Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 19: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella organisation of farmer unions, has rejected the government’s formula for ending the farmers “Delhi Chalo” agitation offering a five-year contract to buy three types of pulses, maize and cotton at the old Minimum Support Price (MSP).
The SKM, though not directly involved in the current round of agitation, on Monday evening criticised the government’s proposal as “diverting the focal demands of farmers” and insisted on nothing less than the purchase of “all crops (23, including the above five) with guaranteed procurement (as) promised in the BJP manifesto (before the) 2014 general election.”
This procurement, the SKM stressed should be based on the C2+50 per cent MSP, the formula of the Swaminathan Commission and not the existing A2+FL+50 per cent method.
The agitating farmers after the fourth round of meetings with the government committee of three union ministers had asserted that they would discuss the proposal with domain experts and take a decision even as the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march was kept on standby for now. “We will discuss the proposals offered by the government with agriculture and legal experts besides farmers, and then take a call on it, and convey our decision to the Centre.
“As far as our Delhi march is concerned, we have put it on standby for now. On February 21, however, we will peacefully start our march. We will try that before February 21 we put our points before the government and discuss some remaining issues,” Sarwan Singh Pandher of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, one of the unions spearheading the current agitation, had said.
The SKM also criticised the government for a lack of transparency through the four rounds of talks so far. And finally, the SKM has also demanded the government make progress on other demands, which include loan waivers, no hike in electricity tariffs, and the withdrawal of police cases filed during the 2020/21 protests, when protesting farmers had violent clashes with security personnel.
There has also been no progress, the SKM said, on demands like a comprehensive public sector crop insurance scheme and a monthly pension of ₹ 10,000 to farmers over the age of 60. A demand to prosecute junior Home Minister Ajay Mishra Teni in connection with the deaths of farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri – has also not been resolved.
Though the SKM is not the farmer body at the head of these protests, it as a large federation of farmer unions, can influence those farmers who participated in Sunday’s meeting with the government. In the overall narrative of the farmers’ protests, this is crucial because those now at Shambhu on the Punjab and Haryana border – and speaking to the government – are seeking additional support and getting the SKM on-board will add a good deal of muscle in attempts to bargain with the authorities.
Representatives of farmers leading this protest and the government met in Chandigarh Sunday evening for a fourth round of talks, from which the five-year, C2 + 50 per cent contract emerged. The farmers asked for, and were given, 48 hours to decide on the offer, but the signs so far are not encouraging, with some of the agitators said the proposal has “no benefit to Punjab, Haryana farmers…”
