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How Kisan Kranti Can Unite Farmers Across India

Indra Shekhar Singh

28 Aug 2021: The 10 am Chennai sun has the tarmac on a slow simmer. As the flight to Delhi taxis on the runway, the noon-like harshness burns our campaign-and-reporting-weary eyes. I turn to look, and farmer leaders Rakesh Tikait and Yudhvir Singh are napping in the rear of the plane. After five days and nights of a national convention on agrarian distress organised by the national water community and Tamil Nadu-based farmer organisations, they are going home. Amidst an ocean of clouds, reflections on the campaign float in: What did the conference achieve? Will the farmers of Tamil Nadu accept the call of the farmer leaders from North India to insist on the repeal of the three central legislations on agriculture and demand a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Prices?

Most of the participants in Chennai were farmers and their representatives from Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Rakesh Tikait, Yudhvir Singh and Anuj Singh from Uttar Pradesh attended as emissaries of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha. So did farmers from a few other northern states. Rajendra Singh, the ‘Waterman’ of India, chaired the conference. Former Samajwadi Party MLA Krishna Kumar Singh and other regional stalwarts who work on water-related issues were also present. Farm experts Devinder Sharma and PV Rajagopal addressed the conference digitally.

After Chennai, the Tikait-led trio headed to the Tiruppur-Viluppuram sugarcane belt, eight hours to the west. Here, the most vital signals emerged that the farm protests are inching towards becoming a broader peoples’ movement. Land grab, assured Minimum Support Prices and corporatisation of agriculture were the major concerns that farmers from Tamil Nadu raised. Between Hindi, English, Tamil, and Kannada, the leaders managed to seed the idea that farmers’ struggles are over the same issues in the North or the South. The message against the three new farm laws is now embedded deep inside Tamil Nadu.

But was that all? No. The first significant achievement of the conference was to forge a new alignment between the water rights movement in the North and South and between farmer’s rights groups and the Kisan Kranti front led by Tikait and other Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leaders. Food and water are connected now. Water rights groups filled the halls in Chennai and promised support and solidarity from the South. Recall that Rajendra Singh and PV Rajagopal were part of the VM Singh-led splinter group, which held a press conference in Delhi on 4 August while the Kisan Sansad was on at Jantar Mantar. Now, Rajendra Singh has extended unconditional support to the Samyukt Kisan Morcha and included Tikait in the events in Tamil Nadu.

It is a victory of the farmers movement that more voices are joining to strengthen their movement. Now water, a crucial issue for farmers everywhere, is part of the plan, which could transform the anti-farm law movement into an even bigger people’s movement.

Unknown to many non-Tamil speaking states, the DMK regime has dedicated its new agriculture budget to the farmers’ movement. Farmers have many complaints in the state, but this gesture still holds the possibility of forging an alternative economic paradigm. For example, it will not be surprising if farmers and their leaders pressure other state governments for dedicated agriculture budgets. The DMK is also an anti-BJP force. Like the Opposition parties that extended support to the farmers earlier this year, this friendship can bolster the farmers’ demands. Its cadres attended Tikait’s rallies in Tamil Nadu, and even a meeting with Stalin was on the schedule.

By travelling across the state, Tikait has opened a new frontier for the SKM. He has connected Tamil farmers with Uttar Pradesh and Punjab’s farmers by addressing their shared grievances over sugarcane prices, inflated electricity bills and corporate-led land grabs. The corporate takeover of land in the name of development scars Tamil Nadu’s farmers. There are thousands of unresolved cases for compensation against power and power grid companies, and the farmers of Tamil Nadu are appealing for justice. Tikait also appealed to farmer leader Narayanswamy Naidu, the founder president of Bhartiya Kisan Union’s (BKU), evoking BKU’s roots to connect with the state’s people.

And connect, they did. On streets and trains alike, a selfie-frenzy had Tikait surrounded at all times. Despite the obvious Hindi-Punjabi-Tamil language barrier, hundreds flocked to hear him. The Tamil Kisan Kranti Yatra–as the group from Delhi calls their southern sojourn–was a reconnaissance trip and ground-breaking exercise rolled in one. Hopefully, it will open doors for new associations and a more extensive nationwide campaign for the SKM.

But what obstacles will such a campaign face? The first is language. The farmers need to adopt modern communication tools such as film and animation to translate their message into Tamil and other languages to spread their message. Translators and reliable local partners can help immensely, but the movement cannot dispense with the need for a Tamil Nadu-specific outreach campaign. Besides, the leaders cannot depend solely on the media to build the movement.

