SAVE INDIA & SAVE AGRICULTURE

‘Rasta & Rail Roko’ By Kisan And Agr Workers On Sept 29

K Varadha Rajan

AIKS general secretary K Varadharajan addressing the convention

A CONVENTION of the Left-led kisan and agricultural workers unions gave a call of countrywide “rasta roko and rail roko” agitation by kisans and agricultural workers on September 29. This agitation coincides with the countrywide strike on September 29 called by the central trade unions. It also resolved that the rasta roko and rail roko programme would be preceded by a fortnight-long campaign all over the country starting from September 1, the Kisan Day.

The convention can best be summed up in the words “Save Agriculture and Save India” for which the bugle was sounded by various organisations cutting across the political affiliations.

The convention, held on August 23 at the Constitution Club, New Delhi, was attended by a large number of leaders and activists of various organisations from different states. Besides the Left-led unions, non-Left organisations like Bharat Kisan Samaj, Shetkari Sangarshna, Maharashtra, and Bharatiya Kisan Union also took part in the convention.

The national convention registered its strong protest against the growing attacks on the livelihood of peasants and agricultural workers by the policies of liberalisation, globalisation and corporatisation being implemented by the central government and a number of state governments under the dictates of World Bank-WTO.

The convention opened with the speech of Atul Kumar Anjan, general secretary of AIKS (4 Windsor Place). In his inaugural speech, he emphasised the need of unity of various organisations cutting across the political lines and the need of the militant united struggles all over India to save agriculture and thus save India.

In all, 13 resolutions pertaining to the burning issues confronting the rural masses of the country were passed by the convention.

WTO’s HONG KONG MINISTERIAL MEETING

K Varadha Rajan, general secretary of AIKS, while moving the resolution on the coming Hong Kong ministerial meeting of WTO, cautioned the people of India about the new attacks planned by the developed countries in the coming meeting to further loot the developing countries of the world by bringing new tariff regulation etc. He detailed the experience of last few years about crash in prices of agricultural crops due to dumping of heavily subsidised agricultural products by the imperialist countries and multinational companies of the developed countries.

After Krishna Bir Chowdary, executive president of Bharth Kisan Samaj, seconded the resolution, the convention adopted it unanimously. The resolution  demanded a white paper from the UPA government detailing the stand to be taken in Hong Kong. It also demanded consultation by the central government with various kisan and agricultural workers organsations before the Hong Kong meet.

SEED BILL 2004

 A resolution on the latest attacks on the peasantry was moved by AIKS joint secretary N K Shukla. He demanded that the government of India should withdraw the Seed Bill 2004, which is a blatant attack on the basic right of farmers of the country to grow, use, exchange and sell their farm seeds. At the same time the bill gives all production rights to private companies, including MNCs, to capture the Indian seed market. The resolution also demanded the government to stop their latest move to cut food subsidies and fertiliser subsidies. The resolution was adopted unanimously after it was seconded by Debabrata Biswas, MP and leader of AIAKS.

AGAINST REVERSAL OF LAND REFORMS

AIAWU joint secretary Suneet Chopra introduced a resolution on ‘Comprehensive legislation for agricultural labour and Against the reversal of land reforms’. Explaining the plight of rural poor, he appealed to the democratic masses of the rural India, especially people belonging to scheduled caste and tribes who are the worst affected, to come forward to launch a militant mass resistance against evictions.

CALL OF THE CONVENTION

After the resolution ‘Call of the convention for ‘road roko, rail roko on Sept 29’ was adopted, AIKS president S Ramachandran Pillai, made the concluding speech. He traced the development in the country particularly of the agricultural sector since 1947. He explained that this can be seen in two phases – one, the development upto 1991 and another post-1991. Before 1991, the ruling classes aimed at development of agriculture in India through government intervention. Therefore the government made big investments for developing infrastructure for agriculture. It had control over fertiliser and other inputs supply and also on the agricultural produce market. Though all these interventions and actions of the government mainly helped the richer sections of the rural India, it definitely helped in increasing production and food security of India, said Pillai. With 70 per cent of the people living in rural India being producers and consumers of agriculture, the government’s intervention played significant role in the development of agriculture up to 1991, despite all its weaknesses.

But now the ruling classes, at the dictates of the WTO, made the government to withdraw from its responsibilities towards agricultural sector, leaving the life of crores of rural people to the destiny of the market. The experience since 1991 clearly proved that the new policies are affecting various sections of the peasantry, with the worst affected being the rural poor. Pillai congratulated all the peasant and agricultural workers organisations for coming together in spite of their differences on some policy issues. He called for further widening and deepening of this unity at the state level.

The presidium of the convention consisted of S Ramachandran Pillai (AIKS), C K Chandrappan MP (AIKS – 4 Windsor Place), A Vijaya Raghavan MP (AIAWU), Hiten Burman MP (AIAKSU), Abani Roy, MP (SKS), Harish Gupta (AIAKS), Krishna Bir Chowdhary (BKS), Vijay Jawandia (Shetkari Sanghatana) and Rakesh Tikait (BKU).