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Samyukt Kisan Morcha to Take Out ‘Tractor March’ in UP, Uttarakhand

Abdul Alim Jafri

05 Mar 2021: After playing a key role in organising the farmers’ ‘mahapanchayat’ against the three Central farm laws in Western Uttar Pradesh, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has now decided to hold a ‘tractor march’ in 16 districts of the state and Uttarakhand under the banner of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU).

The tractor march, which will begin from Muzaffarnagar — BKU leader Rakesh Tikait’s bastion — and culminate on March 27 at Ghazipur border to expand the ongoing protest against the three farm laws, is part of the SKM’s outreach programme, BKU’s youth president Digamber Singh said.

Protest Plan

The 22-day march by tractors and other vehicles would cover around 1,400 km and pass through 16 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Naresh Chaudhary, a key organiser and BKU leader told NewsClick. Protesting farmers will also distribute pamphlets to the people, commuters and block the highways if police try to dig trenches to block the path of protesters as they did on the border in Delhi.

The “tractor marches” have been scheduled to start from Muzaffarnagar and Bijnor’s Najibabad tehsil, and will enter Uttarakhand, said Chaudhary, adding that Tikait will give a green signal to the tractor march in his hometown to garner support for the ongoing stir against new farm laws.

“The yatra will start from Muzaffarnagar and culminate at Ghazipur border in Ghaziabad district, where a large number of farmers have been camping for about 100 days”, he added.

Ramandeep Singh Garewal, BKU member based in Ramraj, from where the tractor march will begin on Saturday, March 6, told NewsClick: “Ramraj is a small town in Muzaffarnagar district but some adjoining areas also fall in Meerut district. The tractor march will begin from here in Mandi area and will go to Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand via Najibabad’s Afzalgarh and will reach Ghazipur border via Rampur, Moradabad and Hapur districts.” He said farmers in a large numbers are ready with their tractors to participate in the rally.

“Over 400 tractors are from Ramraj alone and once it leaves town, more and more people with their tractors are expected to join the caravan. We will also distribute pamphlets highlighting the disadvantages of the three farm legislations to the people on the way,” the BKU member added.

Confirming the event, BKU youth president Digamber Singh told NewsClick: “Our movement is purely for farmers’ rights. We don’t have anything to do with any political party. The aim behind such events, be it mahapanchayats or tractor marches, is to connect farmers and labourers, irrespective of their religion, in the country and should continue to gain momentum,”, adding that such initiatives will continue until the demands to repeal the laws and legal guarantee for minimum support price on their produce are met.

The tractor marches in UP come after a huge turnout of farmers marked several rounds of successful mahapanchayats in Western Uttar Pradesh and Purvanchal’s Barabanki district, witnessed massive gatherings.

A mahapanchayat is also likely to be held in Eastern UP’s Ghazipur district on March 10 where farmers from Varanasi, Prayagraj division are expected to join in a large numbers.

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UP Kisan Sabha to Hold ‘Maha Padyatra’ to Delhi Border

Abdul Alim Jafri

06 Mar 2021: The Uttar Pradesh Kisan Sabha (UPKS) will be holding a ‘Maha Padayatra’ to express solidarity with the farmers protesting against the three farm laws at Delhi borders, as well as to ‘expose’ central government propaganda about the laws.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) took the decision to embark on a 95-km padayatra to the national capital — an epicentre of farmers’ agitation — from Mathura and Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh to join the protests at Palwal and Ghazipur border. The decision was taken in Lucknow on Friday during the state committee meeting. It was presided over by AIKS president Bharat Singh. The UPKS is affiliated to the AIKS, which is part of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha.

“The proposed Maha Padayatra will leave from two districts of Uttar Pradesh — Mathura and Bulandshahr — on March 18 and arrive at Palwal and Ghazipur borders on March 22 after traversing around 90 km covering as many as four districts in a span of four days,” UPKS general secretary Mukut Singh told Newsclick.

When questioned about the need for the Padayatra, Singh said, “Farmers in rural areas have some misconceptions about MSP, what the government is saying and what farmer leaders are saying. We have to dispel the myths, which is the reason that necessitated us to take out the Maha Padayatra.”

Echoing similar sentiments, UPKS president Bharat Singh said, “During our padayatra, we will have a group of farm laws experts who will explain each and every clause of the three farm laws in the simplest language to the people and farmers. We will reach our destinations while distributing posters and pamphlets.”

Praising the farmer’s leaders for organising the ‘mahapanchayat’ in Western Uttar Pradesh and bursting the agriculture bubble, the UPKS president said, “Honestly, despite organising series of mahapanchayats in Western Uttar Pradesh and Eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district, we realised that still there is lack of awareness among farmers as well as common citizens about the three farm laws and we want to make clear every doubt about these laws and ensure that these laws are understood as not at all being in favour of farmers as propagated by the central government.” He added that they have roped in agriculture experts who will travel with the padayatra visiting villages and clearing the ‘myths’ about the laws.

