THE All India Agricultural Workers Union General Council which met at Nalgonda from September 20-22, 2016, called on its units to observe October 24 as a nationwide protest day against the mounting attacks and atrocities on dalits. The council deliberations observed that since the BJP government came into power the emboldened Hindutva Parivar mounted an unbridled attack on dalits and Muslim minorities. Over the last few years, there is an exponential rise in atrocities on dalits.

THE All India Kisan Sabha, in a statement issued on September 20, has strongly condemned the killing of two farmers including a woman in Nagaon district of Assam near the Kaziranga National Park in a forced eviction drive. Anjuma Khatun and Fakhruddin have died and five farmers are seriously injured in the firing. It is the insensitive approach and total failure of the administration that led to this unfortunate incident. Hence the chief minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal must tender apology to the people.

THE transformation of the agrarian landscape under contemporary capitalism has yielded new ways in which big companies use their financial power to control the production processes in agriculture. This use of financial and political clout can take many forms. The first is of course outright land deals where companies directly control both land and production. This is especially true of the African countries where agricultural supply chains have spread considerably. Here the control of land by the companies is direct either in terms of transfer of ownership, or through long term leases.

THE remarkable characteristic of the revised budget 2016-17 of Kerala presented by the finance minister Dr Thomas Issac is the thrust it gives to the task of modernisation of agriculture and production sector. This aspect has the potential to help the state in the long run to overcome the imminent stagnation and prolong crisis looming large on the economic and social sphere of the state in the context of the failure of neoliberal model of reforms and systemic crisis of world capitalist system.

THE Modi government’s NITI Aayog seeks the extension of liberalisation to the sector of land leasing. It has brought out a document, titled “Report of the Expert Committee on Land Leasing”, on March 31, 2016. A “Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016” is enclosed with this document for consideration by the state governments for initiation of legislation in their respective assemblies as it happens to be a subject under the state list of the Constitution.