A MASSIVE statewide kisan mazdoor mahapanchayat was held on November 28, 2021 at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on the occasion of the death anniversary of Mahatma Jotirao Phule. Tens of thousands of peasants, workers, agricultural labourers, women, youth and students of all religions and castes from all over Maharashtra thronged this mahapanchayat. It was organised by the Samyukta Shetkari Kamgar Morcha (SSKM), which comprises around 100 organisations. There were large contingents from the districts of Thane, Palghar, Nashik, Raigad, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon and Mumbai itself. Several organisations had mobilised well. The AIKS strength was by far the largest. On November 29, the day after this programme, the three hated anti-farmer, anti-people and pro-corporate farm laws were repealed in parliament.

The mahapanchayat was presided over by J P Gavit, ex-MLA (AIKS) and Milind Ranade (NTUI). It was addressed by prominent SKM leaders Rakesh Tikait, Darshan Pal, Hannan Mollah, and others. At the end, AIKS president Ashok Dhawale moved a condolence resolution for all the 700-odd martyrs of the farmers’ struggle, and tens of thousands of participants stood up to pay homage. The mahapanchayat concluded with the national anthem.

The galaxy of national and state leaders of various farmers’ and workers’ organisations hailed the historic victory of the year long farmers’ struggle over the BJP-RSS government and its corporate allies in getting the farm laws repealed, and also declared their determination to fight for the remaining demands. These include a central law to guarantee a just MSP and procurement, withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill, repeal of the four labour codes, a halt to selling off the country at a pittance to the corporates through privatisation, halving the price of diesel, petrol, cooking gas and other essential commodities, doubling the days of work and wages under MNREGA and extending it to the urban areas, and removal from the union cabinet and arrest of the butcher of Lakhimpur Kheri, Ajay Mishra Teni. 

All the leaders led a broadside attack against the BJP-RSS and called for the defeat of the BJP in the coming state assembly elections and in the statewide local body elections in Maharashtra. 

Leaders also demanded that the MVA Maharashtra state government drop the three farm bills that it has tabled in the last session of the state assembly. These had been strongly opposed by the SSKM even then, because they mimic the three central farm laws, with some minor amendments. With the repeal of the three farm laws, these bills must also be withdrawn. Some speakers also demanded an honourable settlement of the state transport workers strike that has been going on for their legitimate demands for a month, stringent implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), raising the price paid to farmers for milk, soyabean, cotton and other commodities, and ensuring proper compensation under the PM crop insurance scheme.

All the Sikh Gurudwaras of New Mumbai came together and provided free lunch, breakfast and tea at the Azad Maidan to all the participants. They were warmly thanked and applauded.

MONTH-LONG SHAHEED KALASH YATRA

The Shaheed Kalash Yatra of the Lakhimpur Kheri martyrs, which began with an impressive joint programme by the SSKM from Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule’s ancient house in Pune on October 27, was taken by several peasant organisations independently to over 30 districts of Maharashtra in the last one month. The AIKS took it in an organised way to 25 districts. Large public meetings were held in hundreds of places to pay homage to the Lakhimpur Kheri martyrs and also to all the 700-odd martyrs of this historic farmers’ struggle.

On November 27, the various Shaheed Kalash Yatras from all over the state converged in Mumbai, paid tribute to the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, whom Mahatma Phule had described in his ballad as the ‘king of the peasantry’, the Chaitya Bhoomi of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, a champion of the struggle against caste and gender oppression and one of the architects of the Constitution of India, the memorial to Shaheed Babu Genu, a peasant turned textile mill worker who was crushed in Mumbai on December 12, 1930 by a British truck when he was protesting against British cloth, and the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the towering leader of the freedom struggle against British imperialism and a champion of truth, non-violence and secularism – values that have guided the one year long farmers’ struggle. 

On the morning of November 28, the Shaheed Kalash Yatra paid homage at the Hutatma Chowk, which commemorates the 106 martyrs of the iconic Samyukta Maharashtra Movement in the 1950s. The ashes of the martyrs were immersed in the Arabian Sea off the Gateway of India in a special programme, in the evening after the mahapanchayat.