IN a press release issued by the AIKS and AIAWU on December 15, both the organisations stated that the unprecedented growing unity of the agrarian classes will be further cemented through the ongoing kisan struggle across the country. This will strongly counter the cynical handwork by the Modi government to divide the kisan movement. Gathering a few totally inconsequential “paper kisan organisations” in support of the three anti-farmer and pro-corporate Farm Acts to misguide the nation has been exposed as a futile exercise in the context of the growing massive participation of lakhs of farmers in the struggle across the country as well as on the borders Delhi. The central government, apart from using repression against the farmers in the struggle, has also used all other means to defame and discredit the struggle. But all these efforts have gone in vain. 

The growing unity among the agrarian classes is clearly visible in the ongoing farmers’ struggle. The enduring agrarian crisis that had taken a toll of over five lakh peasant suicides due to indebtedness is the major cause that ensures consolidation of the peasant classes against the neo-liberal policies. The pro-corporate farm laws that violate the federal character of the constitution have further intensified conflict between the big capitalist forces on the one hand and the peasantry, including the rich peasantry, the capitalist farmers on the other hand. Even among the capitalist landlords there is a division. The regional parties across India are shifting their allegiance away from the BJP, the main ruling class party in this background. This process has thrown the BJP into political isolation, as dramatically seen during the unprecedented Bharat Bandh on December 8.

Another aspect that is coming forth in the political arena is the growing unity among the two major producing classes - the workers and the peasants. The naked pro-corporate stance of the Modi government is represented by the enactment of three Farm Acts and four Labour Codes which were adopted in close succession in the Parliament session in September 2020. These have compelled both the workers and the peasants to unite to fight to protect their rights. This worker-peasant unity was seen clearly in the all India strike of workers and all India struggle of peasants on November 26. 

The unprecedented massive participation in the ongoing struggle needs to be assessed in the background of the systemic crisis of the capitalist system the world over and the plan of multinational corporate forces to overcome the crisis by intensifying the exploitation of the basic classes by denying them the right price and wage for a dignified life. The struggle has taken the correct direction of a massive movement against the corporate forces with the slogan- ‘Boycott Ambani-Adani Products and Services’.

The prime minister’s stand to not settle the struggle and refusing the repeal of laws as a prestige issue will lead to such a situation that more and more sections of the people will come forward and join the struggle in the days to come. It gives Narendra Modi an image as a feeble administrator under the corporate grip, unable to resolve the massive struggle of the farmers who are sitting in lakhs, day and night in the cold winter. AIKS demands that the Modi government change its adamant stand and settle the struggle by keeping the tradition of India’s democratic governance.