March 13, 2021

Day 108

Toll 288

#FarmersProtest

No Vote To BJP

Even since the Samyukt Kisan Morcha declared it will go to Bengal and other election bound states to campaign against BJP, there are questions on this stand. The speculation is at two levels:

a) When SKM says it is non-political, why is it entering election campaigns?

b) Especially in Bengal, is this anti-BJP stance a pro-Trinamool Congress or pro-CPIM-Congress stance?

I would like to share my own experience when covering assembly elections Panjab, 2017. At that time the Congress stood against the incumbent Shiromani Akali Dal – Bhartiya Janata Party government and Aam Aadmi Party had joined the fray. While most gatherings by these parties during the campaigns were in hundreds or sometimes thousands, the largest gathering was by farmer and workers unions on January 31, 2017 at Power House Road, Bathinda. It had easily 8,000 to 10,000 people.

That rally was organised largely by Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan and Panjab Khet Mazdoor Union. Of course, Buta Singh Burj Gill, Dr Darshan Pal and other leaders from other unions attended and addressed the people. The theme of the rally was ‘Samaj Badlo – Raj Badlo’. That is the essential stance of farmer and worker unions – Change the Society, Change the Governance.

Question 1: Is SKM truly non-political?

As far as electoral politics goes, it is largely non-political as in most of its members do not contest elections. Though there are exceptions – Yogender Yadav has a political party Swaraj India; Hannan Mollah, from CPI-M has been an eight-term MP; Balbir Singh Rajewal has been part of government committees; Rakesh Tikait contested elections with Congress support, not ticket and from RLD in 2014.

To understand SKM’s non-political nature we need to understand why they project this image. They are non-political in terms of party politics but they are citizens and not apolitical. In fact, they have a deeper politics that the current electoral democratic system is not able to accommodate.

This understanding is from their long, decades long, experience of the hypocrisy of political parties, of their betrayal before and after elections when they come to power. SKM also understands that it is part of the nature of politics in a neo-liberal economy and society that pushes political parties to change stance before and after elections. Before elections they can talk about all that the economy is not delivering, after elections they face pressures by lobbies and forget people’s interests. Case in point, current Panjab. Congress has been in power for 4 years but nothing much seems to have changed from when SAD-BJP was in power earlier for 10 years.

That is why the stance – Change the Society, Change the Governance.

Question 2: Who will this No Vote For BJP stance help?

The answer lies with the people. Ours is still a democracy, though very fraught and now increasingly fragile. In a democracy, people decide who should form governments. Pressure groups work to influence people but SKM is an advocacy group. In Panjab, 2017 they did not support SAD-BJP, Congress or AAP. Instead, they said, ‘Whoever you vote, in a few months you will come back here to protests on some issue or the other. We will be in solidarity.’

They are doing the same in Bengal and other states but with one change: educate common people on the issues if BJP is voted to power. This is in keeping with their stance against the current BJP government in the centre against whose farm laws they have been protesting for over 100 days in Delhi and more than six months in Panjab.

It is wrong to assign the responsibility of election results to SKM or to speculate if they have a secret agenda to benefit any one party – TMC or Left-Congress. They don’t. They have a deeper sense of the flaws of the system and will not let their platform be compromised by any political party they support which will later betray.

They are doing exactly what they are saying – highlight the issues with this government. If another government had passed similar laws, they would have highlighted issues with that government. They know the issues with elections in neo-liberal systems and overall seek to change the system itself, not one party or another.

—

I talk about the Bathinda rally briefly on page 519, ‘Panjab – Journeys Through Fault Lines’:
On 31 January 2017, I reached the biggest rally of the elections at Bathinda. It was a rally of small farmers and landless labourers. The non-political people or non-party people, the farmer and labour unions, had called the rally and decided not to tell anyone to vote for any party. They left the decision to the people. Their slogan was: votan wele Bapu kehnde, mudke saadi saar na lende (you plead with us for votes, later you don’t even turn to look at us).

This was the response of the poorest and the weakest to the charade of electoral politics.

March 12, 2021

Day 107

Toll 288

#FarmersProtest

March Program

- Ongoing, Samyukt Kisan Morcha leaders are in Bengal to participate in ‘No Vote to BJP’ campaign. Kisan Yatras are being taken out in Bihar from March 11 to 15, to conclude on March 18 on the Kisan Kranti Diwas in the Vidhan Sabha March in Patna. Mahapanchayats have started in Eastern UP.

- March 12, SKM leaders to reach poll-bound states to campaign against BJP.

- March 15, Anti-Corporate Day and the Anti-Government Day. Protests will be held with trade unions at Railway stations against fuel hike and against privatisation.

