THE Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan of all the Left and democratic peasant and agriculture workers organisations and social organisations observed June 14 as protest day across the country against the Mandsaur police firing on farmers by the BJP led Shivraj Singh Chouhan government of Madhya Pradesh. The farmers were on struggle with the genuine demands of remunerative price to all the crops and comprehensive loan waiver. As part of the agitation, protest demonstrations were organised in all district centres across the country.

The farmers are coming massively on struggles recently in many states including West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Haryana since they are not getting remunerative price for the crops and are facing severe pauperisation, debt trap and widespread suicides. The tallest promise made by the BJP manifesto in the 2014 election was that 50 per cent profit above cost of production will be ensured if elected to power. However Prime Minister Narendra Modi betrayed the farmers across the country in the last three years as far as this promise is concerned.   Instead the NDA government is swiftly going ahead with all neo-liberal reforms including 100 per cent FDI in agriculture and retail trade, e-platform to connect all agriculture produce markets, model contract farming law, and corporate takeover of agriculture land through state acts.

The NDA government at the central and the BJP led Shivaraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh are responsible for the most insensitive manner of handling the peasants struggle and creating an atmosphere of  distress and terror which culminated in the police firing and murder of six farmers in Mandsaur.  The sacrifice of the Mandsaur farmers will not go in vain. The Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan will intensify struggles all over the country in the coming days till the genuine demands of remunerative price to all crops, comprehensive loan waiver and reversal of the anti-farmer neo-liberal policies which are the root cause of the agrarian distress and the peasant suicides are met with by the central government and all the state governments.