Four farmers from flood-hit Palakkad in Kerala have already started their 2,500-km journey to Delhi by motorbike. In a few days, thousands of Nashik farmers who participated in the Kisan Long March to Mumbai in March will board a special train chartered to bring them to the Capital as well.
These are a few of the approximately three lakh farmers, workers and agricultural workers that unions affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) hope to mobilise for a September 5 rally in the Capital against the government’s “anti-worker, anti-people and anti-national” policies.
Camps are being constructed at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, as well as in Ghaziabad, to house the protesters who are expected to start pouring into the Capital from September 3. They expect to march from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament Street for a public meeting.
“We originally expected about 20,000 from Kerala, but it may go down because of the floods. There are 10,000 to 15,000 expected from Maharashtra and another 10,000 from Bihar. Of course, the majority will come from the neighbouring States [to Delhi],” said All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) joint secretary Vijoo Krishnan.
He had been instrumental in organising 50,000 farmers to walk 180 km from Nashik to India’s financial capital in March, demanding debt waivers and an implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations on a more comprehensive minimum support price for crops.
Those are two of the major demands of the September 5 rally as well, along with a demand to universalise the public distribution system and ban forward trading in essential commodities in a bid to curb price rise. Other demands include minimum wage of at least ₹18,000 per month and an end to anti-worker labour law reform, an universal social security, food security, health, housing and education.
“We oppose neo-liberal policies, communal divisive agenda and authoritarian attacks of the BJP-led government at the Centre,” said Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) president K. Hemalata.
‘Historic rally’
Rising prices, increasing unemployment for the rural poor and failure to keep electoral promises with regard to agriculture, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and rural housing were all factors that turned the masses against the government, said All India Agricultural Workers’ Union president S. Thirunavukkarasu.
“This is a historic rally as it will be the first-ever joint demonstration of this magnitude in the Capital that brings together three important sections of society who actually play a major role in producing the wealth of the country,” said AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah.
Mr. Mollah said the recent arrests of activists will also add momentum to the protests by bringing in growing support from other sections of society. He said no political parties had been invited for the event but all are welcome to attend.
While the focus of the rally is on policies and not politics, CITU general secretary Tapan Sen clarified that it will still have an impact at the polling booth.
“Our purpose is to make the toiling people understand that they are running the engines of this country, and understand that the real enemy is the neo-liberal policies and their operators in the government. If they understand this, there will be an impact on elections as well,” said Mr. Sen.
