of time. The same way as it happened in the telecom sector. And it will only be a matter of time when small farmers will be transported to the days of bandhua majdoori (bonded labour).

I feel the mandis were doing good work and acted as a safety net for small farmers across the country. There was a guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) as well as grievance redressal system in place. If all this goes, the farmers will completely be at the mercy of corporates. I am not saying the systems by the previous governments were perfect, but this change in the name of reforms is sure not going to work. You can’t put a whole system down right to the expectation of goodwill and fair play on part of corporates. We need to have checks and balances in place to safeguard the interest of small farmers.

WATCH: ‘Guarantee That No Farm Produce Will Sell Below MSP’

The new provisions were put in place as abruptly as the demonetisation decision was imposed on innocent people. There was no debate, no effort to build consensus and no pilot projects to see whether a plan, law, reform is actually efficient or not. I wonder if we are regressing to pre-Independence times of bulldozer laws because Agriculture Bills seem like a step in that direction.

I am happy that farmers’ groups and organisations across the country are united on the issue. Many a migrant labourers used to work in the farms of Punjab and because of the pandemic most of them had returned to their homes in other states. Today, we are short of farm hands. Producing food is no child’s play; it takes a lot of blood and sweat. While the farming sector can sure do with being better organized, I don’t think turning agriculture into business is a good idea. Ultimately it is the poorest of the poor who will suffer while the rich will get richer.

Agrez Singh with a family member at his native farm in Patiala, Punjab

Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s resignation from the Union Cabinet and the party’s withdrawal of support from the NDA are too little, too late. Akali leaders should have taken strict measures in June when these bills had been brought in as ordinances. This is only a last-minute effort to save face.

India used to face foodgrain crisis for many years after Independence, until the Green Revolution happened. Haryana and Punjab literally proved themselves as the food bowl of the country; other parts of the country picked up afterwards. Many farmers in Punjab and Haryana had come after Partition and had built their lives from scratch.

India is primarily an agricultural country and we consider the earth as our mother. People are emotionally attached to the land and its produce. We believe in sharing food and are efforts are not solely focussed on profits. The government should consider the emotional cost of these Farm Bills as well.

In the short run, only the farmer community might suffer, but slowly the stress will spread to larger sections of society as prices of foodgrains, vegetables and other farm produce shoot up. We hope social media as well as mainstream media understands the importance of these issues and encourages people to think deeply and convey their concerns to the government and I hope the government listens.

Upsurge 2.0: Farmers Take To The Streets

By Amit Sengupta

On Friday, as the sun set in large parts of India, the day-long farmers’ protests and Bharat Bandh passed off peacefully with no police violence, lathi-charge or teargas reported, no mass arrests or detentions, and no forcible eviction of farmers, many of whom had blocked highways and roads, and railway tracks and trains, albeit peacefully, and in a collective, resolute show of non-violence. Even while the so-called Godi media chose to ignore it, social media was replete with images and commentaries of the mass protests all over the country; significantly in the South, in cities like Hyderabad and Bangalore, where thousands thronged the streets in militant non-violent protests against three agriculture-related bills.

The Centre in the recently-concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament passed three bills rather arbitrarily: the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and; he Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

Farmers believe these bills will have long-lasting and negative effects on farming as they will give a free run to big industrialists, global sharks, cartels and multinationals. Powerful hoarders will have a field day, the minimum support price of farm produce will be manipulated pushing the farmers to abject starvation, debt and total dependence, and all kinds of dubious and sleazy market forces will be allowed to capture Indian agriculture.

The belligerent BJP-led central government, who chose to care little for dialogue or consensus in pushing the three bills, and which was so sure of its absolute and one-dimensional power, now not only finds itself on a sticky wicket – it is clearly on the back foot.

WATCH: ‘Farmers Will Become Bonded Labours Of The Rich’

Indeed, the street has once again become a metaphor for non-violent protests, for the first time since the lockdown, which was preceded by massive peaceful protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and Citizen Registry (NRC) that rocked the nation with demonstrations and prolonged sit-ins across small towns and big cities for more than three months during winter last year and thereafter. Surely, after the massive Shaheen Bagh protests, which were replicated across the nation, and with the farmers coming on the streets physically, breaking all forms of collective phobia or the fear of a Police State, the use of the pandemic to crush democratic dissent can no more be used. The tide is rising again, this time with farmers in the lead.

On the first day of protests, the farmers’ life began earlier than most people in India, much before sunrise. There was fear that there could be a crackdown, especially in the states ruled by the BJP. Even now, there have been apprehensions that the central government, which has been rather uncompromising, might actually choose to crack down using the pandemic as an excuse, as it has done with peaceful dissenters against the CAA, which the protesters have condemned as discriminatory, communal and against the basic tenets of the secular Indian Constitution.

