GATHERING STEAM
COME FEBRUARY 26, THE FARMERS’ PROTEST at the borders of Delhi would have completed 90 days with no real breakthrough in talks with regard to their basic demands: the repeal of the three contentious farm laws—the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020—and a guarantee of a legal framework for the minimum support price (MSP). More than 200 farmers have reportedly died so far from natural and other causes. Youngsters who have tweeted their support for the cause face cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Section 124 A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In addition to this, a good number of farmers continue to be incarcerated for their alleged role in the January 26 events at the Red Fort on charges ranging from dacoity to attempt to murder.
Amidst all these, the protests have spread to other parts of the country and are assuming new forms. Support is pouring in from more quarters, including from the khaps (caste councils) of Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. The attendance at mahapanchayats led by sections of the Jat leadership in these regions has apparently sent the government into a tizzy. On February 17, Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan, Member of Parliament from Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh, who had not uttered a word for the better part of the agitation, convened a meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of the region. Its objective was to create a counter-narrative to divert public attention from the farmers’ protest, popular support to which has the potential to influence the Assembly elections of 2022. The meeting was also held to discuss the new phenomenon of mobilisation by khaps in a big way. It was decided to craft a detailed outreach programme to explain the benefits of the farm laws to farmers. However, the response to an earlier outreach programme the party had conducted was not all that encouraging.
Sanjeev Balyan, known for his penchant for controversial remarks, had on January 28 said that anti-social elements had hijacked the farmers’ movement. At that time he advised the agitating farmers to go home. Clearly, there were not many takers for his counsel; on the contrary, Jats of western Uttar Pradesh renewed their support for the protest after an emotional appeal by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait.
On February 17, at a mahapanchayat at Garhi Sampla village, in Rohtak district, Haryana, attended by a large number of people, leaders of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which represents more than 500 big and small farmer organisations in the country, invoked the memory
Support from the khaps of western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and protests across the country have infused new energy into the farmers’ movement amidst the government’s devious attempts to stifle dissent.
of Chaudhary Chhotu Ram, a Cabinet Minister of the Provincial Assembly in undivided Punjab which then comprised Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. The choice of the venue was symbolic: Garhi Sampla is the birthplace of Chhotu Ram, the Jat leader whose appeal cut across castes and religions. He was instrumental in getting the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act enacted in 1939. Chhotu Ram, who was knighted by the British, championed the rights of peasants who were burdened by debts to moneylenders. Usurers often confiscated the lands of those who could not clear their debts. Chhotu Ram’s contribution is acknowledged even across the border, among the peasantry in the parts of Punjab falling in Pakistan.
At the February 17 meeting, Rakesh Tikait and other SKM leaders such as Balbir Singh Rajewal (Bku-rajewal), Gurnam Singh Chaduni (Bku-haryana) and Inderjit Singh of the All India Kisan Sabha spoke of the secular character of the farmers’ movement and about Chhotu Ram’s own contribution in uniting the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh peasantry against usurious moneylenders in the region. Significantly, parallels were also drawn between the state of the peasants during British rule and at present in the wake of the new farm laws; and the situation that prevailed in pre-independence days and now when the mandi system is sought to be dismantled under the new farm laws.
Ironically, not long ago, in October 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a statue of the legendary leader at this very same place and compared him to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Chhotu Ram’s grandson, Union Minister Birender Singh, was present on that occasion. Birender Singh, who is no longer a Minister, has voiced his criticism of the farm laws within the BJP.
Speakers at the Garhi Sampla meeting pulled up Haryana Agriculture Minister J.P. Dalal for his distasteful comments on the farmers who had died. At a press conference, he said that the farmers would have died anyway had they stayed put at home.
“There is only one class—the farmer,” said Rakesh Tikait at the Rohtak mahapanchayat, underscoring the need for unity among peasants. In an earthy humour typical of him, he said there was no need to be hostile to the media which, he said, too were bearing the brunt of the government’s policies. He declared that there would be similar mahapanchayats in Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
The support from khaps has undoubtedly infused a new energy into the farmers’ movement, which had threatened to come asunder following the events on January 26. In many meetings, women attended in large numbers, blurring the intrinsically patriarchal character of khaps and their somewhat problematic history in civil matters. The events at the Red Fort are now unanimously viewed as a “conspiracy” hatched by the government to defame the movement.