Meanwhile, P Krishnaprasad, finance secretary of AIKS and a Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA, addressed the state committee meeting of UPKS and said that the farmers’ struggle has brought the agrarian agenda into the national debate. The demand for the Minimum Support Price (MSP) is vital for the sustenance of peasant households. The farmers’ protest has put the Narendra Modi government on the defensive, he added.

“The Modi government has failed to implement its promise of MSP@C2+50% with procurement. Hence farmers are forced to sell their crop below MSP, thus being exploited in the markets. The struggle will continue and be further intensified till the Modi government agrees to enact the MSP guarantee law,” Krishnaprasad said.

The meeting also strongly criticised the ban on the cattle trade for the declining income of the farmers. The fuel price hike is unbearable for the people. The meeting strongly condemned the series of atrocities on women and girl children under the Yogi Raj and decided to organise a protest on March 8, International Woman’s Day. And on March 12, a protest on fuel price hike is planned in different districts of the state.

Meanwhile, a similar initiative by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) is being followed. They started a 22-day ‘tractor march’ in 16 districts of the state and Uttarakhand under the banner of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU). It was started from Ramraj in Muzaffarnagar district on Saturday, March 6, and will go to Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand via traversing a dozen of the districts including Bijnor, Moradabad, Rampur and Hapur. On March 27, the march will reach the Ghazipur border where farmers have been camping for the last 100 days.

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Farmers and Workers to Commemorate Anti-Privatisation Day on March 15

Sabrangindia

Farmers and workers will observe “Anti-Privatisation Day” on March 15, 2021 and hold demonstrations near railway stations to protest the anti-people policies of the central government, said a joint press release on March 4, 2021.

Farmers organisations also extended support to the strike actions of banks on March 15, March 16, the General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) unions’ strike on March 17 and the Life Insurance Unions’ protest on March 18.

Similarly, trade unions promised support to blockade the Kundli–Manesar–Palwal (KMP) Expressway for five hours and to fly black flags atop houses on March 6. Leaders also promised solidarity for all other farmers’ protests.

Following a joint meeting on March 1, trade union leaders and farmers decided to occasionally coordinate for joint action programmes to strengthen the evolving unity between workers and farmers.

“There was appreciation of the fact that the farmers had extended their solidarity to the call of trade unions on November 26, 2020 and the consistent support including solidarity actions by the Joint Platform of CTUs to all the agitation programmes called upon by the SKM from then onwards,” said union leaders in a press release.

Leaders agreed that peasants needed to intensify the struggle to save farmers’ lands, stop contract farming and amend the Essential Commodity Act as well as the Electricity Amendment Bill in national interest. They also voiced their support for legalizing and ensuring Minimum Support Price for farmers produce.

The trade unions apprised SKM representatives about the dangers of the central government decisions regarding privatisation of Public Sector Enterprises and the grievous impact of the four labour codes on workers.

“The four Labour Codes take away the right of forming unions and protection of the working people from exploitation and excluding workers from existing social security schemes and workplace safety norms,” said trade union leaders.

Both sides said the “hated enactments” were passed without following democratic process of consultations or a transparent parliamentary process. They affirmed that the corporate loot of farmers and working masses through usurping land and other national resources is a big challenge as the government is taking position in favour of corporate loot.

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Women Farmers Now have the Space to Write Their Own Stories of Protest – and More

Tanushree Bhasin

At Bahadurgarh near one of the largest farmer protest sites on the Delhi border, a small group of women lay on charpoys in the afternoon sun in mid-February, listening to an article being read out to them. It was about young labour activist Nodeep Kaur, who has been in jail for nearly five weeks for organising workers near another farmer protest site. Published as the cover story of a newly-founded biweekly Punjabi newsletter called Karti Dharti, it had found a rapt audience.

“We are very interested in Nodeep Kaur’s case,” said Gurmehar Kaur, a farmer from Barnala in Punjab who was reading out the article. “Is there any update on her? Do you know if she is okay?”

Among the listeners, Manjeet Kaur, also from Barnala, added, “Puttar, we don’t know how to read or write. Girls these days are educated even in our village, but in our day and age women were not sent to school.”

Naseeb Kaur, another listener, angrily interjected, “If we were educated maybe we would have voted for better people than this present government.”

The Modi government is facing sharp anger from farmers after it passed three new laws that make fundamental changes in the way agriculture markets are organised, which farmers fear could undermine their livelihoods. Punjab was the first to protest, but the movement has now spread to other states in north India, with farmers camping on the borders of the national capital for nearly three months. Many of them are women.

Karti Dharti was born from a need to communicate their stories, said Sangeet Toor, the founder and editor of the newsletter.

“A lot is happening in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, especially since January 26 that isn’t being reported as it should be,” said Toor. On January 26, lakhs of farmers rode tractors and marched to Delhi in a parade that was overwhelmingly peaceful. But the news coverage came to be focused on clashes between some protestors and the police at Red Fort.

