In support of their demands, farmers, workers take out Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh rally in Delhi – The Hindu
Their main demands are debt waivers for poor farmers and implementation of Swaminathan Commission’s recommendation for a more comprehensive MSP for crops.
Thousands of workers, farmers and agricultural workers turned central Delhi into a sea of red flags on Wednesday as they marched to Parliament Street for a Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh rally organised by unions affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
“This is a historic union. For the first time, workers and farmers have marched together in such numbers to protest the government policies,” said Tapan Sen, general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). The major demands included loan waivers for small farmers and higher minimum support prices for crops; minimum wages of ₹18,000, an end to anti-worker labour reform, and social security and food security benefits for all.
“This year, rural agricultural workers got only 27-days of work through MGNREGA,” said S. Thirunavukkarasu, president of the All India Agricultural Workers Union. “What has happened to ‘acche din’ promised by the Modi government? It was only acche din for corporates, not for people like us.”
This is the largest protest held at Parliament Street this year, according to a senior official of the Delhi Police. Organisers of the rally claimed that at least 1.5 lakh people had participated in it. Farmer leaders and their political backers are already looking forward to bigger protests in the run-up to the 2019 general election, organised by an alliance wider than the CPI(M)’s unions.
“From November 28 to 30, we will hold a ‘Long March of the Dispossessed’. It will not just be farmers, but also the landless, Adivasis, Dalits, workers who will come to surround the four corners of Delhi,” said Vijoo Krishnan, joint secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha. He had been key to organising the Kisan Long March from Nashik to Mumbai in March.
An umbrella organisation of farmers groups, the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, is expected to play a major role in the November rally.
Rakesh Tikait’s plan
Separately, the Bhartiya Kisan Union, a farmers group led by Rakesh Tikait, on Wednesday also announced its own ‘Kisan Kranti Padayatra’ from Haridwar to Delhi from September 23 to October 2. Its demands would include increase in the MSP, farmer-friendly crop insurance and income support for small and marginal farmers.
Wednesday’s rally also saw support from the Congress party.
We stand with the farmers in their fight for getting an appropriate MSP, loan waiver and their rights on their land. #KisanMazdoorFightBack
— Congress (@INCIndia) September 5, 2018
“We will have to intensify our protest in the days to come, as the government will not listen to our demands,” CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told journalists on the sidelines of the rally. “We will take the struggle to every district…This government has to go.”
