Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers’ stir challenges sectarian politics

The historic farmers’ rally in Muzaffarnagar on September 5, organised by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spearheading the agrarian stir, was like no other. More than 500,000 farmers attended the rally, according to the local police. All of Muzaffarnagar town was flooded with farmers, according to some social media posts which called it a sailab (flood). This was the biggest rally yet, and perhaps one of the biggest ever, in the ten month long farmers’ struggle to press the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to repeal the three controversial agricultural laws.Farm leaders raised a battle cry at this rally against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and called for Hindu-Muslim unity to counter it. Several leaders condemned the BJP for fuelling the politics of hate and division between castes and communities and appealed to the farmers to inflict vote ki chot (electoral defeat) on them. The resurrection of communal amity in the context of the sectarian divide in this region caused by mass violence in Muzaffarnagar was the most important highlight of the rally. This town was the site of a major communal conflagration in 2013. The rift it created between the Jats and Muslims had helped the BJP to sweep the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections. There was no protest movement in these parts after the outbreak of communal violence that drove a wedge in farmers’ unity which battered their movement in the region. However, political equations have undergone a radical change since then. Many Muslims joined the rally which was earlier predominantly a Jat affair. They organised langars and other forms of sewa for the farmers arriving in Muzaffarnagar and made arrangements for their stay in mosques etc. The public idiom of social peace was noteworthy as revivification of communal amity dents the politics of hate which is central to the political success of communal forces.The principal demands of the protesting farmers remain the same — they are against the three contentious laws passed by the Central Government. They want the government to ensure a minimum support price (MSP) on farming produce. The slogan of faslon ke daam nahin, toh vote nahin (no fair price for crops, no votes) was a recurrent theme. However, it is worth noting that farm leaders went far beyond these issues. They raised issues of sectors beyond agriculture. Importantly, the government agenda of wholesale privatisation came in for sharp criticism in several speeches at the rally. More generally, they spoke about issues concerning workers, withdrawal of pensions and the need to preserve and protect the Constitution. They expressed strong disapproval of the new labour codes, sale of public sector units, roads, railways, electricity and so on. They even lashed out at the Centre over its National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP). The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader and its chief spokesman Rakesh Tikait elaborated on how everything is on sale. He said: “We have to stop the country from getting sold. The banks are being sold like the Food Corporation of India (FCI) land is being given to Adani. The ‘Sale of India’ boards have been put up and the purchasers are Ambani and Adani.” He also claimed that the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) are in ‘danger’ and the SKM will take steps to activate resistance against ‘India’s sale’ by building solidarities to save these national assets.In brief, the farmers threw down a new challenge to the ruling party — the protest would no longer be only about the repeal of the farm laws which had triggered anger in the first place. Several speeches mentioned this signalling as a widening of the farmers’ discourse to key national issues that matter in Indian politics today. This was a clear attempt at reaching out to a bigger constituency beyond farmers.The mainstream media ignored the farmers’ rally or underplayed it which actually underscores its political significance. Some television channels reported that hundreds of farmers attended the Muzaffarnagar rally when in fact lakhs of them participated in it, while most others mentioned it in passing, moving on quickly to Taliban and Afghanistan. Newspapers have been equally reticent in their coverage of the rally, despite the impressive turnout at the event and the shifting ground of politics it represented. The farmers’ protest had already been moved out of the front pages of newspapers much before this mega rally even as farmers persisted with their agitation on the borders of Delhi. But the massive rally indicates that the farmers’ protest is alive and will not go away even if the media pretends that it does not exist. This rally showed that the anger against the government over the three farm laws has not abated and may well dent the BJP’s electoral prospects in over 120 seats of western Uttar Pradesh in the 2022 Assembly elections.Thanks to this rally, the political battleground has moved from Punjab and Haryana to the Hindi heartland. The long protest against the Centre is likely to resound as a major Opposition issue in the coming Assembly elections. The farm leaders sounded the bugle of ‘Mission UP’, giving a direct call for the removal of the BJP from Uttar Pradesh and from the country too. They also said that they will campaign against the ruling party in all districts and villages of Uttar Pradesh, including Varanasi, Lucknow and Gorakhpur. The message is very clear — either repeal the laws or face defeat in the state election.What impact this will have on the Uttar Pradesh polls is hard to tell at this point, especially as this protest is yet to reach the central and eastern parts of the state. Even so, one thing is clear: it has shaken the ruling party as these ongoing protests have complicated political equations in the region. The farmers’ agitation has given a new hope for the revival of political and social alliances in the state which can challenge the cynical politics of polarisation. This has triggered unease within the BJP as it must win the crucial 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections of Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha and will be the pathway to power at the Centre in 2024.

The Tribune

2021-09-10