To provide an alternative source of news on the farmer protests, young writers and activists have started new publications like the Trolley Times. But Toor, a freelance journalist based in Chandigarh who has actively contributed to these publications, felt the need for one focused on the experiences of women and led by an all-women team.

Pointing out that the protests were centred in states “where women don’t usually step out of domestic spaces”, Toor said: “We felt we needed to document how womens’ engagement with political and social issues is slowly evolving.”

While some news reports have foregrounded the participation of women in the farmers’ movement, their stories are still largely framed as interventions in a male public sphere. The focus is on women’s roles in keeping critical supply chains running, feeding people, keeping morale up, raising funds and awareness, and performing emotional labour. But what women think, their voices, anxieties, solidarities and rebellions are rarely given space.

“This is where Karti Dharti is important,” said Vijeta Saini, a PhD student from Boston who came back to India to stand in solidarity with farmers and organise relief. “It doesn’t just report events but also creates a space for women to tell their personal stories. This helps us understand how the movement affects women but is also shaped by their presence.”

‘The dictator is intimidated’

By giving women a chance to step out of their domestic confines and fight for their rights, the farmers’ movement is triggering wider change, said Toor. “This has allowed family dynamics to change and shift. Men are becoming more open to domestic labour and women more vocal about their grievances.”

The stories of Karti Dharti’s first edition reflect this self-confidence. Sharanjeet Kaur, a farmer from Moga, who travelled to Delhi to witness the Republic Day tractor rally, writes about what she felt about the events at the Red Fort. Another article written by Rajveer Kaur points out how since January 26, the number of women at the Ghazipur protest site on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh dropped drastically because they were asked to go back home for safety reasons. To call women back, she argued, takes away their agency. Navneet Kaur, a farmer from Uttarakhand, recounts how she was also asked to return home with her mother and sister, but on hearing of Rakesh Tikait’s heartfelt speech she returned to Ghazipur in a state bus.

Addressing the recent attacks on women activists, journalists and workers, the newsletter features an article titled ‘Tanashah Darta Hai’ (The dictator is intimidated) which argues prime minister Narendra Modi is scared of tweets by two young women, a reference to American singer Rihanna and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Pointing out that many of the activists arrested in recent times are young women, Saini, the PhD scholar, said: “This government often uses the slogan of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ where they want women to be educated and speak up, but when women actually do exactly that, they silence us.”

“Visibility is a double-edged sword for women,” she continued. “It is crucial that their work gets attention and exposure but the same visibility makes them targets of abuse and state sanctions in our patriarchal society.”

The media has a role to play in this, the inaugural edition points out. An article titled ‘Kund waali aurat di taqreer’ (Speech by a woman in the veil) slams the news media for spreading lies and perpetuating pro-government propaganda.

Another article examines the way many pro-government TV channels labelled a slogan raised by some women farmers – “Modi mar ja tu” or ‘Go die, Modi’ – as “unpardonable” and “aggressive”, without once turning their microphones towards the women and asking them why they were raising it.

“In the tradition of protest, there is a long history of using the death form,” explains Kopal, a researcher based in Delhi, who wrote the article. “These are traditional forms of protest that include burning effigies like Ravana Dahin [on Dussehra], arthi or the last rites of the corpse. The same social symbolic process is at work when we chant the ‘Murdabad’ ‘Zindabad’ slogans.”

Land and gender

Karti Dharti will carry stories not just from the large, sprawling protest sites on the Delhi border, said Toor, but also from villages and small towns where women are actively engaging with wider struggles. “We aim to carry contributions by writers from west Punjab [in Pakistan] as well, because not only do we share a common heritage and history, we also share this agrarian crisis,” she added.

While the newsletter has been printed in Gurmukhi in India, it will be printed in Shahmukhi in Pakistan. The name of the newsletter reflects the common ground that Punjabi women share on both sides of the border.

“Karti Dharti comes from the common phrase karta dharta [the doer] but flips its gender,” explained Toor. It was coined by Nosheen Ali, a Pakistani academic who teaches in New York and runs an ecological farm near Karachi. “They practice natural and organic farming that focuses on nurturing the earth rather than exploiting it for higher yields,” said Toor. “Therefore, for us karti implies a woman who works the land, dharti, lovingly with her hands.”

The inaugural edition, in fact, features an article by Asma Qadri, a writer from Pakistan’s Punjab province, who writes about the importance of soil in our lives and the ethics of care.

The editorial written by Ali connects ecology to the politics of gender. It points out the difference between how men and women describe the land: for men, dharti is their mother, while women refer to it as their child. “Why don’t women farmers consider the land, the earth as their mother?” asks Ali. “Perhaps, in our society mothers belong only to sons.”

In a patriarchal society, she explains both women and land are considered property that has to be protected. For women farmers, however, land is something they nourish and care for. Their participation in the current protest movement, therefore, comes from a place of familial love, she writes, but also creates an opportunity for them to step out of a world shaped by it.

(Courtesy: Scroll.in.)