Singhu Border, 6 July (Sangrami Lehar Bureao)- Today, Maharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi Government moved some amendments to the 3 central farm laws in the state assembly and two months have been given for public to give feedback. While moving amendments to the 3 black laws, it was affirmed that the Union Government has no authority to trample on Agriculture which is a subject that states have Constitutional Authority on. It was also acknowledged that there has been unacceptable repression unleashed on the protesting farmers, and that hundreds of farmers have been martyred so far, when they sacrificed their lives in the struggle. The Maharashtra government ministers saluted the historical and inspiring struggle of farmers which has been going on for more than 7 months now. There was also a call to the Union Government to resume talks with protesting farmers again. While these statements extend support to the ongoing movement, it is also true that amending the central laws will not empower farmers or the farmers’ movement. This was seen in the case of amendments moved by Punjab and Rajasthan governments also. Further, amending laws that the Supreme Court has put under suspension is inexplicable! It is also unjustified that when the Kisan Andolan is asking for a full repeal of all the 3 laws, Maharashtra government is moving amendments in those very laws.
The Government of India is going to town with its spin-stories on record wheat procurement that has been taken up in Rabi 2020-21. What the government is not revealing however is the proportion of procurement within total production of wheat in the country – this is just 39.65% of wheat output (43.32 million tonnes procured out of the total wheat output of 109.24 million tonnes); what it is also not revealing thereby is the picture of prices realised by farmers who have not received procurement support which has been at MSP. There are also regular reports from the ground of farmers who have not received their payment, after they sold wheat to procurement agencies.
It was on October 6th 2020 that a Pakka Morcha was started in Sirsa, Haryana, against the Modi Government’s three black laws. It has been nine months of the morcha. Today, there was a dhikkaar rally organised in Sirsa’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh Stadium which was organised against Dushyant and Ranjeet Chautala. The rally was attended by numerous Samyukt Kisan Morcha leaders.
Members of several organizations at the Ghazipur farmers Morcha paid homage to Father Stan Swamy, hailing him as a dedicated fighter for the rights of tribal people in Jharkhand. They severely condemned his being implicated falsely in the Bhima Koregaon case, being kept in judicial custody for no legal requirement, being denied proper medical attention and being denied bail despite his old age and health problems. Speakers described the injustice meted out to him by government, through its investigation and jail authorities. He succumbed to injustice from the judicial system also.
Farmers, especially paddy farmers of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are dealing with frequent and long power cuts and deeply concerned about their crop drying up in the absence of electricity and irrigation supply. Protests are regularly being organised by farmers locally in all these states. Meanwhile, a BJP meeting in Bhiwani faced a black flag protest from a large number of farmers who gathered against the meeting and the leaders.
Yesterday, there was a Valmiki Kisan Panchayat organised at Ghazipur Border, initiated by the Valmiki Samaj Sangh, with participation of Valmiki Kranti Dal, Bharatiya Valmiki Sangh, Delhi Valmiki Chaupal, Chanakyapuri Valmiki Mandir and others. It was acknowledged that the BJP-RSS forces want to divide farmers as per caste lines and break their unity. Against this backdrop, all participants of the Panchayat took a firmer resolve that they will not allow divisive forces to break the unity of different communities.
The farmers’ movement is truly a people’s movement. It has the support and participation of some extra-ordinary citizens. One such person is a 29-year old research scholar from Delhi. She exemplifies the kind of support that urban consumers are extending to the movement. Anuroop Kaur Sandhu has been meticulously chronicling information related to farmers martyred in the struggle from the beginning. Started on 9th December, this young lady’s blog site has now become the source of information about martyrs in the movement. She says that her realisation of the value of human death along with that of human life is probably rooted in her Sikh and Punjabi identity. Anuroop is helped by Amar Mander, Jai Singh Sandhu and Harender Happy in this, where information from media articles and morchas are combined and collated. The blog site is: https://humancostoffarmersprotest.blogspot.com/2020/12/list-of-deaths-in-farmers-protest-at.html . Today, two more farmers became martyred in the farmers’ struggle. Darshan Singh of Moga district had been at Singhu Border from 26th of November 2020, from the beginning of the current agitation. Dharam Singh, another elderly farmer who passed away today is from Tarntaran district of Punjab.