Battleground 2024: Farmers plan no relief to new govt on MSP issue

Punctuated by the flags of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Kaithal’s cityscape paints its political allegiance to the ruling party. Yet, beneath this veneer of political dominance, there are rumblings of discontent.
 

Kartar Singh, a farmer from the nearby Pai village, believes the BJP is on shaky ground this time. “Minimum support price (MSP) should be guaranteed by whoever forms the government on June 4. If not, we will protest again,” he declares. With a badge of Bhagat Singh pinned above his pocket and the flag of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) in his left hand, Singh is no stranger to protest — he had spent 14 months at the Tikri border during the 2020-21 farmer agitation.
 

Singh is not alone. Hundreds of farmers from Haryana and Punjab had congregated at the village in Kaithal district for a mahapanchayat, a grand assembly called by various farmer unions. These included the BKU Ekta, Punjab Kisan Union, Kheti Bachao, Punjab Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political), and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha.

Kartar Singh at the mahapanchayat at Pai village | Photo: Samreen Wani

 

As union leaders delivered impassioned speeches from the dais, the farmers listened attentively, occasionally pausing to smoke a hookah or fetch water to combat the heat. The leaders reiterated their demands for a law guaranteeing MSP and a farm loan waiver, and also addressed numerous issues they deemed politically “unjust”: These ranged from the treatment of protesting female wrestlers at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to the Agneepath scheme and corporate loan write-offs. 

The farmers who lost their lives during the agitations were repeatedly hailed as “martyrs”.
 

The mahapanchayat was not an isolated event. Farmer unions have held numerous such gatherings across Haryana over the past month to mobilise support for their cause. To commemorate 100 days of the farmer protests that began in February this year, farmers will be taking to the streets again on Wednesday at Shambhu, Dantesinghwala-Khanauri, Dabwali, and Ratanpura.

Jagjeet Singh Dhallewal, president of the BKU Ekta, asserts that the farmers do not have “demands”, rather these are commitments made by the Narendra Modi government. “When a farmer is sure that his crop will sell at a fixed price, he will plant that crop. Various crops, including maize, mustard, and chana, sell at lower rates than the MSP, which is why the farmer has abandoned selling these crops,” he explains.
 

Four rounds of talks were held between farmer union leaders and the government on the issue of MSP between February 8 and February 18, but no further discussions have taken place since. 
 

Prime Minister Modi, while addressing a rally in Ambala city (just about 90 km from the site of the mahapanchayat) on Saturday, said that the BJP government had spent Rs 20 trillion on grain procurement under MSP, three times the procurement done under the Congress government. 
 

Anil Malik, a farmer from Hisar, however, is not convinced. “Sunflower, jowar, bajra, and other crops are all selling at prices lower than the MSP. Only large companies and the government are benefiting from this. All we want from the government is a guarantee on MSP. Is that too much to ask for?” he questions, as the farmers gathered around him discuss the price of various crops in their respective mandis.
 

At the mahapanchayat, Davinder Singh, alleging police excesses during farmer protests, willingly displays his scars. Invited onto the stage and asked to remove his sunglasses to allow the crowd to see his ruptured eye, he obliges. As many scramble in front of the stage to capture his image, an elderly man climbs onto the stage to bless him. 
 

“We don’t bother ourselves with the ones who call us Khalistanis. I want my voice to reach people who feel those sitting on dharnas(protests) are all talk and no show. I want them to know that if such weapons are used against the unarmed, then their homes are not safe,” says the 22-year-old from Sekhupur, Patiala.
 

Singh alleges that he was specifically targeted by the police using a “blast bomb (pellet gun)” and “tear gas” when he was protesting at the Shambhu border on February 13. Farmers protesting at the Shambhu border in February have alleged that the police used tear gas and pellet guns to disperse them.
 

Haryana former home minister Anil Vij, according to reports, on Tuesday publicly took responsibility for police firing on protesting farmers at the Punjab-Haryana border in February. “Yes, I was home minister of the state that time, I can’t run from reality I am here and I admit it,” he reportedly said at Panjokhra Sahib village in Ambala district.

"Ammunition", that the farmers allege was used against them by the authorities | Photo: Samreen Wani

 

However, Arjun Singh, president of the BJP’s youth wing in Ambala city, dismisses a section of these protesting farmers as Opposition party members. “While some of these farmers are members of various opposition parties, others are ordinary farmers who have been misled.” Ravinder Goyal, a BJP worker in Ambala city, echoes the claim: “The real farmer is working on his fields and selling his produce.” Dallewal maintains that the protests will continue and farmers’ demands will not change, irrespective of the government elected at the Centre. “We believe that without the MSP, imple­mentation of the Swaminathan committee formula to calculate MSP, and farmer loan waivers, a farmer will not be able to survive.”