Tens of thousands of farmers marched to Ramlila Maidan here on Thursday as part of the two-day Kisan Mukti March organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC). The march is expected to be addressed by leaders of 21 political parties, including allies of the BJP, on Friday. The farmers’ outfits are demanding a special session of the Parliament to pass two Private Members’ Bills demanding guaranteed remunerative price and complete loan waiver. Farmers have invited all top Opposition leaders, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, to address the rally on Friday.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition believes that farmers’ distress will be a key issue for the debate. “This government is the most anti-farmer in the history of the country and Narendra Modi is the most anti-farmer Prime Minister. We have been fighting against the policies of the Centre for so many years. After the BJP government fired at farmers in Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, a number of farmers’ organisations decided to lead a joint struggle,” said All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) general secretary Hanan Mollah while addressing farmers.
AIKS president Ashok Dhawale said farmers will “ban votes” to Modi to retaliate “note ban” that hurt the farmers the most. He said all the policies of the BJP-led governments at the States and at the Centre were framed to please corporate houses.
National Alliance for People’s Movements leader Medha Patkar said farmers have been forced to hit the streets due to the policies of successive governments. She said the BJP failed to address issues such as farmers’ suicide and instead gave false promises. Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav said AIKSCC has written to Modi as well as representatives of all political parties to join the Kisan Mukti March and take action on the demands of the farmers to pass the two Bills by a special session of the Parliament. “Debt and development shouldn’t be the normal. The state of our farmers is a state of permanent emergency,” he added. Political parties urged the Centre to reach out to the protesting farmers. “Farmers have started arriving in Delhi. This is the real India trying to bring the issue of bread and butter into the national discourse. They, instead, focus only on issues that can build a frenzy. We have seen the worst kind of vote bank politics in this regime and this poses a grave danger to the Constitutional order,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram yechury said.
More to arrive
Most farmers who have come to participate in Kisan Mukti March are small and marginal who suffered the most because of deepening agrarian crisis in the country. While a large number of farmers from almost all States have already arrived in the capital, many more are expected to descend on Delhi on Friday, when the farmers will take out a march from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament Street.
Most farmers say that they suffer from depressed prices of agricultural produce and raising input costs, which have pushed them further into debts.
“Last year, we lost our cotton crop to pink worm infestation, this time the loss is due to drought,” said Chandrasekhar Sedam, a farmer hailing from Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district. “Schemes such as MNREGA which would have given us a cushion in such hard times are of no help because of the nexus between the government officials and the contractors,” The 45-year-old Sedam arrived in the capital on Thursday with two dozen farmers to participate in the protest march.