Part I was carried in the January 19 issue

Cane Growers Face Crisis Situation, Take To Agitation Path -- II

D P Singh

IT was in the crisis situation facing the cane growers, as detailed last week, that their agitation forced the Vajpayee regime to suddenly announce a Rs 5 increase in the MSP of cane. Next day, Ms Mayawati betrayed her ignorance by saying that not the state but the central government fixes the cane price. Anyway, the raise took the SMP to Rs 69.50 per quintal. The price might go up to Rs 75 if the state government had given some concessions to sugar barons and made them pay Rs 4 per quintal more to growers. But even if a peasant gets Rs 85 per quintal on the basis of a higher recovery rate, he would get far below what he got last year. Thus, despite all acrobatics, the union and UP governments are unable to cover up their conspiracy of favouring the sugar barons at the cost of growers and even of destabilising the industry itself.  

JUDICIAL INTERVENTION

On November 12, the state government issued an order to the state Sugar Corporation’s mills and cooperative sector mills to pay Rs 95 per quintal to the growers, equal to the last year’s price. The ISMA then moved the High Court and the latter stayed the order. However, the state government did not move the Supreme Court to get the stay quashed.

Why? One gets the answer from a writ filed in Supreme Court on November 25 by B M Singh, former MLA from Puranpur. The writ showed how the mills and state government kept the High Court in dark about the truth and how the state government cheated the growers. On January 22, 1997, the Supreme Court had upheld the High Court’s December 11, 1996 injunction to the state government, and it was on the basis of that verdict that the High Court stopped the state government from fixing the cane price at Rs 95 per quintal. But the High Court was not told about the amendment the Supreme Court had made on January 31, 2002 in its own earlier order, on a writ petition filed by Singh. Private mills, state government and cane cooperative unions all were parties to this suit and knew about the amended order.

The amended order said if a sugar mill in a cane cooperative area gave a price above the MSP, no mill could give anything less than that price. It also upheld the decision given by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, that the SAP should be regarded as the agreed price.  

One will note how sometimes the verdicts given by our courts do display their naked class bias against toiling sections. On December 11, 1996, on a writ filed by ISMA, the Allahabad High Court ruled that the state government was not authorised to announce an SAP higher than the SMP. On January 22, 1997, the apex court endorsed this order. Since then, the state government has been announcing an SAP only for the cooperative and Sugar Corporation mills. As for private mills, for several years they had paid the SAP without murmur. Only in 2002 did they refuse to pay the SAP and moved the court against it. The real reason is: if the SAP announced for the cooperative and Sugar Corporation mills is higher than the SMP, others would have to pay the same price as per the amended Supreme Court order.

But, showing utter shamelessness, the state and central governments have not enacted any law to save the growers from the anti-peasant High Court order. The centre can even raise the MSP to do justice to the growers, provided it wants to do so.

UP: CHANGES IN SITUATION

 This situation gave rise to spontaneous struggles of cane growers in west UP when the mills refused to open in November. The growers found themselves in a dire situation, as they could not cut cane and prepare their fields for wheat crop. While not paying the growers any arrears, the mills also insisted on paying them Rs 35-36 less than last year. It is another thing that the non-political Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) gave the agitation a wrong direction with the help of the parties that have some influence in west UP. These parties thus are responsible for giving a new lease of life to the BKU whose influence was dwindling day by day.

On the other hand, the state’s BJP and BSP-BJP governments have so far killed 7 cane growers --- 3 in Ramkola in Kushinagar district (1992), 1 in Kathkuiyan in the same district, and 3 recently in Munderva in Basti district. 

The state has a tradition of cane growers’ struggles that were led by socialists, communists and ex-Congressmen in the first two decades after independence.

The so-called Green Revolution brought a sea change in the situation. The government realised that industries could not be provided raw materials and a market without agricultural growth. Hence subsidies and cheap credit were arranged for agriculture sector. Government investment in agriculture also went up. But the landlords and rich peasants cornered the benefits in the absence of effective land reforms. A kulak section arose among cane growers too. They established their hold on cane cooperative societies and began to act as mill owners’ touts.

After he became the chief minister of UP in 1967, Charan Singh increased the cane SAP from Rs 5.58 to Rs 17 per quintal, possibly with the consent of mill owners who did not resist. The reason was: peasants were losing incentive to grow cane at the earlier rate, and were seething with discontent. This is what established Charan Singh as the ‘peasants’ messiah’ and his party, the BKD, won on its own 104 seats in the state assembly in 1969.

However, his politics led to three important consequences. First, the socialist- and communist-led struggles lost their sheen in the face of caste mobilisation. Secondly, the kulaks’ prosperity and influence grew manifold. They began to act against the poorer sections and torpedo the latter’s struggles. Charan Singh’s BKD (later Lok Dal) emerged as the main champion of this section. 

Thirdly, since Charan Singh came to power, the concessions given to mill owners also grew manifold. In 1977, when he was union home minister, sugar was decontrolled. The period also saw a steep fall in cane price and growers all over India were forced to burn about 15 million tonnes of cane in the field. Incidentally, peasants had recently had to burn their cane in the field once again when his son is the union agriculture minister. On the other hand, though claiming to be the inheritor of his ideology, Samajwadi Party stands indifferent to the growers’ plight. Though it is the biggest force in the state, it is only doing symbolism in the name of an agitation.

As for Congress and BJP, they have a long history of amity with mill owners and do not go beyond issuing statements on the question of cane price or arrears. Though the Left parties have been trying to organise agitations on these issues, they do not have much influence in the state. The caste-ridden politics of the state has divided the growers as well.