By morning most of Punjab was up in arms. Indeed, what found sharp resonance in Parliament earlier, especially in the Rajya Sabha, where the three bills were pushed by a voice vote in the din (with Rajya Sabha TV volume muted) and a division of vote was not allowed, and which the Opposition called as the murder of democracy, became resonant yet again on the streets all over India. Trains and highways were blocked but without any untoward incident.

At the Haryana-Punjab border, tractors blocked the roads even as ambulances and locals were allowed to move, and youngsters in thousands assembled in solidarity with the farmers. Punjab being the epicenter, the strong protests were spread across the state, with the farmers refusing to budge till the three bills are taken back, lock, stock and barrel, and the minimum support prices for farm produce legalized.

At the massive Nabha protests, again on railway tracks, men and women marched from long distances, to join in solidarity. A woman told BBC News (Hindi), “Narendra Modi tells his Mann ki Baat. So what about our Mann ki Baat? Another woman said, “The movement will be sharpened if the bills are not withdrawn. They are liars.”

The upsurge spread across the country, with thousands of rallies and dharnas. Farmers, workers, locals, trade unions, civil society organisations and students came out in hundreds of rallies in small towns and cities, in every state, holding red, green and other flags, marching in a disciplined and peaceful manner. ‘Standwithfarmers’ kept trending on social media. In Kolkata, the students of Jadavpur University marched through the streets singing songs in support of the farmers. There was overwhelming support for the agitation all over Bengal with the Left, the Congress and the ruling Trinamool Congress coming out in support.

The CPI-ML (Liberation), which is strong among the poor peasantry in Bihar, led protests across the state, led by its general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya. The CPI (M) organized rallies in several parts of the country even as its national protests have been continuing since the last few weeks demanding the scrapping of the bills, Rs 7,500 in every bank account of jobless workers, food for the poor from the public distribution system, an end to the selling of public sector assets like the railways and airports, and the release of students, intellectuals, activists and peaceful protestors from prisons.

Surprisingly, the CPI (M) organized massive and militant protests in Tripura, especially in Agartala, whereby thousands of people came out and broke the physical barricades enacted by the police at several points. People trickled in streams across locations, very angry and vociferous, though the clashes with the cops were never violent with the police giving way to the surging crowds.

ALSO READ: Can BJP Take On Punjab Farmers?

Several highways were blocked, including the important Bombay-Ahmedabad highway, where hundreds of women of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), blocked traffic. Ashok Dhawale, president of the CPI(M)-led All India Kisan Sabha, came to the site to give a solidarity speech. Dhawale, indeed, was the leader of the massive march of lakhs of farmers to Mumbai earlier from the remotest interiors of Maharashtra, including Adivasi areas, when the BJP government was ruling in Mumbai.

That long march of kisans with a sea of red banners struck a chord across the nation with round-the-clock coverage, including on social and international media, with the people of Mumbai coming out in total support. Indeed, the farmers deliberately chose the route and timing in such a manner so as to not to disturb the school students in their exams, or the locals in their daily affairs. Doctors, students, housewives had rushed in then with food, medicine and even chappals. Mumbaikars showered flowers on the annadaatas from their balconies and doors when they marched through the lanes. AIKS said 50,000 farmers protested across Maharashtra on Friday.

Over two dozen farmers’ organizations backed by scores of political parties have joined the protests. The Bharat Bandh was coordinated by the All India Farmers Union (AIFU), Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), All India Kisan Mahasangh (AIKM), among others, with the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) leading the protests. Ten central trade unions, all Left students’ organizations, joined the strike. Farmers’ bodies from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra called for a shutdown. The RSS-affiliated organizations like the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh and Swadeshi Jagran Manch did not take part.

Clearly, these mass protests are now likely to resurrect a new wave of peaceful resistance in civil society and by the Opposition parties, especially against the daily hounding and arrests of students, professors, intellectuals, journalists and dissenters, particularly from the Muslim community, on fabricated and flimsy charges.

Watch – ‘Farmers Will Become Bonded Labour Of Rich’

By LokMarg

There is widespread anguish among the country’s farmers with regards to the new Agriculture Bills passed by Parliament in the recently concluded Monsoon Session. Various political and apolitical farmer organisations have come out on streets in opposition to the proposed laws that seek to bring in private buyers for farm produce.

As there were few debates in Parliament on the issue, the jury is still out whether these reforms will help increase farmers’ incomes or add to their misery. LokMarg meets the protesting farmers in Uttar Pradesh to know their view and found their demands:

1) The Centre must ensure that minimum support price bar is maintained for the buyers while purchasing farm produce, be it in mandis or to a corporate house.

2) Allay farmers’ apprehensions that their land will not be grabbed in the name of contract farming.

3) The support price must be revised frequently in accordance with the rise in inflation rate.

Watch the video: