TENS of thousands of farmers from the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders, led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), blocked the Kundli Manesar Palwal (KMP) Highway and the Kundli Ghaziabad Palwal (KGP) Highway at several points for 24 hours on April 10-11, 2021. All traffic on this crucial artery that connects the borders of Delhi and is a bypass for all the outer cities, ground to a halt. Huge public meetings were held along with songs and cultural programmes. Thousands of women and youth from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh took active part.

This massive action blew to smithereens the BJP government’s motivated propaganda that the farmers’ struggle was losing steam. The struggle is very much alive and kicking.

Indeed, the sheer tenacity of the current farmers’ struggle is unprecedented in the history not only of India, but also of the world. In spite of braving severe repression, malicious defamation, bitter cold, drenching rain and now scorching heat for over four and a half months, lakhs of farmers continue to lay siege to the national capital with their heads held high.

They are joined in solidarity by millions of peasants, agricultural labourers and workers throughout the country. Kisan mahapanchayats of tens of thousands of peasants and workers are being regularly held throughout the country, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and from Gujarat to Guwahati. Farmers have responded in huge numbers to SKM calls in various states.

On April 11, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Jotirao Phule, one of the earliest champions of the peasantry and of radical social justice in our country, was observed at the Delhi borders and across the country. His seminal books include ‘The Whipcord of the Cultivator’ and ‘Slavery’.

By a happy coincidence, April 11 was also the foundation day of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the first and the largest peasant organisation in India. It was formed at its first national conference held at Lucknow in 1936. This day was observed with flag hoisting and other programmes in innumerable village units.

On April 13, the Baisakhi festival and also the day of the infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre, was marked by holding several appropriate programmes at the Delhi borders and elsewhere.

Now preparations are on by the SKM to observe April 14, the 130th birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, as ‘Save Constitution Day’. The SKM statement says, “Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was a leader of the dream of freedom for the exploited and oppressed people of the country. We know him as the architect of the constitution, on which the Modi government of the RSS-BJP is making sharp and brutal attacks.”

MASSIVE RISE IN
FERTILISER PRICES
The BJP central government last week rubbed salt into the wounds of farmers by hiking the fertilizer prices more than one and a half times. IFFCO announced the price hike on April 7. A 50 kg bag of DAP will now cost Rs 1900, as against Rs 1200 last year. A 50 kg bag of NPK-1 will cost Rs 1775, as against Rs 1175 last year.

Both the SKM and the AIKS immediately denounced the price hike, demanded an immediate rollback and called upon the peasantry to rise up in protest against this shocking hike.

Another attack on farmers came in the form of the price hike of Bt cotton seeds, from Rs 730 per packet to Rs 767 per packet. This will also adversely affect farmers in several states.

On top of all this, union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar made the ridiculous appeal to farmers to withdraw their struggle due to the renewed Covid pandemic and to come for talks. The renewed Covid pandemic did not stop the BJP government from giving permission to the massive Kumbh Mela at Haridwar, in which lakhs gathered flouting all Covid protocols. There are already reports that thousands who attended the Kumbh Mela have got infected.

Nothing can be more ridiculous than the agriculture minister’s appeal to farmers to come for talks. It was the BJP central government that broke off all talks with the SKM after January 22. Not once after that has it concretely invited the SKM for any talks, despite the prime minister’s jumlebaj statement that “the government is just one phone call away.”

The sheer cynicism and callousness of this RSS-BJP government is downright condemnable. But it will be made to pay for all its sins of commission and omission.