BHARATIYA KISAN UNION

Though confined to some districts of western UP, the BKU has been taking advantage of this situation. Its leader, Mahendra Singh Tikait, ostensibly kept the union away from political parties and this thing did have a degree of impact for some time after its birth in 1987. The media too did not leave any stone unturned to make him the ‘peasants’ messiah’ while dubbing all political parties as villains of the piece. All this, and coupled with it the loss of tradition of united peasant struggles, was only in favour of mill owners.

But the way Tikait withdrew his agitations a few times after taking them to a peak could not but expose him. Even in Muzaffarnagar and Meerut where he had once a hold among Jat peasants, the latter have got divided among the BKU, Lok Dal, and Rashtriya Kisan Morcha floated by former governor Virendra Verma. This was why Ms Mayawati twice succeeded in preventing his rallies in Lucknow.

But the media again played its game and created the impression as if the recent spontaneous agitations of cane growers were being led by BKU. The fact is that Tikait only misled the agitators in his area and made them court arrest at police stations and not in front of sugar mills. Yet it was the growers’ power that forced Ms Mayawati to allow a Tikait rally in the state capital. Not only that; the government arranged special trains to bring the rallyists to Lucknow, hoping that Tikait would render the agitation ineffective. On his part, as newspapers reported, Tikait uttered not a word against the state and central governments. After his return from the rally on November 17, he was found singing a different tune. At Muzaffarnagar, as per an Amar Ujala report, he said, “Let the mills start first; we will worry about the rates later.”

On November 26, the UP government reached an agreement with mill owners about opening the mills. But the ISMA representatives told the press that the owners would not give anything more than the SMP and “were not in a position to pay the arrears.” To this, according to Dainik Jagaran, Tikait philosophised at his headquarters in Sisauli: “Such is the lot of peasantry. Now they have to rest content with the rate suggested by the court.”

After he came out of jail on December 19, he organised a kisan panchayat in sympathy with the peasants killed in Basti. Here what he said is enough to show his real face. His advice was: this is cultivation time; peasants must not waste their time in dharnas. I learn that growers here are not taking their cane to the mills. This is not proper. Nothing will come out of it. They must take their cane to the mills without delay. He then added: cane prices won’t be different for Basti and west UP. Whatever the Supreme Court decides will be implemented at both places.

But the fact is that, contrary to the sugar barons’ misleading campaign, the rate of cane is not at all the issue pending with the Supreme Court. The latter has to decide whether the state government is entitled to fix any SAP above the centrally announced SMP.

Thus, the state government, the ISMA and ‘Mahatma’ Tikait were saying one and the same thing: mills must open but the growers won’t get a paisa above the SMP. Nor is there any guarantee for payment of arrears or current dues.

As is his wont, Tikait withdrew his agitation in west UP without any gain and without any discussion. Instead, he asked the growers to squat at Charan Singh’s samadhi in New Delhi on November 27. As for himself, he assumed a ceasefire type position.

In the meantime, agitation intensified in east UP and the government claimed three lives in Munderva. To the media, this too was a Tikait-led agitation, though he did not take any notice of it. In fact, agitation in front of Munderva mill was on even before Tikait started his own agitation in west UP, ultimately to ditch it.

It was so good of Tikait that he took notice of the Munderva police firing. But he confined himself to demanding compensation for the victims’ families and release of the arrested agitators. Issues of cane price and payment of arrears, for which these peasants gave their life, have vanished from his concern.

This gives rise to apprehension whether the growers’ agitation in east UP will at all be able to survive if it comes to be led by Tikait and his BKU!

KISAN SABHA’S ACTIVITIES

Fortunately, the cane growers’ agitation in the state continues and is raising the vital issues facing them. The state unit of All India Kisan Sabha organised two big conventions of growers --- at Bulandshahar (west UP) on November 17 and at Deoria (east UP) on November 27. These decided to launch a statewide agitation in three phases --- demonstrations in front of district magistrates’ offices, gherao of mill managements, and court arrest. 

Accordingly, militant demonstrations were held at district magistrates’ offices in west UP on November 30 and in east UP on December 10. Mill managers were gheraoed on December 20 and 21. Led by state AIKS joint secretary Mohan Singh, thousands of peasants locked the Baheri mill’s gate in Bareilly district and squatted there for five days. This action forced the management to open the mill and pay arrears to the growers to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore. Not surprisingly, the media, except some regional papers, ignored the agitation.

The Kisan Sabha is of the opinion that the current crisis facing the cane growers is not due to overproduction, as is claimed. It is basically due to the liberalisation policies and the multinationals’ pressure, coupled with the sugar barons’ intransigence. Multinationals are itching to take over agriculture and agro-based industries. They have already ruined the edible oil industry and oilseed growers as well as the dairy industry and milk producers. Now they are out to take over our sugar industry and ruin cane growers. The BJP-led union government has capitulated before them.

Obviously, this unprecedented crisis cannot be met by an agitation at a few mills or in a region. It requires an India-wide agitation in which all peasant organisations have to come together. Political parties have to show in practice that they stand by peasantry. Apart from cane growers, sugar mill workers and consumers too have to be mobilised.

Ominously, the RSS-led communal lobby has become active against the sugar industry. The communal riots engineered by them have already destroyed the handloom and scissors industries of Meerut, the lock makers of Aligarh, the brassware and bronzeware industries of Moradabad, the china clay potteries of Khurja, the carpet industry of Bhadohi and some other industries. Now these elements have intensified their destructive activities in Gorakhpur and Muzaffarnagar, which lie in two important cane growing areas of UP. Cane growers have to foil such attempts too, in order to advance their cause in face of repression of the type witnessed in Ramkola, Kathkuiyan and Munderva.

(Concluded)