THE unprecedented farmers’ struggle that began at the borders of India’s capital Delhi on November 26, 2020, and which won a historic victory over the reactionary forces of corporate communalism and also imperialism a full one year and fifteen days later on December 11, 2021, has been by far the largest, the longest and the most powerful nationwide farmers’ struggle in the history of India, and also in the world. This struggle had several distinctive features.

NINE DISTINCTIVE FEATURES

First, it was led by over 500 farmers’ organisations in the country, who had united under the platform of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM). Large sections of the peasantry came together across India and particularly at the Delhi borders, from agricultural workers to poor peasants to middle peasants to some sections of rich peasants.

Second, it was fully supported throughout by the joint platform of central trade unions, in the spirit of worker-peasant unity. In fact, the struggle itself began as a joint struggle, with the ‘chalo Delhi’ call by farmers and an all India working-class strike on the same day - November 26, 2020. Lakhs of peasants and workers from all over the country came out on the streets in solidarity with the Delhi farmers’ struggle in the course of the last year. 

Third, it combated tremendous repression from BJP governments in the form of teargas shells, water cannons, dug up highways, massive barricades, lathi charges, indiscriminate arrests, false police cases, and even farmers being mowed down by cars of a BJP union minister! But this glorious struggle overcame it all. Over 715 farmers were martyred in the course of this battle in the last year. They included women and men, young and old.

Fourth, it faced constant defamation from the BJP-RSS and was ridiculously accused of being instigated by Khalistanis and Naxalites and Maoists, and even by Pakistan and China! As expected, sections of the corporate-owned ‘godi’ media blurted out all these charges ad nauseam and covered themselves with lasting shame. But the farmers’ struggle fought against this and valiantly stood its ground.

Fifth, it combated the worst health disaster to strike India in recent times, the deadly Covid pandemic. The earlier big mass struggle against the CAA-NRC-NPR in 2019-20 was suppressed by the government under the excuse of the pandemic. The farmers’ struggle began in the pandemic and continued valiantly even through the disastrous second wave. The government deliberately pushed through the farm laws in the pandemic, thinking that no resistance would be possible. Farmers blew that illusion to smithereens.     

Sixth, in spite of lakhs of farmers laying siege to Delhi for 380 days and nights, the struggle was completely peaceful and democratic. It also victoriously combated the criminal conspiracy of violence unleashed by the BJP central government, its police and its agent provocateurs on January 26, Republic Day, at the time of the huge tractor rallies.

Seventh, it was entirely secular. The farmers’ struggle all over India cut across religion, caste, region and language. It included men and women, and young and old. The presence of women and youth in this movement was truly remarkable. It was this secular and all-encompassing nature that made it impossible for the government to suppress it.

Eighth, after the political defeat of the BJP in the state assembly elections in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, in the local body elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, and in the recent by-elections in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, it put the BJP-RSS regime on the defensive in the run-up to the state assembly elections in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The SKM began mission Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand with a historic 10 lakh strong rally at Muzaffarnagar.  

Ninth, and most importantly, this struggle directly identified and attacked the corrupt nexus of corporate communalism, between the BJP-RSS-led central government and the Indian and foreign corporate lobby, symbolised by the Ambanis and Adanis. Through its three major demands, this historic class struggle of the peasantry, in fact, squarely attacked the neo-liberal policies and imperialism itself.       

SAVAGE ATTACK OF NEO-LIBERAL POLICIES

The farmers’ struggle had three cardinal demands. One, the repeal of the three anti-farmer, anti-people and pro-corporate farm laws rammed through Parliament in September 2020. Two, the demand for a central law to ensure minimum support price (MSP) and procurement at one and a half times the comprehensive cost of production – a seminal recommendation of the national commission on farmers, headed by Dr M S Swaminathan. Three, the withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill, which sought to privatise electricity and massively increase power tariffs across the board.

If we see the direction of the Modi government’s policies from the Shanta Kumar Committee recommendations of 2015 onwards, it will be clear that these three farm laws were essentially meant to gradually dismantle the MSP regime, government procurement and storage of food grains in FCI godowns, and the entire public distribution system (PDS) itself, that caters to 81 crores of our poor rural and urban citizens.

Eventually, this trajectory would also attack and seek to usurp the land of the peasantry in distress. An attempt was already made towards this end by the Modi regime through the Land Acquisition Amendment Ordinance of 2015. But that was defeated. However, many BJP state governments forced the same amendments through their state assemblies.  

Now the entire agricultural sector was sought to be handed over to the domestic and foreign corporate lobby to increase their super-profits and wealth. Similar attacks were made against the working class through the enactment of the four labour codes. And the entire country is being put up for sale by the BJP regime through its anti-national policy of reckless privatisation of the public sector, and through the national monetisation pipeline.