Obstacle two is reliable and effective local partners. The current campaign is marred by infighting, egos, clashes and power politics. There is disunity among local farmer groups, which makes the task of building unity more difficult. The once-mighty Ryot Sanghas of Karnataka suffer the same fate. But the SKM can find democratic and participatory solutions by inviting all Tamil farmer and rural unions, organisations and Farmer-Producer Organisations to the table. In a matter of one month, forty SKM leaders can easily cover Tamil Nadu’s 38 districts. They should take advantage of a state with a non-BJP government in power to align with local groups.

A national movement needs representation from farmers, their supporters and well-wishers. The SKM needs to expand its core committees to include members from every state. Falling incomes, water shortages, non-remunerative prices, high input costs, land grabs and corporatisation, are the cause of the suffering of farmers everywhere. The sooner farmers realise they are victims of the same system, the sooner their revolution will spread. It is a moral imperative for the farmers protesting in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana to unite and let their Kranti embrace the farmers’ struggles in Tamil Nadu. If they miss out, history will indeed judge them harshly.

(Indra Shekhar Singh is an independent policy analyst and writer on agriculture and the environment. Courtesy: Newsclick.)

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Farmers Campaigning on War Footing for ‘Historic’ Mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar

Abdul Alim Jafri

25 Aug 2021, Lucknow: With the ‘Kisan Mahapanchayat’ called by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) all set to be held on September 5, the preparations in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh are happening on a war footing.

As part of the preparations, the organisers have put out huge hoardings and banners of Rakesh Tikait, the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader, an eminent face of farmers in the district.

Campaign for Mahapanchayat

Farmers have started a campaign in Western Uttar Pradesh, in which they are visiting villages and going door to door to ask people to join the rally at a national level. Numerous meetings are being held and non-stop announcements from temples, mosques and gurdwaras are being made to highlight the issue and tell people in remote areas how the farm laws would harm the farming community.

Appealing to the farmers to reach the GIC ground with tractors, BKU’s chief Naresh Tikait said the rally on September 5 is not a farmers’ mahapanchayat, but a farmers’ crusade. He called upon BKU supporters of different factions to cast aside their differences and team up to ensure the grand success of the mahapanchayat.

Naresh Tikait along with his son Gaurav Tikait, president of BKU’s youth wing, and other district-level leaders, have held meetings and panchayats in villages to mobilise people to attend the mahapanchayat in large numbers. Several prominent Khap leaders who have influences in the villages also joined the campaign.

Dharmendra Malik, the spokesperson of BKU, toldNewsclick, “Muzaffarnagar is hosting the event, so there is much responsibility on people as this mahapanchayat is going to be one of the biggest rallies in history. From every village, there will be one langar and the responsibility is taken by Baliyan Khap, Malik Khap, Desh Khap, Gadhwala Khap and others who will feed the lakhs of farmers coming from across the country, including Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. BKU’s workers are responsible for serving water and tea.” He added that the estimate for the rally is around two lakh farmers, but the number could cross more than the estimation. He said that the schedule and the road map for future struggles and assembly polls will be discussed at the rally.

BKU’s former Muzaffarnagar district president, Raju Ahlawat claimed that people and Khap leaders in every village of the region were extending support to the mahapanchayat and assured community kitchen at the GIC ground to ensure food to the participants. He said it would be a historic gathering.

‘Historic’ Rally Expected

In a gathering of Gathwala Khap in Sarnawali village in Muzaffarnagar on Tuesday, Naresh Tikait described the upcoming mahapanchayat as a ‘Dharmyudh’ (crusade) of farmers. “Due to political differences, those not willing to participate in the mahapanchayat will get a bad name in the history as it is going to create history on September 5,” he said.

Around dozens of regional chiefs of Khaps attended the panchayat and extended their support. Tikait, in a vote of thanks, appreciated the Khaps and said that they always stood with farmers. “Our land is our mother and it is the identity of farmers. If they do not stand now, they will lose their identity if deprived of their land,” he said.

The farmers’ leaders said Rakesh Tikait’s tears had garnered the support of thousands of farmers from West UP and made the first-ever mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar a success in January. They said this forthcoming event would not only break that record, but it will decide the future of farmers in coming days.

Meanwhile, youngsters would connect with the movement against the farm laws through music. “Even during the struggle for Independence, revolutionary songs of political defiance like ‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta’ became protest anthems to connect with the young blood. This time too, music will play an important role,” Gaurav Tikait told Newsclick.

(Courtesy: Newsclick.)