THE historic farmers' movement in India which began on November 26, 2020 at Delhi's borders, along with the one day all India strike of the working class, completed eleven long months on October 26, 2021. Lakhs of annadaatas of our country have led a peaceful, continuous and resolute struggle and have put themselves through severe hardships during this period. In the largest such protests anywhere in the world, farmers have been demanding that their livelihoods be protected from corporate loot in unregulated markets. They have been asking for a repeal of the three anti-farmer, anti-people and pro-corporate laws thrust upon them undemocratically and unconstitutionally, and for a law that guarantees MSP for all farmers.

A GLORIOUS MOVEMENT

As the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) said, “For many observers, this movement resembles India's independence struggle against its British colonial rulers and the economic and political repression therein. It also resembles the movement led by Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan against the authoritarian emergency imposed by India's then PM Indira Gandhi.”

The thoroughly insensitive Modi-led BJP-RSS government has not only refused to concede the rightful demands of farmers pertaining to their life and death and their future generations, but it has gone out of its way to attack the protesting farmers. The Lakhimpur Kheri massacre on October 3 was the latest macabre example. It is crystal clear that this obstinacy of the Modi regime stems from its ‘dalali’ of its crony corporates, symbolised by the Ambanis and the Adanis, to whom it has offered the entire country for sale through its privatisation drive.

But it is a glorious feature that with each undemocratic and desperate assault on the farmers’ movement, it has only grown stronger and spread wider over the last 11 months.

NATIONWIDE SHAHEED KALASH YATRAS

On October 26, responding to the SKM's call, protests were organised in hundreds of places all over India, to demand the immediate arrest and sacking of Ajay Mishra Teni, the ‘sutradhaar’ of the Lakhimpur Kheri massacre. The protests took various forms including marches, motorcycle rallies, demonstrations, dharnas and so on.

At all the six Delhi borders large public meetings were held. Several SKM leaders addressed them. Farmers drove in with tractors into the Meerut collectorate to protest. Reports have come in from Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Rajasthan, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh at the time of filing this report.

One of the highlights of the farmers’ struggle after the Antim Ardaas of the Lakhimpur Kheri martyrs on October 12 is the numerous SKM-led Shaheed Asthikalash Yatras that are traversing hundreds of kilometers across several states and districts in the entire country, and the massive response from the people that they are eliciting. Farmers are taking a vow that they will not allow the martyrs' sacrifice to go in vain, and will carry forward the struggle till all demands are secured. From everywhere that the Shaheed Kalash Yatras are traveling through, the demand for the arrest and sacking of Ajay Mishra from the union government's council of ministers is getting stronger. These yatras are strengthening the resolve of thousands of participants joining to pay homage, to carry forward the struggle peacefully and strongly as before.

In Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, several such yatras are being held. In Prayagraj district, the ashes of the martyrs were immersed in the Sangam. Yatras traversed through Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Mathura, Sant Kabir Nagar, Deoria, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Sitapur, Kaushambi, Basti, Aligarh and many other districts. In Uttarakhand, yatras travelled through Vikasnagar, Khatima and Nanakmatta of Udham Singh Nagar.  

The yatras in Punjab covered all the districts in all the three regions of Malwa, Majha and Doaba. The response has been huge. These yatras have drawn even urban citizens wherever they travelled, and the demand for justice is getting louder and stronger. One of the yatras is traveling through villages around Chandigarh. In Himachal Pradesh, ashes of the martyrs were immersed in Poanta Sahib at Yamuna Ghat. The Punjab government has issued cheques of 50 lakh rupees each to the kins of the five martyrs of Lakhimpur Kheri massacre.

In Haryana, the farmers and the people are also coming out in thousands in numerous villages in almost all districts to pay homage in the Yatras. Panipat, Sonepat, Bhiwani, Karnal, Sirsa, Rohtak, Hisar, Jind are some of the districts that have been covered so far. All the freed toll plazas in Haryana, where thousands of farmers assemble every day, are being covered.

In Odisha, after covering a large area, the ashes of the Shaheed Kalash Yatra were immersed in the Daya River, historically documented as the river that changed the heart of Emperor Ashoka. In Madhya Pradesh, Yatras are being held in Gwalior and many other places. 

In the southernmost state of our country, Tamilnadu, the Shaheed Kalash Yatras received tremendous response. One yatra was initiated in Chennai, and in its four day schedule, this yatra covered 22 districts like Dindivanam, Villupuram, Salem, Namakkal, Karur, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Sivagangai, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Tanjavur, Tiruvarur, and Nagapattinam, before the ashes were immersed in the Bay of Bengal in Vedaranyam.

Maharashtra's Shaheed Kalash Yatra began in Pune on October 27 from Mahatma Jotirao Phule's house, and it will culminate in a large kisan mazdoor mahapanchayat in Mumbai at Azad Maidan near the Hutatma Chowk on November 18. The Hutatma Chowk commemorates 106 martyrs, most of them workers and peasants, of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement. In Mumbai it will pay homage to the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji at Shivaji Park, the Chaitya Bhoomi of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and the memorial to martyr Babu Genu, who was crushed to death in Mumbai in 1930 by a British-driven truck because he was protesting against the import of British cloth. This mahapanchayat will be addressed by SKM leaders. The yatra will reach Mumbai after traveling all over the state covering 36 districts. 

SUPREME COURT CRITICISES UP GOVT 

In the third hearing on the Lakhimpur Kheri massacre, the Supreme Court pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government yet again. The CJI-led Bench expressed surprise at the fact that only 23 eyewitness accounts were recorded in the case when thousands were present in the rally. The UP government was asked to identify more eye witnesses, accord them protection and record their statements. The UP government has listed 68 witnesses for recording of their statements, out of which only 30 statements have been recorded so far including 23 eye witnesses. The apex court asked the Uttar Pradesh government to expedite the forensic examination, or said that it will issue directions to laboratories for the same. The next hearing has been posted for November 8.

In the second hearing on the Lakhimpur Kheri farmers' massacre last week, the court made adverse remarks about both UP government and union government agencies and their ability to conduct impartial investigation. The bench led by chief justice N V Ramana said that it did not receive the report on the status of investigation in time, and that it never asked for such a report to be submitted in a sealed cover, which in itself is a welcome departure from earlier such instances. The bench also remarked that this investigation cannot be an unending story. The court asked the UP government to dispel the feeling that it is dragging its feet. It asked pointed questions with regard to protection of witnesses. Asking why statements of all listed witnesses have not yet been recorded, the court asked why the most vulnerable witnesses who can be browbeaten have not been recognised and statements recorded. UP government had to commit to protection of witnesses.

In this context, the SKM raised once again the issue about lack of recording of the statements of eye witnesses, and the intimidation that they would be under, which is reflected in the UP government's status report also. A fair investigation in this matter and securing justice are not possible with Ajay Mishra Teni as a union minister. SKM once again demanded speedy justice and said that it is possible only if Ajay Mishra Teni is sacked and arrested.