Farmers Movement Archive

‘Govt. wants to make us bonded labourers’

“When there is an election, we become both anna data (food provider) and mat data (voter), but today the farmer is neither of the two,” bemoaned Jagveer Singh, a 74-year-old farmer squatting on the divider of NH 9, jammed by thousands of farmers on Friday in protest against the farm bills passed by the Parliament in the just-concluded monsoon session. Hailing from the Rasoolpur village of Hapur, he shied away from sharing the exact size of landholding he had. “ Majhola (mid-level) kisan samajh lo ,” he said. “None of us protesting here has more than 7-8 bighas of land. Bas kisi tarah ghar chal jata hai .” He didn’t know exactly what was there in the three farm Bills but what he understood was “this government wants to make us bonded labourers of private players.” “And I know what a private party is like because we have dealt with Simbaoli Sugar Mill. It still owes around Rs. 500 crores to cane farmers,” his wrinkled face grew a few more creases. “Despite,” chipped in Sudesh Kumar, sitting next to Mr. Singh, “Our Chief Minister, taking oath on Ganga water, had said that he would get us our dues in 14 days and even the Supreme Court gave a ruling in our favour. Do you still think we stand a chance against these corporates when they won’t abide by the contract,” he rued. “Freedom was the only thing we had and that is also being snatched away from us,” said Mr. Kumar, adding the only option left for farmers was to hit the road and get themselves heard. ‘Unity among groups’ The good thing, said Kushalpal Arya, national secretary of Bhartiya Kisan Union, the issue had brought together different farmer groups and political parties. At the protest, tractors with flags of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan could be seen and representatives of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress were part of the sit-in protest. “I hope farmers will not get swayed by the emotive issues that BJP keeps bringing up and stay united,” he said. Polishing off a bowl of chhole , after a hard day under the sun, Mr. Arya pointed out the farmers wanted “reforms” in the APMC system, not its “slow death”, which the Bills seek to achieve. “We know most of us are not getting the SMP (this was how most of the farmers in the protest called MSP) price, but at least in the APMC we could unite and had the right to register our protest. The aaratiya (middleman) comes from local society and often stands by the farmer in his dukh sukh (good and bad day) when the government refuses to buy,” he said. “And if the government thinks, the Bills would eliminate middlemen, it is wrong. He will become an agent of the corporate and would carry out his wish, which will be worse,” noted Mr. Arya. The Bills, he said, were formulated without taking into account the ground realities. “Through these Bills, the government is allowing the private parties to hoard knowing fully well that the ordinary farmer doesn’t have any storage capacity. He will always blink first in the battle of wait for a good price,” he said. ‘One nation, 2 markets’ Dharmendra Malik, the national spokesperson of BKU, said The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020 would create a situation of one country, two markets. “The government is saying that the APMC system would continue. But it is anybody’s guess that faced with two systems – one with regulation and taxes and the other without them – the private player, agent, and businessman would ensure only the latter thrives. This will eventually make APMC meaningless.” Earlier, in a widespread protest, in which Rashtriya Lok Dal and Bhartiya Kisan Sangathan also participated, farmers jammed national and State highways in Shahjahanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Bijnor, Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Noida, Aligarh, and Mathura, leading to long traffic jams across western Uttar Pradesh.

The Hindu

2020-09-26

Hapur