AIKS Press Note on Elections

3rd March 2014

The Office Bearers’ of All India Kisan Sabha met at Delhi yesterday, 2nd March, 2014 and discussed about the state of the peasantry and agrarian crisis that has been intensifying under the Congress-led UPA as well as under different States ruled by BJP and its NDA allies. It decided to work for the defeat of the anti-peasant, anti-people and corrupt Congress-led UPA as well as the BJP-led NDA. It will also unite the peasantry against divisive communal propaganda of the BJP, RSS and their allies. All its strength will be harnessed to defeat the Trinamul Congress under whose regime in Bengal a reign of terror and corruption has been unleashed on the peasantry and rural poor. The peasantry and Tribal population will be adversely affected by the unscientific and anti-peasant recommendations of the Kasturirangan HLWG on Western Ghats. An intense campaign will be carried out against the anti-peasant recommendations and the Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala as well as the UPA Government which are seeking to impose it despite widespread opposition. Kisan Sabha will work to defeat and isolate the divisive communal forces and make victorious the Left, Democratic and Secular forces in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections.

The AIKS also condemns the blatant lies of Narendra Modi regarding the issue of Sikh farmers in Kutch where he claimed in Punjab recently that they are not being asked to leave the Kutch region branding them as “outsiders”. He is spreading falsehood to gain votes in Punjab. The reality is that the BJP Government has challenged the Gujarat High Court judgement which was favourable to the farmers in the Supreme Court. This exposes the double-speak of Modi and Kisan Sabha will along with the affected farmers resist this fascist step of seeking to forcibly evict farmers and facilitate corporate land-grab. AIKS condemns the brutal police attack on farmers by the Akali Dal-BJP Government in Punjab in which a farmer was killed.

The Office-Bearers’ Meeting noted with concern the massive losses suffered by farmers in different North Indian States due to crop loss in the recent unprecedented hailstorm. Unfortunately the Central and State Governments have done nothing to mitigate the suffering of the farmers. The existing norms for compensation are unscientific and only where losses are more than 50 percent the farmers are eligible for any compensation. AIKS demands that all farmers who have suffered losses must be compensated based on a proper assessment of the losses by taking into consideration the costs of cultivation incurred, the expected yield as well as the income lost. Kisan Sabha units in all the affected States will organise massive protests till fair compensation is effectively paid to the affected farmers.

The Office Bearers’ Meeting decided to organise in a befitting manner the birth centenary of the revolutionary leader of the peasantry and three times General Secretary of All India Kisan Sabha, Com.Harekrishna Konar from 5th August 2014 onwards.

Sd/-

Amra Ram, President

Hannan Mollah, General Secretary