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The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) – the platform behind a massive peasant uprising in 2021 that opposed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in recent Assembly polls – has decided to launch a series of agitation from March 21 to protest what it said was the “Modi government’s breaking of promises”.
After a setback in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, where it failed to upend the BJP, and since it called off a 13-month-long movement last year, the SKM held its first deliberations in the national capital on Monday to discuss future plans.
“The SKM has decided on a waada-khilafi andolan (agitation against broken promises) of the Modi government,” Rakesh Tikait, a prominent SKM leader, said.
Farmers will hold protests in phases, instead of a continuous siege at protest sites outside Delhi, as they did last year, the SKM meet decided.
The agitation on March 21 will be a one-day affair. In the next phase from April 9-17, the SKM will launch a countrywide strike to demand minimum benchmark prices for farm produce.
“The most serious issues for farmers are that despite official assurances, cases against farmers haven’t been withdrawn and farmers have got no real justice for the murderous crime in Lakhimpur Kheri,” farm leader Yogendra Yadav said. On October 5 2021, in Lakhimpur Kheri, a rural pocket in Uttar Pradesh, the son of a minister in the Modi government allegedly ploughed an SUV into a crowd of farmers, killing four, for which he was arrested and has since got bail.
The farmers had called off their demonstrations on December 9, 2021 after the SKM accepted proposals offered by the Centre in a letter written by the Union agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal.
The Centre had stated it would set up a committee to “ensure how farmers can get minimum support prices (MSP)”. Farm unions want a law to guarantee floor prices for their produce. Distress selling and price volatility cause huge annual losses, they say.
The Centre has not yet formed the committee, although Union agriculture minister Narendra Tomar had said last month the “Centre was committed to fulfil all assurances” and the committee would be set up after a round of Assembly polls.
The letter also said the “Centre in principle has agreed to withdraw all charges and cases” against farmers pressed during the course of their agitation, barring “serious offences”.
Police in various states have slapped over 40,000 cases, Avik Saha, a farm leader said. Saha, one of them, has been charged with the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), commonly deemed an anti-terror law.
A key demand of farm unions was that the Modi government roll back three federal farm laws. Faced with discontent, the Modi government eventually cancelled the laws in December 2021.
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