ON July 23, 2019, a massive 25,000-strong rally, public meeting and gherao was held by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch (AARM) at the Sub Divisional Office (SDO) at Kalwan in the Nashik district of Maharashtra. The huge mass marched five kilometers through Kalwan town and encircled the SDO from all sides. It comprised peasants from nearly all tehsils of Nashik district. While most of them were adivasis, there were thousands of non-adivasi farmers as well. This was a significant feature. 

This action was a part of the national protest call for July 22 given by the AIKS, AARM, Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) and other adivasi organisations. Accordingly, on July 22, demonstrations by the AIKS took place at Dahanu in Palghar district, Pandharkawda in Yavatmal district, Kinwat in Nanded district, Selu in Parbhani district, Akole in Ahmednagar district and other places in Maharashtra. The Kalwan action on July 23 was the climax of these protests.  

The Kalwan public meeting was addressed by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and AARM national vice president Brinda Karat, ex-MP, CPI(M) Central Committee member and AIKS national president Ashok Dhawale and CPI(M) Central Committee member and former AIKS state president J P Gavit, MLA.

Others who also addressed the meeting were AIKS state president Kisan Gujar, AIKS state and district office bearers Savliram Pawar, Sunil Malusare, Subhash Choudhary, Irfan Shaikh and many other local AIKS leaders of both adivasi and non-adivasi communities. The public meeting was presided over by Balasaheb Gangurde, a progressive farmer and a retired military man.

Brinda Karat congratulated the AIKS and AARM in Nashik district for this massive rally and denounced the BJP-led central government for its heinous attack on the rights of adivasis, in the form of the proposed draconian amendments to the Indian Forests Act (IFA) of 1927 that was passed during British colonial rule. She said that the amendments proposed by the Modi regime surpassed even the anti-adivasi IFA of the British regime. She explained the various dangerous amendments which aimed to oust lakhs of adivasis from their traditional forest lands and hand them over to the corporate lobby.

She also referred to the petition that was moved by some in the Supreme Court which in effect challenged the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006. Since the Modi regime absented its counsel during the crucial hearing on the same, the Supreme Court on February 13 ruled that all the adivasis whose claims under FRA had been rejected should be evicted from the forest lands that they were cultivating. While giving such a ruling, the Supreme Court failed to take into account that most state governments were not effectively implementing, and some were even sabotaging, the FRA for the last 13 years. Due to the countrywide uproar that followed, the Supreme Court had to stay the implementation of its judgment till July. But the danger still remains. She finally called for constant vigilance and struggle against all the aspects of the Modi regime.

Ashok Dhawale and J P Gavit, while castigating the BJP central government for its anti-tribal, anti-people policies and its communal drive, came down heavily on the BJP-led state government for its continued betrayal of the peasantry despite the two Kisan Long Marches organised by the AIKS in the last two years. Already, forest officials are demolishing houses of adivasis and digging holes in their forest lands in the Jawhar tehsil of Palghar district, against which another large rally was led by the AIKS on July 5 at Jawhar. They also referred to the grim drought and water shortage in Nashik district and also all over the state and lashed out at the apathy of the state government as regards this and other burning issues of the peasantry like loan waiver, fair prices and crop insurance. They called for defeating the BJP-led regime in the state assembly elections that are due in October 2019 and for the victory of Left candidates.         

The Kalwan rally also took up burning local issues of the people like water, ration, pension, health and employment. After the public meeting, tens of thousands of peasants conducted a massive gherao of the SDO and refused to move until the concerned government officials themselves came before the gathering and conceded the local demands. They also blocked the Nashik-Kalwan state highway in front of the SDO. The administration was left with no choice. The gherao was lifted at night only after these assurances were given by government officials before the entire gathering.