The very classes that produce the wealth of the country through their labour – the workers and the peasants – were and are being viciously attacked. This is the real meaning of corporate communalism. The neo-liberal policies in our country were begun by the Congress central government in 1991, were taken forward by all subsequent central governments, and have been sped up exponentially by the current Modi-led BJP regime.

The agrarian crisis in India has reached extremely serious proportions due to the neo-liberal policies of the last 30 years. As per the figures of the national crime records bureau (NCRB) under the union home ministry, over four lakh farmers in India have been forced to commit suicide due to indebtedness in the last 25 years from 1995 to 2020. Lakhs of children of poor adivasis, dalits and backward families in our country die every year due to starvation.

RECENT MILESTONES IN THE FARMERS’ STRUGGLE

The farmers’ struggle emphasised that the BJP central government led by Narendra Modi has been the worst culprit in intensifying neoliberal policies in agriculture, industry and other sectors. BJP-led state governments have followed suit.

But the last seven years have also seen a steady strengthening of peasant resistance against the neoliberal assault on their livelihoods by the Modi government. As agrarian distress intensified, farmers and agricultural workers raised their voices against it. See these major protests by farmers in the years after the Modi regime came to power in 2014:

·         The nationwide peasant struggle in 2015 against the Land Acquisition Amendment Ordinance led by the bhoomi adhikar andolan (BAA), a joint platform initiated by the AIKS, which forced the Modi regime to eventually withdraw the ordinance, this being the first defeat of the newly installed BJP government;

·         The four nationwide jathas by the AIKS, and the large rally of tens of thousands of peasants before Parliament in Delhi in November 2016, despite the savage attack of demonetization;    

·         The AIKS-led kisan struggle of Rajasthan in 2017-18 for loan waiver and MSP, which succeeded in winning a good loan waiver package and other important demands;

·         The 11-day united farmers’ strike in Maharashtra from June 1-11, 2017 and the AIKS-led iconic kisan long march from March 6-12, 2018, both of which succeeded in wresting a large loan waiver package from the BJP state government, progress in the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), and increase in old-age pensions;

·         The formation of the all India kisan sangharsh coordination committee (AIKSCC) in June 2017, with the AIKS being one of its major constituents, after the brutal police firing by the BJP Madhya Pradesh state government at Mandsaur that led to the martyrdom of six farmers;

·         The AIKSCC’s impressive kisan mukti sansad and the mahila kisan sansad in Delhi in November 2017, in which thousands participated from across the country;

·         The two seminal AIKSCC Bills prepared after extensive countrywide consultations and placed before Parliament in August 2018 – one for freedom from indebtedness, and the other for guaranteed remunerative MSP; 

·         The CITU-AIKS-AIAWU-led 10 lakh strong nationwide jail bharo on August 9, 2018, and the two lakh strong mazdoor kisan rally in New Delhi on September 5, 2018;

·         The AIKSCC’s one lakh strong kisan mukti march in Delhi on November 29-30, 2018.

The current nationwide farmers’ struggle was therefore not spontaneous: it was, in fact, the climax of all these earlier massive peasant struggles and campaigns.  

Over the years, the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendation of remunerative MSP at one and a half times the comprehensive cost of production (C2 + 50 per cent) and complete loan waiver to farmers, became the two main demands of the peasantry. The demand for an increase in the days of work under MNREGA to 200 and wages to Rs 600, along with its expansion to urban areas, also became an important demand. The AIKSCC-led kisan mukti march in November 2018 adopted a 19-point comprehensive charter of demands of the peasantry and the agricultural workers of India, which went beyond these three basic demands. The AIKS played a vital role in the formulation of this demand charter.

After the Modi government promulgated the three hated farm laws first as ordinances on June 5, 2020, the AIKSCC gave a countrywide call for mass protests. Several other kisan organisations in Punjab also began a struggle and they later formed a joint front of 32 farmers’ organisations, including the AIKS. The BKU (Ekta Ugrahan), a large farmers’ organisation in Punjab, chose not to be a part of these 32 organisations but began its own independent struggle on the same issues. But it later joined the SKM.

When the Modi regime rammed through the three farm laws through Parliament in September 2020, the AIKSCC gave a clarion call for countrywide actions on September 25 and also gave a call for a massive ‘chalo Delhi’ on November 26. In October 2020 the AIKSCC invited many other farmers’ organisations from Punjab, Haryana and other states, which were outside its fold, to a joint meeting in Delhi. It was in this meeting that the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) was born and it unitedly led the farmers’ struggle from November 26, 2020. Organisations like the BKU (Tikait) in Uttar Pradesh joined the struggle soon after.

Ideologically, the organisations in the SKM belong to the left, right and centre. But it was indeed a welcome development that they came together around an issue-based struggle.

For over 12 months, tens of thousands of farmers laid siege to the capital at its borders like Singhu, Tikri, Ghazipur, Shahajahanpur, Palwal and Mewat. They braved the intense cold, scorching heat and torrential rains. It is this struggle that has now ended in a partial victory.

(To be concluded next week)