- March 17, a joint convention will be organised with trade unions and other mass organisations for planning the Bharat Bandh on 26th March.

- March 19, the day of Muzara Lehar will be celebrated and protests will be held in mandis across the country under the FCI and Kheti Bachao program.

- March 23, martyrdom day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, at farmers’ protests in Delhi borders.

- March 26, on completion of 4 months of this movement, a complete Bharat bandh will be observed.

- March 28, Anti-Farmer Laws will be burnt in Holi Dahan across the country.

The farmers movement has been strong in all seasons. The movement, which started the last summer in Punjab, has kept itself alive in severe winter. There was huge rain at the Tikri border March 9. Although the government has not provided facilities to the protesters, the farmers have made full arrangements to deal with this crisis as well.

- adapted from SKM press release March 10.

March 11, 2021

Day 106

Toll 286

#FarmersProtest

MSP and Fuel Price

Realistically, what is the cost of guaranteeing Minimum Support Price and does the government have funds for it?

Indian Express reports, Jan 30, 2021 that all said and done, the cost of guaranteeing MSP to farmers, may not be more than Rs 1-1.5 lakh crore per year. The chart shows that the MSP value of the total production of the 23 crops worked out to around Rs 10.78 lakh crore in 2019-20.

Not all this produce, however, is marketed. Farmers retain part of it for self-consumption, seed for the next season’s sowing and also for feeding their animals.

Hindustan Times reports, March 8, 2021, citing Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s reply in Parliament, tax collected on the petrol and diesel was Rs 2.13 lakh crore in 2019-20 and swelled further to Rs 2.94 lakh crore in the first 11 months of current fiscal year. See story in comments.

There is your answer. The government already earns more than twice it will need to spend if MSP is legalised. Ask yourself, what is stopping the government from legalising MSP?

To me it is loot, greed, pure bias against agrarian India which until now was divided over caste and religion and is now coming together through the farmers protest.

March 07, 2021

Day 102

Toll 274

#FarmersProtest

Summer

In the last few days I have seen a sentiment on social media and by interviewers of farmer leaders: scorching summer is coming, will farmers stay or will they go back to their villages? Yesterday, some media was reporting numbers of farmers at protest sites have come down but qualified it by reporting that the KMP highway blockade was hugely successful, maintained all decorum.

What does media expect? That farmers keep up a full attendance when they themselves do nothing to push the government to even negotiate with famers – now off for more than 40 days. This entitlement of urban India! This belief the petitioner should be at their beck and call!

Notice, these are the same farmers who collected in thousands in the middle of a foggy winter night in January when Tikait called. If need be, they will collect again. They are anyway collecting in lakhs in the Mahapanchayats. They are fanning out to election-bound states.

This media never questioned why is the Election Commission conducting these farcical elections when the government itself does not conduct the Parliament – winter session was cancelled under the alibi of Coronavirus but we all know the government had its tail between its legs.

Anyway, going back to the question media poses farmer leaders. Tikait answered it the best: go away where? Are the villages with electricity cuts any cooler? Please know that we need the blazing sun to ripen the wheat, we need the temperature to rise so snow can melt and water can flow in our rivers. That is what gets you food and water. Farmers are re-modelling their dwellings on the roads – bringing in straw huts, making walls from nets, fans and water coolers are reaching. The media never asked why has the government not provided toilets.

The irony is that this media is from the same urban cohort that loves their early April rains. That puts up messages – relief from summer sun, so refreshing it rained. They do not realise, those rains severely damage the wheat ready to be harvested. The grains fall off, the bare stalks are no use.

Indeed this is a brutal summer. The effects are showing. A friend from Shimla, who manages apple orchards, tells me it has already gotten too hot in early March. The blooming is premature. It affects the fruit. Also, it’s not snowed enough, that will affect the moisture content through the season. A few hours later: it is thundering outside. We fear a hailstorm. The prematurely bloomed flowers will die.

Friends from Panjab say, we have watered the wheat fields but it has suddenly turned hot and windy. The stalks will be flattened, the grain will shrivel. Then there is the whole question of whether the government will procure the wheat at all this year? As is the character of the current government, it could be vengeful to farmers. In any case, Ragi is coming up for sale in Karnataka. The going rate is Rs 1000 per quintal less than MSP.

This is what the farmers are protesting against: the age old vulnerability of the farmers to natural and man made causes versus the relative stability of the bahi khatha, the corporates. They seek parity, they seek justice.

I add to Tikait’s retort: instead of verbal sympathy for farmers in the summer months, do whatever you can to push the government to re-open talks with farmers. Everything else, is just superficial. It burns worse than the sun.

