Maha: AIKS Organises Right to MSP Convention at Wardha
Ajit Nawale
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ON April 7, 2024, the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) Maharashtra unit organised a large and enthusiastic Right to Minimum Support Price (MSP) Vidarbha level convention at Wardha. It was attended by over 800 farmers from Wardha, Yavatmal, Amravati, Buldana, Nagpur, and Gadchiroli districts of the Vidarbha region.
Exactly a month ago, on March 7, 2024, the AIKS Maharashtra unit had organised a similar 1000-strong Marathwada level farmers convention at Majalgaon in Beed district. It had been inaugurated by the eminent economist, Madhura Swaminathan.
Vidarbha and Marathwada are two of the backward regions of Maharashtra. Cotton, soyabean, and tur (and some sugarcane in parts of Marathwada) are the main crops here. These two regions have chronically seen the largest number of farmers' suicides in the state due to indebtedness. That is why both these regional conventions were organised by the AIKS to focus on the burning peasant issues here on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections.
The Wardha convention was inaugurated by AIKS president Ashok Dhawale. It was chaired by a senior leader of the Shetkari Sanghatana, Vijay Jawandhia, who in the early 1990s had directly opposed the support given by Sharad Joshi to ‘free market’ neo-liberal policies in agriculture. The concluding speech was by AIKS state general secretary Ajit Nawale. The main resolution was moved by AIKS state vice president Yashwant Zade, and it was seconded by AIKS leaders Kisan Gujar, Dada Raipure, Mahadev Garpawar, Dilip Parchake, Anil Gaikwad, Jitendra Chopde, Shyam Shinde, and Amol Marakwar.
All the speakers raised the vital issue of MSP, along with important related issues of peasants like loan waiver, crop insurance, electricity, pension, and others. The speakers squarely attacked the betrayal of the BJP central government led by Narendra Modi on all these issues.
The speakers said that the declaration of Modi of doubling farmers’ incomes was a sham. On the contrary, all official figures show that farmers’ incomes from cultivation have actually declined in the last few years. As per the union home ministry’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a shocking 1,00,474 farmers have been forced to commit suicide due to indebtedness during the Modi years from 2014 to 2022 (no figures are available after that.) Instead of implementing a farm loan waiver, the Modi regime has written off loans worth over Rs 15 lakh crore to a handful of its favourite crony corporates. The promise of 2014 to implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendation of ensuring MSP at one and a half times the comprehensive cost of production (C2 + 50 percent) has been repeatedly violated.
Referring to the massive recent struggles on these and other issues led by the SKM in the country, the latest being the March 14 massive Delhi Rally, and by the AIKS in the state, they called for continuing sustained struggles on these burning peasant demands.
Finally, they also called for an intensive and extensive mass campaign throughout the state to expose and defeat the anti-peasant, pro-corporate, communal and authoritarian BJP-RSS regime, and ensure the victory of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA-INDIA) in Maharashtra.
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