India
Farmers and Workers Remain Undeterred Despite Show of Force
On April 5, more than 100,000 farmers and workers from across India travelled to the capital New Delhi to protest the central government and its anti-farmer and anti-labour policies. The rally, under the banner Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh (Worker-Peasant Struggle), was held at the Ramlila Maidan grounds.
Protesters demanded relief from inflation, a legal guarantee of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) on main crops, a minimum wage for all workers of Rs 26,000 (U.S.$317) per month, debt relief, a pension for all farmers over the age of 60, repeal of the four anti-labour codes, and withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020, among other demands. Protesters accused the Narendra Modi-led government of creating a crisis of livelihood for all sections of the working class.
Thousands of people continue to gather at morchas in Mohali, Bargari, Mudaki and other places to call for the release of political prisoners, the resolution of the water crisis, a guaranteed MSP, the withdrawal of the electricity bill, etc.
Farmers are going from village to village to hold meetings in preparation for the April 30 rally in Delhi, to highlight their calls and galvanize their ranks. They explain to people their long-term demands: Faslon Ke Faisle Kisan Karega (Farmers Will Decide About Their Produce); Fasal Ate Nasal (Fight for Crops and the Next Generations); Sarbat Da Bhala (For the Well-Being of All); Pavan Guru, Pani Pita, Mata Dharat Mahat (Save Air, Water and Land from Pollution).
Many news channels were closed in Punjab and journalists arrested, and time off for police personnel cancelled ahead of mass gatherings April 13, the occasion of Baisakhi, the spring festivals, and the founding of the Khalsa. Eighteen battalions of central paramilitary forces were also deployed. But the show of force did not scare or deter people. They continued organizing in villages, towns and cities, their spirits high.
A Farmer-Worker Mahapanchayat was organized at Marra, a village in Patan Tehsil of Durg District, Chhattisgarh on April 7. Thousands of people gathered. Speakers addressed the problems of farmers in the panchayat and delivered a memorandum to the concerned authorities.
State-sanctioned communal violence is happening in Bihar and other places. According to news reports, at least four districts in Bihar witnessed communal violence on the occasion of Ram Navami this year, with Bihar Sharif in Nalanda, the home district of chief minister Nitish Kumar, seeing the worst of it. In Bihar Sharif, about 70 kilometres from Patna, not only were more than a dozen shops and godowns set ablaze, but the more than 100-year-old Madrasa Azizia, with its library of 4,500 books, was also burned. Stones were pelted at a mosque adjacent to it right under the watchful eyes of the police and other officials.
The Indian ruling elite and government are following the standard operating procedures introduced by the British before independence. A broad attack on the rights of the people is underway on this or that pretext. Those who are claiming that "this is not democracy" are laying claims to the kind of democracy they want to bring into being.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 4 - April 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M5300420.HTM
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