—

Aslah Kayyalakkath was kind to use the post for his website Maktoob.

Please see here …

March 4, 2021

Tomorrow is Day 100 of the #FarmerProtests.

While on ground, the protests have many positives, they have rallied rural, agrarian India; they have been a bulwark to the Hindutva propaganda machinery; I continue to wonder about urban India’s engagement with them.

Please do not assume I am making silos or I am not aware of the role urban India has played in the last three plus months. Yet, I am deeply disappointed by how little that effort has been and I do not want to hide it.

Think about this: it took Europe 400 years to usher in the Industrial Revolution – from the Black Death (bubonic plague) 1347 to 1351 to say when East India Company arrived in India to steal our resources to feed its industry, Battle of Plassey, 23 June 1757.

In India, the Industrial Revolution lasted a mere 40 years from after Independence when Nehru set up big industry in the 1950s to Manmohan Singh opening up the Indian economy early 1990s. After that we moved to IT/ITES services.

Not that any such revolution ends before the next starts. The fact that more than 50 per cent India is still agrarian, is evidence that there are no fixed dates for revolutions to start and end. Yet, by and large this is the timeline.

That is why I wonder how distant we urban folks have grown from our rural roots in a merely two score years – one or two generations. Think about it. It is about each of us. Our roots – our responses.

Alt News went into greater detail on the events on Red Fort January 26th to learn more about Nishan Sahib and Khalistan Flag. Here is Jigneesh Patel’s article that quotes me.

Please read here …

Day 88

Toll 250

Missing 16

Arrested 143 – 23 got bail yesterday, earlier bails too, many still in prison.

#FarmersProtest

International Language Day

For a long time now, the Panjabi language is in crises. Each year on this day language activists talk about the actions we must take to keep the language alive, help it grow. These actions are to include Panjabi in schools – many schools in Panjab, especially convent ones encourage Hindi over Panjabi – better writing and translations for children and adult readers, encouraging women to learn the language and keep the tradition of mother tongue, and so on.

The crises in Panjabi is not unlike other non-English languages in this increasingly globalised world or non-state promoted languages such as Hindi which for some reason many assume to be India’s national language when the Constitution states all languages in India are of equal status.

However, there are also reasons why Panjabi suffers in particular: it goes back to Partition of 1947 when speakers of the same language were divided, like in Bengal; to the reasons why Panjabi Suba movement (1956-66) took place when the National Commission of Languages did not accept the 900-year old Panjabi language as an independent language and in East Panjab the Hindu and the Sikh communities, instigated by the Hind Samachar group of newspapers, divided themselves over language which led to another tri-furcation of East Panjab into Haryana, parts of Himachal Pradesh and drastically reduced the Panjab region.

However, I believe the ongoing farmers protests this year presents a few language related facts which must be highlighted. It also poses questions to the government.

1. The brilliant bridging of the gap between Haryana and Panjab which had separated over language issues.

2. Initially in the protests, almost every communication, verbal or written, was in Panjabi. As the protests grew, this created an environment where non-Panjabis sought to know or even learn some Panjabi. Best exemplified by the twitter spat between Diljit Dosanjh and Kangana Ranaut.

3. So much new Panjabi protest music came out of the protests. At one count around 500 songs in three months that took Panjabi in very native but unfamiliar ways into the world. I say native because resistance is part of Panjab’s DNA. Unfamiliar because this music threw off the tropes of music popular until recently.

Personally, I believe, any language can thrive when it is associated with markets, when it helps people make a living. Else, people move to other languages which they believe will help them earn a living. The neglect and apathy towards Panjabi language in Panjab itself is mostly because it is difficult to make a living in Panjabi language alone which points to the economy of the state.

Here we need to notice that Panjabi is not the language of India Panjab alone, of around 3 crore people. It is actually the language of over 10 crore people, including Panjabi speakers in Pakistan Panjab, and the very vibrant Diaspora from both East and West Panjab. Panjabi is the 10th largest language in the world. Nation states with far fewer language speakers are able to help their languages thrive. Why should then Panjabi languish?

This is where Farm laws come in. Right from the beginning, the government has been saying ‘farmers are now free to sell their produce anywhere’. If that be the case, are farmers allowed to sell across the border? To Pakistan, to Afghanistan, to Iran and Balkans and East Europe? That is what will help create a market. This will truly benefit Panjabi language and its speakers. Panjab’s rice travels 3,000 kms to Kerala but can’t travel a few kilometers neighbouring countries! Just because a foreign lawyer drew a line and the current government is well served by stoking fires with the neighbours?

