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.

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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.