Social workers show solidarity with farmer protests

Farmers protesting at Narela in New Delhi

In a virtual conference on Wednesday, several organisation representatives mouthed solidarity with agitating farmers, calling on all sections of society to add their voices to the ongoing protests in the capital. The overarching sentiment was that the farmers were in Delhi but the struggle is pan-India and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came under heavy verbal artillery attack from the speakers.

The conference began with moderator Dinesh Abrol, from Nation for Farmers stating that it was vital to voice support for the current protests. The first speaker P Sainath, of the People's Archive of Rural India (PARI), reminded those at the conference that just before this, "there was a huge coalition of trade workers and organisations which agitated, which was poorly reported by the media. The trade unions and workers endorsed the farmers' demands. It is time for society to stand up and be counted. There is enormous condescension about how these uneducated farmers do not understand anything and the government must talk to them. I have read many editorials where the media is talking about these good laws and why they should be implemented," said Sainath, roasting the press.

Also Read: Noida Police shifts protesting farmers to 'temporary jail', alleges BKU Lok Shakti president

Speaker MG Devasahayam, former Chief Secretary, Haryana government. claimed, "There are governments all over the world taking action against monopoly but this government is promoting it in all sectors." He added as post script that, "the use of water cannons on farmers was barbaric."

For Kavita Krishnan of All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA) it was unthinkable that, "laws about farmers are made without taking into consideration the farmers themselves." She claimed this is the, "Shaheen Bagh of farmers and it is the BJP that is doing tukde-tukde of farmer's fields." Krishnan was followed by Jawaharlal Nehru University's Professor Praveen Jha, who said, "this is a crisis for all." Gender awareness came in through speaker Mariam Dhawale, of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) who said, "women farmers have no voice and this section is going to be very badly affected by these new laws."

R Ramkumar of the Tata Insitute of Social Sciences (TISS) slammed the three new farm legislations as unconstitutional adding, "the government claims farmers will get freedom, higher prices and middlemen will disappear but this is not true. Most farmers do not sell to mandis but to village traders, so de facto that freedom already exists," while Shalmali Guttal who is from a movement called Focus on the Global South said, "there is not a single example of contract farming being liberating anywhere in the world." Annie Raja from the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), brought in the women's perspective, too, drawing parallels with the CAA movement which saw extensive women's participation. "It is being said that women are participating because they are paid Rs 100 or Rs 500, it is the BJP/Sangh's habit to ignore women's agency and insult them."

The counter view
The BJP's Shaina NC hit back, "The BJP is of the view that farmers should get the best of technology and opportunity. What is the use of doling out subsidy after subsidy? It is also important to stop these agitations for the sake of agitations."

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