Sad to say, we know what the government intends. Today, is the 100th anniversary of the historic Nankana Sahib Massacre that took place in 1921 as part of the Akali led Gurdwara Movement. A movement, which when it succeeded through non-violent means and after hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries, Gandhi christened as the ‘first fight of India’s freedom’. Yet, the government has not allowed groups from Panjab to travel to Nanakana Sahib in Pakistan to pay respect and homage. The government has still not re-opened the Kartarpur Sahib corridor.

This is how the nation state curtails its own people, hampers the growth of the language of its people. This is why the farmers protest – for rights to farm land and produce, for rights to language and culture, for rights to life itself.

Day 84

Toll 236

Missing 16

Jailed 132 (including veterans. Some out on bail. Lawyers pursuing other cases)

#FarmersProtest

Disha – Direction

Now that quite justifiably urban middle class is outraged over Disha Ravi’s improper arrest from Bangalore by a special police force from Delhi, where are we on the original farmers protest?

Note the chronology. In that note how each event was a further distraction from the issue of Farm Laws. Timeline:

- 22nd January: 11th round of farmers talks with government fail. Farmers reject the government’s proposal to postpone implementation of Farm Laws by 18 months. Insist on repeal.

- 23rd January: Samyukt Kisan Morcha, in consultation with Delhi police, uni-laterally decides to change route for Tractor March.

- 25th January: Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee announces it will march on original announced route – on Delhi’s Ring Road.

- 26th January: chaos, Nishan Sahib on Red Fort, major false allegations of Khalistan Flag hoisted. Tricolour untouched, no desecration of historical premises, even in FIRs lodged by police 17 hours after incident.

- 27th January: 31 January: SMK on backfoot, major blame game on, debate on whether Navreet was shot or not, sedition charges on journalists, cases on farmer union leaders. Hundreds arrested comes to light. Singhu protest site wobbly.

- 28th January: Rakesh Tikait holds forth in Ghazipur. Thousands of farmers from Haryana and UP respond to his late-night call, reach Delhi. Sikhs saved from another 1984.

- 29th January: Goons attack KMSC stage, 40-50 injured. Cracks between SKM and KMSC apparent. Hundreds still missing.

- 1st February: Police barricades Singhu, Tikri, Ghazipur. Internet intermittent on sites. Electricity and water cut. Food shortages.

- 2nd February: Rihanna, Greta, Meena, other celebrities and activists tweet. Indian film stars and sportspeople respond though boiler plate tweets. MEA issues notice, calls world outrage an ‘internal matter’ for India.

- 3rd-8th February: Farce debate in Parliament. Laws are already passed. PM labels protesters, government declares it is firm on Laws. Nodeep issue rises. Meanwhile Greta tweets ‘toolkit’ – a high school level template for action that government calls seditious, files an FIR. ‘Chakka Jam’ call by unions hugely successful at 3000 places around country.

- 9th February: Deep Sidhu arrested as ‘main instigator’ behind Red Fort flag fracas. Reward for Lakha Sidhana.

- 12 February: Rajasthan Toll Tax boycott successful, ongoing.

- 13 February night: Disha Ravi picked up over tool-kit.

- 14 February: Major middle-class outrage. Candle Light March in honour of Pulwama martyrs meets tepid response in cities.

- 30th January – ongoing: Protests sites back in strength. Major mahapanchayats in northern states, lakhs commit to oppose Laws.

I understand urban middle class are finally now waking up that if Disha can be arrested, their children or they themselves also can be arrested. As I said earlier, anyone, coming from any side in solidarity with farmers protests is welcome. But do notice how many distractions the government threw in since January 26th – Hindu vs Sikh, Sikh vs Left, Union vs Union, Politicians vs People, BJP vs others, twitter battles, MEA stepping in, FIRs, arrests … If the protests are a game of cards, each distraction is a Joker. Each distraction can spin the core protests.

Ask yourselves how we could have avoided these distractions if we were together from the beginning? You see the vortex of all issues is the same – arrogance and apathy of the government and the structural and direct violence it has unleashed. Many, many of us have suffered it. Some think they are immune, but actually it will come into each of our homes – sooner or later. Most likely, sooner.

That is exactly why we must join together else each of us will be individually minced. Imagine, just imagine, if we were to force a repeal on laws, what space that would open, how much more we will be able to achieve. What would it do to the arrogance of the regime? But for that, we need to be together. After all, whichever suffering group we might be, we all eat food.

PS: the timeline I provided is from recent memory, before we lose count. Apologies for any errors. Please suggest corrections.