The sequence of events over the last month has been one that has brought the ongoing farmers’ movement in the country and the national politics closer to each other. It has been a year since the first Bharat Bandh was called to protest the three new central farm laws introduced by the central government. And the farmers’ movement is now into its second year. Also, the ongoing farmers’ movement on the Delhi borders has entered its 11th month. The last month has reinvigorated the movement that was languishing and slipping away from people’s minds. And, as a result, the gap between the farmers’ movement and politics has narrowed.
The unfortunate incident at Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3, 2021, in which a Union minister’s convoy mowed down farmers returning from the protest site and four of them lost their lives, has brought politics the closest to the movement in this case. Also, the farmer mahapanchayat at Muzaffarnagar had a big role to play. Then came the third biggest event — farmers’ protest at Karnal in the wake of a controversial video of a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) and the death of a farmer in lathi charge, and the government going on backfoot subsequently. Another important event for the movement has been the central government’s decision to delay paddy procurement in Punjab and Haryana by 10 days but altering it later, in the wake of farmers’ protests, to start procurement from October 3.
The movement going on against the central farm laws is getting politically more effective due to these incidents and stages of the movement. This is the reason why the very next day after the death of the farmers in the Sunday incident the government had to hurriedly settle for a compromise in the talks with the farmers. It really matters because the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh (UP) has always been projected as being strict. Filing a murder case against the son of Union Minister of State for Home and offering compensation to the kin of the deceased farmers and a job to one of the family members besides hastening the compromise implies that the state government has accepted as victims the farmers whom several BJP leaders and officials of its allied organizations had called miscreants and influenced by politics. However, in this case, the farmer organizations’ demands for the arrest of the minister’s son and the ouster of the minister himself from the Union council of ministers are yet to be implemented. Besides, the October 6 declarations made by the chief ministers of Punjab and Chhattisgarh of giving Rs 50 lakh to the families of the deceased farmers have taken the shine off the state government’s decision to offer compensation.
In the Muzaffarnagar farmer mahapanchayat on September 5, before the Kheri incident, the participants blatantly accused the BJP-led governments in the state and at the centre and called for defeating the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections. Rakesh Tikait, the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), was even targeted after the panchayat, but the massive participation of the farmers in the panchayat added to his stature. Acceding to the farmers’ demands at Karnal thereafter and the government altering on October 2 its earlier decision to delay paddy procurement were seen as being the results of the strength of the farmers’ movement.
Meanwhile, the issue of road blockade by farmers sitting on the Delhi borders, too, reached the Supreme Court, which responded with acerbic comments. The organization called Kisan Mahapanchayat that had petitioned the Supreme Court to allow it to hold a satyagraha at Jantar Mantar, had distanced itself from the movement on January 26. Also, the members of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) have made it clear that they had not approached the court.
The incident at Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday has brought the farmers’ movement to a new turn. The reason for this is that this is the first time during the entire movement that four farmers have died in an attack on them. The SKM does furnish data of more than 600 farmers having been martyred earlier during the course of the movement on the Delhi borders. But this is the first incident in which farmers have been killed and the accused is the son of a Union minister from the BJP. It is, therefore, bound to have a political impact. The incident of farmers being run over by a speeding convoy prompted protests and had repercussions across the country. With the upcoming Assembly elections in UP just a few months away, the BJP may have to suffer political loss. This is why apart from the political parties in UP — SP, BSP and RLD — the ones from Congress and TMC to those like the Akali Dal, NCP, the Left parties and AAP have come up with sharp comments on the incident and their leaders are trying to reach Lakhimpur Kheri. However, it is a different matter that before Rahul Gandhi, ex-president of the Congress, was allowed to visit Kheri on October 6, the state government had made solid arrangements to prevent people from political parties going there. Also, the BJP has been almost silent on the issue.
This sole incident has given political parties the biggest opportunity to become articulate on the farmers’ issues. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Punjab as well as in UP and Uttarakhand. The movement against the central laws is at its strongest in Punjab and the situation is somewhat similar in Haryana. Now, however, it is gaining ground in the foothills and plain regions of Uttarakhand. On the other hand, the farmers’ movement that was limited to western UP will now find its voice in the foothills of UP from Bareilly to Bahraich. The stronger the movement, the greater the opposition’s gain.
As far as the three central laws are concerned, the Centre is almost silent on the SKM’s demand to repeal them. But, due to the mounting political pressure, it is difficult to say that this situation may prevail for long. Although the media had in the meantime gone for speculations like a way being found out to end the farmers’ movement in conjunction with Capt Amarinder Singh, who had to quit recently as the Punjab Chief Minister, such options seem to have little significance post Lakhimpur Kheri. Obviously, the pressure will increase on the Central Government to find out options directed towards ending the movement. But one can’t say that it will be willing to go for the option of repealing the laws because some argue that this will impact the government’s image of taking big decisions.
Apart from the comments made by the Supreme Court, one also needs to consider that Anil Dhanwat, a member of the committee constituted by the apex court, wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) last month, asking him to make the committee’s report public. But the report has not been made public as yet. Farmer organizations that constitute the SKM say that the Supreme Court has stayed the implementation of the laws, but the laws are still there. The stay may be lifted anytime. They say that they have not gone to court; as it is the government that has made the laws, the decision to repeal them also rests with it. However, no talks have been held between the SKM and the government since January 22, 2021.
But the recent events have only complicated the matter. Some experts are saying that the farmers’ movement is a movement of rich farmers. And they argue that the government should awaken the small farmers in favour of the laws. But these experts are perhaps unaware that the majority of the farmers are small and they have taken to farming only in absence of other sources of livelihood. A large number of these consist of joint farmer families whose land is yet to be divided on paper and they can, therefore, not be divided into camps.
It cannot be gainsaid that barring a few small cases, the SKM members are united by and large. And this is why the government’s strategy to end the movement by protracting it is not succeeding. Having sat on the Delhi borders for more than 10 months, farmer organizations are proving that they have the wherewithal to continue the movement. It is, therefore, now for the government to see whether it wants to talk to the farmers and find a way out or, being oblivious to its political impact, maintain the status quo until its impact is felt in the upcoming Assembly elections.