Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 5: The nine-month old farmers’ agitation against the three contentious farm laws adopted by the Narendra Modi government has started taking political turn with the farm leaders deciding to make the ruling BJP the target in the coming elections in the two crucial states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Thousands of farmers from Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring States on Sunday gathered at Muzaffarnagar for a ‘Kisan mahapanchayat’ aimed at “saving the country,” just months ahead of the crucial U.P. Assembly polls.
The event was organised by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) at the Government Inter College ground in Muzaffarnagar in protest against the Centre’s controversial farm laws.
“These meetings will be held across the country. We have to stop the country from getting sold. Farmers should be saved, the country should be saved; business, employees and youth should be saved–this is the aim of the rally,” Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said.
Even while announcing that the farmers’ agitation, including the sit-in protest along Delhi’s borders would continue indefinitely till the centre conceded their demands, the farmers have declared that they will campaign against the BJP in next year’s state elections in UP and Uttarakhand. They even dubbed today’s mega-meeting in Muzaffarnagar “Mission Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand”, indicating their plans to focus on the two BJP-ruled states where elections will be held next year.
Rakesh Tikait reiterated his pledged to continue the protests at Delhi border till demands are met. Tikait told reporters on Sunday that the farmers’ agitation would continue for the foreseeable future until their demands are fulfilled by the government. Drawing a parallel between the farmers’ agitation and the struggle for Independence, Tikait said “the struggle for Independence continued for 90 years so I have no idea for how long this agitation will run.”
“We take a pledge that we will not leave the protest site there (at Delhi borders) even if our graveyard is made there. We will lay down our lives if needed, but will not leave the protest site until we emerge victorious,” he told the gathering at Kisan Mahapanchayat. “When the government of India will invite us for talks, we will go. The farmers’ agitation will continue until the government fulfils our demands,” the BKU leader added.
Popular names like Medha Patkar and Yogendra Yadav were seen on the dais at the Muzaffarnagar gathering. Yadav was given a yellow robe by Tikait, while the BKU leader was presented a mace at the event.
BKU media in-charge Dharmendra Malik said farmers belonging to 300 organisations spread across different States like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka, among others, have gathered for the event.
He said over 5,000 ‘langars’ (food stalls), including some mobile stalls, have been set up for the participants. The farmers, including women carrying flags of different organisations and wearing different coloured caps, were seen arriving at the venue in buses, cars and tractors.
A woman farmer leader from Karnataka addressed the gathering in Kannada language. One of the participants blew a ‘ransingha’ (trumpet), the photograph of which was posted by the Kisan Ekta Morcha on Twitter.
“In old times, when the fight was for honour and respect, this instrument [ransingha] was used. Today, a call has been given for war by all ‘kisan majdoor’ unions against the BJP’s ‘corporate raj’,” it tweeted in Hindi.
The BJP Member of Parliament Varun Gandhi became the first BJP leader to come out openly in favour of the farmers describing the protesting farmers as “our own flesh and blood” and suggesting his party government at the centre to “re-engage with them in reaching common ground.” The BJP leader also shared a video recording of hundreds and thousands of farmers gathered at Muzaffarnagar for the Kisan Mahapanchayat on Sunday
The parliamentarian representing Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency called for the inclusion of their point of view in working out a common ground and insisted their hardships should be taken into consideration. “Lakhs of farmers have gathered in protest today, in Muzaffarnagar. They are our own flesh and blood. We need to start re-engaging with them in a respectful manner: understand their pain, their point of view and work with them in reaching common ground,” Gandhi tweeted on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Muzaffarnagar administration denied Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Chaudhry’s request to sprinkle flowers from a helicopter on the venue and participants of the mahapanchayat. City magistrate Abhishek Singh rejected the request, saying it cannot be allowed due to security reasons.
The district authorities have posted police personnel at the residences of Union Minister Sanjiv Balyan and BJP MLA Umesh Malik here, as a precautionary measure.
The SKM on Saturday claimed that thousands of farmers from 15 States had reached Muzaffarnagar to participate in the mahapanchayat. The umbrella body of 40 farmer unions spearheading the farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s three farm laws said the event would prove that the agitation had the support of “all castes, religions, States, classes, small traders and other sections of society”.
“The mahapanchayat of September 5 will make the Yogi-Modi governments realise the power of farmers, farm labourers and supporters of the farm movement. The Muzaffarnagar mahapanchayat will be the biggest ever in the last nine months,” the SKM had said in a statement.
It also said that 100 medical camps had been set up for the farmers attending the mahapanchayat. The farmers’ protest against the three contentious laws has completed over nine months since they first arrived at Delhi borders. They have been demanding the repeal of the laws, which they are afraid will do away with the MSP system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.
The farmers unions announced during Sunday’s Mahapanchayat that the upcoming Bharat Bandh will be observed on September 27 instead of September 25.
In a taunting tone, Tikait said the farmers would “campaign in the name of the Prime Minister” because that’s what the BJP does too, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said in a tongue-in-cheek message today, making it clear that the nature of their “publicity” will be very different. “We are giving publicity to the PM only,” Tikait said and added, “He (Prime Minister Modi) is selling everything. We will tell people what all is being sold off. There will be publicity of the PM. Electricity, water, etc are being sold off. Is it wrong to tell people these things?” After the farmers’ protest meet, Tikait said such farmers’ meetings would be held in other districts of Uttar Pradesh as well.
“The second PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) is in Varanasi (PM Modi’s Lok Sabha seat). Panchayats will be held there as well as in Lucknow,” Tikait said. Asked if a maha-panchayat will be held in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s hometown Gorakhpur, he said: “Woh kisan ka sheher, Yogi ji ka toh mandir hai (That city belongs to farmers. Yogi-ji only has the temple).” Before becoming the Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath ran the famous Shiva temple which gave the town its name.
