THE march to parliament of the peasants and agricultural workers on February 24, 2016 under the banner of Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan (Movement for Land Rights) has been impressive and highly relevant politically. The involvement of the large sections of the peasant women folk is an indication that the movement has grown deep into the rural base of the country and the peasantry is rising up with determination to fight the unprecedented and acute agrarian crisis imposed upon them by the ruling classes.

The widespread cancellation of trains, serious water crisis in Delhi and anarchic law and order situation in Haryana, parts of Rajasthan, UP and Delhi in the context of violent protests demanding reservation for Jats have put up lot of hurdles in holding the rally. There was fear that it would not be possible to hold the rally and better to postpone the same since majority of the activists could not start from the villages due to cancellation of trains, reporting of death of dozens of persons in police firing and disruption in the normal life due to violent mob attacks as part of agitation in Haryana and Delhi.  Finally it was decided that we shall face the situation at any cost and go ahead with the rally and the venue may be changed from Parliament Street to Jantar Mantar since only one fifth of the activists could reach Delhi. 

However, more than six thousand people from different social movements, workers unions, fish workers, forest workers, farmers organisations, from across 15 different states of the country gathered at Jantar Mantar and asserted their rights and sent a clear message to the government that the people of this country will oppose the loot of natural resources and the violation of human dignity. It marks the determination of the peasantry and rural proletariat to assert their resistance to corporate land grab and claim land rights. The participation of rural women was the most notable factor. It is an indication that the movement is spreading deep in to the countryside and can develop as a wild fire to mobilise the peasantry and advance towards genuine and concrete mass struggles.

The participation from Madhya Pradesh and Orissa was remarkable where the joint movement has been taken to the lower level and series of mass campaigns including jathas and public meetings were undertaken in the last few months. Around 60 percent of the participation was from these two states. If similar kind of joint movement can be undertaken in all other states, then the BAA will emerge as the true massive and mighty platform of Indian peasantry and rural proletariat that could rebuff the multipronged attacks of the ruling classes.

The rally was organised to commemorate the success of the march to parliament on the same day previous year that marked the anger and protest among the peasantry and rural workers against the infamous Land Acquisition Ordinance promulgated by the Narendra Modi government on December 31, 2014. The NDA government issued the Land Ordinance three times and each time they had to retreat since it was challenged by massive response of agitations and struggles by the peasantry and all political parties in the opposition. As per the latest information, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 will be withdrawn during this budget session. Then that will be a victory of peasants, agricultural workers, adivasis, dalits and workers unions across India who have spearheaded this struggle.

The formal press release issued by the BAA notes that representatives from different organisations spoke about the violations of our constitutional rights.  From making attempts at diluting progressive laws like the Forest Rights Act 2006, increasing farmer suicides in different states, to the shocking attacks in Chhattisgarh on adivasis and the increasing attack on educational spaces, the social activists said that today there exists a nexus between the communal powers that preach hate politics and corporates that plunder our resources. They want to break the solidarity of people who have taken a stand against their practices. On the one hand, whistleblowers, human rights defenders, journalists and activists across the country are targeted, beaten up and portrayed as ‘anti-national’ elements while defaulting corporations are given tax exemptions to the tunes of thousands of crores. The contempt of environment laws and its portrayal as a ‘hurdle to development’ by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change makes it clear that the government is ignorant towards the voices of the people’’.  

Senior leaders have asserted that Bhumi Adhikar Andolan will force the government to recognise and accept these demands. Hannan Mollah (All India Kisan Sabha, 36 Canning Lane), Atul Anjan (AIKS, Ajoy Bhawan) Medha Patkar (Narmada Bachao Andolan-NAPM),   Roma and Ashok Chowdhury (All India Union of Forest Working People),  Prem Singh (All India Kisan Mahasabha), Prafulla Samantra (National Alliance of Peoples' Movements), Dr Sunilam, (Kisan Sangharsh Samiti), Yogendra Yadav (Jai Kisan Andolan), Subhashini Ali , Suneet Chopra (All India Agricultural Workers Union),  Richa Singh (Allahabad University Students Union), Kavita Srivastava (Right to Food Campaign), AK Khan (Katni, MP), Aradhana Bhargav (Chindwara, MP), Capt Shekhawat, Virendra Vidrohi, P C Tiwari (Uttarakhand) Krishna Prasad (All India Kisaan Sabha), R K Sharma (SUCI), Gautam Mody (NTUI), Ramzan Chaudhary, Dayamani Barla (Jharkhand), Ashok Shrimali (Mines Minerals and People), Ravi Rabbapragada (Samata), Sunil Fauji (Sanyukt Kisan Sangharsh Morcha), Varsha Bela and other leaders from Bhartiya Kisan Union (Apolitical Real), Akhil Bhartiya Krishak Khet Mazdoor Sangathan, Jan Sangharsh Samanvaya Samiti, INSAF, All India Farmer Workers Union, All India Kisan Mahasabha, Chattisgarh Bachao Andolan, Mine Minerals and Peoples (MM&P), Madhya Pradesh Aadivasi Ekta Mahasabha, Kisan Mannch, Vindhya People’s Movement Support Group, Lok Sangharsh Morcha Sanyukt Kisan Sangharsh Samiti spoke at the protest. 

