THE AIKS, in a statement issued on February 8, has strongly condemned the statement by prime minister Narendra Modi who has insulted the protesting farmers as 'Andolan Jeevis', and 'parasites' and demands its immediate withdrawal and apology for his derogatory remarks in parliament.

AIKS said that this insult comes from a 'corporate jeevi'  prime minister whose RSS was never a part of the glorious 'andolan' of the people of India against the slavery of British rule.

Each farmer as a citizen has the right to protest as per the constitution of India and the prime minister abusing his power to malign the farmers struggling to protect their livelihood is highly condemnable. The AIKS appeals to all democratic sections, political parties and mass and class movements to come forward to condemn this insult of farmers by the PM.

The PM has said the farmers organisations are unable to point out the reason for their struggle. This is part of the game plan to malign the farmers struggle. The agrarian crisis is rampant and two farmers are forced to commit suicide every hour in India. The reason is that cultivation is economically unviable due to the lack of remunerative price and resultant indebtednes. 86 per cent of farm households have below 2 hectares of land and they are undergoing severe exploitation in the market and are forced to quit agriculture to join the rank of migrant workers.

AIKS reminded the prime minister that he and the BJP in its election manifesto of 2014 had promised to implement MSP at C2+50 per cent. Instead of implementing his own promise, the Modi government has surrendered Indian agriculture and the food security of the nation to the corporates.

The farmers are struggling for the demand of legally guaranteed MSP with procurement for all crops across the country. The PM who has violated this promise during the last seven years is solely responsible for the ongoing farmers struggle, the statement said.

AIKS noted that the speech of the PM today in parliament exposes the compulsions of his government that is under the grip of foreign and domestic corporate capital. The PM rammed through the pro-corporate, anti-farmer and anti-people three farm laws in parliament without consulting a single farmers organisation or a single state government, and even parliament itself.

The farmers will not step back till all their genuine demands are met, including repeal of the three farm acts, legally guaranteed MSP at C2+50 per cent, withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 and dropping of the anti-farmer clauses of the pollution ordinance.

AIKS calls upon all its units and all the farmers of India to organise massive protests all over the country against the insult of the farming community by the prime minister and prepare for more determined and fierce struggles across the country.