Conversations with many of the farmers who had occupied the streets of New Delhi in November revealed that their inspiration to protest was drawn from the Kisan Long March that took place from Nashik to Mumbai early this year. It also flowed from the poignant images recently seen in the media — of the bleeding and blistered feet of farmers, of Tamil farmers with human skulls at Jantar Mantar, and of the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally in Delhi this September.
Yet this time was different and unprecedented. The tens of thousands of farmers had travelled from across the country enduring difficult journeys to the capital. Their sole aim was to get their demands heard, to reclaim their rural livelihoods, their fundamental rights, and Parliament itself. They wanted a resolution to the agrarian crisis.
Taken a step further, their mass action reflects a desire to reset the economic and political agenda of the country. This was a planned display of strong political will, made possible by the participation of 208 farmers’ and labour organisations and the support of 21 political parties which have shown willingness to consent to two private bills brought forth by the farmers: one on freedom from indebtedness and the other to do with increasing the Minimum Support Price in accordance with the Swaminathan Report.
The most striking aspect of the rally, however, was the coming together of diverse local issues. There were sugarcane farmers from U.P. and Haryana who are affected by the non-payment of dues, farmers from Maharashtra and Karnataka who are facing crop failure due to an acute water crisis, farmers from parts of U.P. who are facing water contamination due to industrial emissions, farmers from Tamil Nadu who are facing crop destruction due to stray animals, climate change and rising input costs, and farmers facing indebtedness. There were Dalit farmers who are facing landlessness, women farm workers who brought up the issue of unequal pay and Adivasi farmers who spoke about land dispossession despite having cultivated indigenously for thousands of years. Many of these concerns were linked to corporatisation of the farm sector processes.
The trickier question, however, is whether broader and deeper alliances and solidarities with the urban working class, who tend to share more in common with the rural distressed, will yet emerge. The more far-fetched but important support could come from the urban and middle classes if they could be sensitised towards the demands of those who fill empty stomachs across the land. Finally, even if the ruling elites and the Opposition realise that these farmers have the potential to influence the 2019 Lok Sabha election, as any act of mass mobilisation might do, the success and sustainability of these movements depends on how immune they are to short-term electoral baits.
The writer is a Ph.D. Scholar at the University of Delhi, and Founding Partner, Jan Ki Baat
