Farmers to hold another ‘Long March’ from Feb 20
In what threatens to be a repeat or even a bigger version of the massive peasant congregation witnessed in the metropolis in March last year, farmers owing allegiance to the CPM’s peasants’ wing All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), will walk from Nashik in north Maharashtra to Mumbai between February 20 and 27 in protest against the “betrayal” of farmers by the BJP’s Central and State Governments.
The Kisan Long March-2, as the organisers have termed their protests as, will begin from Nashik on February 20, the martyrdom anniversary of Comrade Govind Pansare and will end in Mumbai on February 27, the martyrdom anniversary of Chandrashekhar Azad. “At the Long March-2, we expect double the number of farmers than the ones who had turned at the previous morcha held in March last year,” AIKS’ president Dr Ashok Dhawale said.
“In order to stop the AIKS-led second Kisan Long March in Maharashtra against the betrayal of farmers by the ruling BJP at the Centre and in the state, the Government has taken recourse to repression,” Dhawale said.
The AIKS had organised a farmers’ convention at Ahmednagar on February 13 to prepare for the Long March. “We submitted a memorandum to the Ahmednagar district collector. Nowhere was there any breach of peace. All necessary police permissions had been taken,” Dhawale said,
“But just for organising this convention, police cases have been lodged against AIKS state general secretary Dr Ajit Nawale and attempts are on to arrest him. It is crystal clear who is behind these steps,” Dhawale said.
Condemning “this act” of the government as an attempt to “crush” a democratic and peaceful satyagraha struggle, the AIKS warned that such “repressive attempts” of the government would not succeed in stopping the Long March. “The government should realise that farmers’ issues can be solved by accepting their just demands and by implementing them. Farmers in Maharashtra will not rest until the major issues that are being taken up in this second Long March in two years are resolved,” Dhawale said.
The AIKS’ demands include: immediate relief in the grim drought situation, issues of irrigation, land rights, complete liberation from debt, MSP at one and a half times the full cost of production, a pro-farmer crop insurance scheme, increased pension, ration and food security.
The AIKS has planned the Kisan Long March-2 in view of the state government’s failure to implement its various demands that the state government had “accepted” after the farmers took out a long morcha from Nashik in March last year.
It may be recalled that the farmers owing allegiance to AKIS had their way on March 12, 2018 after their 200-km gruelling long march from Nashik, as the BJP-led saffron alliance government “accepted” a majority of demands, including transfer of forest land rights, total implementation of farm loan waiver scheme by June and increase in quantum of pension under the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana.
The farmers, 35,000 of whom had walked all the way from Nashik to Mumbai as part of the “Kisan Long March” organised by the ABKS, had called off their agitation in the evening, after the Maharashtra government handed to their leaders a letter of assurance, assuring them that it had accepted nearly 80 percent of their demands and would implement them in a time-bound manner.