The gathering was also addressed by various Members of Parliament - Raghuvansh Prasad, former union cabinet minister, ministry for rural development, Dharamveer Gandhi, Jitendra Chaudhary, Ali Anwar, Tapan Sen and M B Rajesh, who promised to raise the people's issues in the parliament.

The press release said that people with different struggles from tea plantations in West Bengal and affected people of lower Suktel dam in Orissa, those affected by Adani project in Chindwara, power plants in Katni, displaced by Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada, people being evicted from forests in UP, MP and Bihar and many others shared their tale of resistance and State oppression and constant denial of their due rights.

The main demands of the rally are:

1.   Withdraw Land (Amendment) Bill 2015. No to forced land acquisition, we demand land rights.

2.   Implement Land Act, 2013 and stop illegal changes to it and withdraw any sanctions given to state Acts violating the central Act.

3.   Stop forced land acquisitions in the name of land pooling and other means by various state governments.

4.   Stop tampering with the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and ensure its effective and timely implementation.

5.   Find effective ways to tackle the agrarian crisis immediately, ensure right support prices for the produce and compensate crop loss.

6.   Complete the unfinished agenda of land reforms, implement land ceiling, provide housing rights for poor and stop forced evictions at any cost.

7.   Stop attempting changes to MGNREGA, rollback cuts in budget allocation and ensure 300 days work and Rs 300 wages daily.

8.   Stop implementing T S Subramanian Committee recommendations and changes to environmental laws.

9.   No to labour laws relaxations, ensure labour rights.

10. Take measures to stop violence against women and ensure their property rights.

11.  Stop harassing people in the name of false nationalist hysteria and arrest rise of fascistic Hindutva forces.

It is a fact that the Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan has emerged as the single largest platform in the country that spearheads the struggles on land question and agrarian crisis in the interests of small producers and rural proletariat.  The widest unity of the Left, democratic and progressive social forces representing the rural people is the largest achievement since the anti-farmer, anti-worker Modi government assumed power in May 2014. The BAA has extended solidarity and participated in the September 2 all India strike called by the joint trade union movement. That action has further cemented the worker-peasant alliance which is the axis of social transformations to eliminate the iron grip of big capital and landlords over the rural economy. The BAA has decided to invite the leadership of joint trade union movement for a meaningful talk to further advancing the unity of workers and peasants concretely in the context of growing attacks by Modi government on the rights of working class and the peasantry.

The attack on democratic rights of freedom of expression in the name of pseudo nationalism and the unjustifiable arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges have been resisted by the entire student community with the full solidarity from all other social sections, which is a positive development. The political developments in relation to JNU incident cannot be seen in isolation. It is an extension of the infamous ‘politics of intolerance’ consciously spread across the country by the RSS and Sangh Parivar organisations especially after the Narendra Modi government assumed power.

On the one side, the BJP-RSS combine is attacking the basic classes through anti-farmer anti-worker economic policies and on the other side dividing the various social sections based on divisive and unreal issues like pseudo nationalism and religious intolerance. The positive thing is that through such acts they are compelling the people to unite and come on to the streets massively and get politicised as it had helped the farmers to get united under BAA by promulgating the infamous Land Acquisition Ordinance.

The present political situation warrants the unity of all social sections against both neo-liberal economic policies and the forces of communalism and authoritarianism and the BAA will explore the possibility of bringing together all sections of the society including workers, peasants, students, youth, women etc that are facing unjustifiable injustice at the hands of Modi government. Let us positively hope that the country will witness widest unity of the people on struggle path in the days to come so that a people’s alternative of Left and Democratic forces could emerge at the all India level.