‘THE PRIME MINISTER IS ANTI-FARMER’
The most significant outcome of this mobilisation has been the wholehearted support to the SKM. At the Rohtak meeting, it was resolved to back the SKM’S joint programmes. Explaining why it was necessary for khaps to enter the picture, Sombir Rathi, a former professor at Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and the newly anointed president of the influential Rathi Khap (a gotra, or sub-caste, among Jats), said: “We felt that khaps needed to support the protest as the welfare of farmers was involved. How could we stay away when the farm laws were affecting farmers? All khaps are supporting the
protest and if some of them don’t they will be isolated. We entered late on the scene because we hoped the Prime Minister would call the farmers after he said that he was only a phone call away. But the farmers have been insulted. It is like the Emergency. The media are only reporting what the government says. Anyone who opposes the Prime Minister or speaks in favour of the protest is termed anti-national. The Prime Minister is anti-farmer. Look at what happened to Disha Ravi, Nikita Jacob. The law of sedition has never been misused this much. Whatever the Prime Minister decides is sedition. Today it is not just a Haryana- or a Punjab-related issue. The MSP system affects all farmers and everyone will benefit, including consumers. Today crops are sold and bought at arbitrary rates. All that will stop with a legal framework for the MSP.”
Asked whether khaps represented only Jats or whether other non-jat peasant communities supported the initiative, he said: “Even the Scheduled Caste communities are part of the khap. They are not outside it. The khap represents all of them, Brahmins, the Scheduled Castes and others. Our Sikh brothers began the agitation early on, and we were a little late in joining them. But now all of us are together in it. Everyone is contributing to the extent possible to keep the agitation going.”
Sombir Rathi was careful to point out that not just the BJP but the Congress too had done little for farmers. He told Frontline: “The BJP is taking forward what the Congress set in place. The Congress began privatisation, and the BJP is now privatising everything, the Railways, airports and even the insurance sector. The BJP represents capitalist forces. It is strange that the Prime Minister did not even once come forward to talk to the farmers.”
On the conflict between constitutional rights and the conservatism of khaps, he said customs and practices were followed everywhere but khaps were not against the right to marriage of individuals. “We are not against choice of marriages. Lekin duniya mein sirf do varg hain—ameer aur gareeb. Jab se duniya ka srishti hua hai, poonjiwaad and samaajwad ke beech ladai hui hai [There are only two classes in the world, the rich and the poor; ever since the formation of society, there has been a struggle between capitalism and socialism],” said the retired professor in a philosophical vein.
TOOLKIT ISSUE
The events of January 26 gave those supporting the farm laws a handle to label the protesters as anti-nationals and saboteurs. Even as the Prime Minister coined terms such as andolanjeevi (people who make a livelihood out of protests) and parjeevi (parasites) to describe the protesters and their supporters, a “toolkit” (a ready reckoner on how to intensify the campaign) shared by Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish climate activist, on social media came in handy for the critics. Twitter removed her tweet following objections. There were even demands to summon Greta Thunberg to India to face legal proceedings for tweeting the “toolkit”. After senior BJP Ministers mulled at length over the implication of “foreign interference” and the External Affairs Ministry frowned upon what it construed as interference, the Delhi Police arrested a young Bengaluru-based climate change activist, Disha Ravi, on February 13. She heads the Indian chapter of Fridays for Future, a climate group started in 2018 by Greta Thunberg. Disha Ravi’s crime was that she had helped “edit” the toolkit and was in touch over social media with Greta Thunberg. The Delhi Police described Disha Ravi as a “key conspirator” in the preparation and dissemination of the document that was indicative of a “copycat execution of a conspiracy behind the January 26 violence”. She had, according to the police, started a