People's Democracy

 AIKS and AIAWU Leaders Visit Rajasthan 
In Support of People’s Struggle 

The president of All India Kisan Sabha S Ramachandran Pillai and Suneet Chopra, joint secretary of All India Agricultural Workers Union addressed a massive sit-in dharna of some 15,000 farmers, agricultural labourers and traders, at Gadsana in Ganganagar district on the Rajasthan border, and have issued the following statement on their return to Delhi on November 29, 2004:

WE are appalled at the way in which the BJP government of Rajasthan is refusing to commit itself to a written agreement to give the peasants of the Hanumangarh and Ganagananagar districts their share of the water due to them from the Indira Gandhi canal. We express the full support of our all India organisations to the ongoing struggle of the ‘Kisan, Mazdoor, Vyapari Sangharsh Samiti’, which is now in its second phase of agitation after the police firing ordered by the BJP government that killed five people on September 27, 2004 and wounded hundreds others.

It is shameful that the chief minister who has time to watch the performance of Israeli cabaret dancers has no time to talk to peasants whose whole Kharif crop has been destroyed by the state government’s denial of the water supply due to them. They are only demanding their share of the water available, so it has nothing to do with either inter-state water sharing or that between drinking and irrigation. The attempt of the Rajasthan government to raise these issues is a reprehensible tactic, which it should give up at once.

The AIKS and AIAWU reiterate that the provision of water to the people is a part of the right to life and cannot become a means of profit. These measures at denying water to farmers, and especially those in the border areas, endanger not only their lives and livelihood, but also the security of the country in interest of global financial institutions and multinational corporations who wish to exploit the vast majority of Indian farmers by controlling water resources and charging exorbitant prices for their provision to farmers. This is unacceptable to us. Water, like air, is a necessity for life and cannot be bought and sold for profit. It must be provided by the State to all.

We demand the BJP government abandon its anti-farmer policies and start immediate talks with the Ganganagar-based Sangharsh Samiti. We also demand that farmers are given their proper due in all canal areas of the Ganga canal, the Indira Gandhi canal and the Chambal catchment area. The peasantry of Rajasthan is hard-pressed by drought and denial of its right to adequate water is a gross violation of the human rights of the people of the state.  This violation must end and the government must make every effort to settle this dispute peacefully.

We call on all our state units to protest against the anti-farmer policies being pursued by the BJP-led government of Rajasthan. (INN)