By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Nov 19, 2021: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise announcement November 19 to repeal the controversial farm laws was welcomed with caution by farmers and their supporters across India.
Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Joint Farmers’ Force), a coalition of more than 40 farmers’ unions formed in November 2020, welcomed the prime minister’s decision but said it would wait for the decision to take effect through due parliamentary procedures.
“If this happens, it will be a historic victory of the one-year-long farmers’ struggle in India,” said the morcha that on November 26, 2020, brought thousands of farmers to oppose through non-violence the farm bills, camping at the borders of the national capital.
A morcha press statement, issued immediately after the prime minister’s 9 am address to the nation, termed the laws as anti-farmer, pro-corporate that were first brought in as ordinances in June 2020.
Observing that the prime minister chose the birthday of Guru Nanak to announce the laws’ withdrawal, the morcha regretted that the farmers’ struggle had “martyred” nearly 700 companions. “The central government’s obstinacy is responsible for these avoidable deaths, including the murders at Lakhimpur Kheri,” the farmers alleged.
Four farmers were killed October 3 when a federal minister’s vehicle allegedly ran over them at Tikunia in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district. Four others, including a journalist, were also killed and ten wounded.
The farmers union reminded the prime minister that their agitation was not just for the laws’ repeal, but for a statutory guarantee of remunerative prices for all agricultural produce and for all farmers. Also pending is the withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill.
Presentation Sister Dorothy Fernandes, the new national secretary of the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace, an advocacy group for women and men religious, welcomed the prime minister’s announcement with the remarks, “repeal was needed.”
“This is the first victory for farmers and mass moment and sustained peaceful struggle,” the Patna-based nun, who had come to Delhi with some forum members to show solidarity with the farmers, told Matters India.
At the same time, she suspects the announcement could be a “deceptive stunt, to win back votes.” She would wait for the repeal to be done through a parliamentary process.
“Who is responsible for the death of the innocent farmers? What about the extensive expenditure taken up by the government to put up barricades? It is our money. Who will account for the character assassination and calling the farmers as terrorists?” she asks.
Meanwhile, Joy Kannanchira, president of the “We Farm,” a farmers movement in the southern Indian state of Kerala, welcomed the prime minister’s decision,but “will wait till it actually happens in the parliament.”
“The sacrifice of thousands of farmers has finally seen some results,” Kannanchira told Matters India.
According to him, the decision was taken in the political backdrop of elections. Assembly elections are due in Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand before March 2022.
Kannanchira wants the government to compensate for the farmers who died during the protest. “Until November 19, as many as 617 farmers died at the protest ground and their sacrifice should not go wasted,” said the Catholic layman, who too had come to the Delhi borders twice to sit with the protesting farmers.
Kannanchira also wants the agriculture sector protected from wild animals.
“We want the government to protect the farmers not only from the corporate firms and big players, but also from wild animals,” said Kannanchira, who hinted launching another protest for such a law.
Augustine Veliath, a former official of UNICEF, welcomed the prime minister’s decision as a “turning point in the life of authoritarian and majoritarian government. People do matter. This realization has set in. Nobody expected the farmers to stand together and stand united for so long.”
Nirmala Carvalho, a Mumbai-based senior journalist who has covered the farmers’ protests for international media, says she is “absolutely pleased” with the announcement. “Let the government take credit, but the farmers have won with their grit, tenacity and sacrifice,” she told Matters India. Hailing the farmers’ peaceful satyagraha as “another kind of freedom struggle,” Carvalho said, “It’s also a victory for our future generations.”
Jesuit Father Chacko Antony, who works among the tribal communities in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, says, “Sense has reached him late after causing so much harm to the farming community.”
Another Jesuit social activist, Irudhaya Jothi, who works in the northeastern Indian state of Tripura, welcomed the prime minister’s belated wisdom in repealing the unconstitutional three farm laws passed without foresight. “It is a victory of the people and the future of India is better secured from the corporates,” he told Matters India.
Sister Sujata Jena, a lawyer and social activist in Bhubaneswar, says the farmers’ persistence and sacrifice have paid off. “It’s an achievement for all of us. Democracy has triumphed once again,” she told Matters India.
She says the support of the civil society along with national and international media contributed to the great achievement. However, she wants to wait and watch before celebrating the victory.