By Thomas Scaria
Mangaluru, Nov 27, 2021: A Church-supported farmers union has joined their counterparts across India to celebrate the first anniversary of their historic protest against three controversial farm laws.
On November 26, the anniversary day, thousands of farmers took out tractor and motor rallies on the outskirts of the national capital, where they braved winter, rain, summer and other vicissitudes of nature for the past one year.
They celebrated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s November 19 surprise announcement to the nation his government’s decision to repeal the controversial laws passed in September 2020.
However, they ignored the prime minister’s appeal to them to return to their homes.
They want the government to fix through a law minimum support price for the farm produce, withdrawal all cases failed against the protesters in the past and compensation for nearly 700 protesting farmers who died in the past one year.
Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Morcha (Indian Farmers Union) says they would resolve their problems when the government comes to the table with no strings attached.
He told reporters that neither the farmers nor the government has won or lost until now. “But this government has moved towards negotiations now,” he said.
Jijo Vattothu, treasurer of the Church-backed “We Farm” movement in Kerala, says along with the Delhi protesters, farmers in southern India too celebrated the victory and organized rallies and distributed sweets.
“We distributed payasam (a sweet made out of rice, coconut and sugar) in villages and towns,” said Vattothu.
Farmers in Wayanad, Kerala’s northern district, November 26 organized a rally with more than 250 tractors to celebrate the victory. The Wayanad Tractor Drivers Association, which organized the event, demanded subsidized fuel for the tractors and permission to use trailers for the tractors.
Vattothu said a coalition of the farmers’ movement in Kerala, also supported the farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh “whose determination and perseverance have brought this historic victory”.
Meanwhile farmer groups continue to camp at Delhi borders such as Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur waiting for the government to repeal the laws through a parliamentary act when it begins its winter session from November 29.
Vattothu expressed the fear the government and “the losing corporates would deliberately try to bring in adverse situations in different forms in future.”
Sister Jofi Joseph, a supporter of farmers, welcomed the government move to withdraw the farm laws. “But what is required is a pro farmer policy enactment. It is the need of the hour,” the member of the Congregation of the Mother Carmel told Matters India.
Sister Joseph, who hit the headline in September when she won a court order to kill wild boars in her farm, says the attacks of wild animals on farmers were equally damaging as the entry of corporates into farmer’s lives.
Vattothu, another of the 16 people the Kerala High Court permitted to kill wild boars, pointed out that at least 64 people were killed by wild elephants and boars and snakes during the past year in the southern Indian state. They had also destroyed crops worth millions of rupees.
Kerala has reported 1,310 such deaths since 2008. Maintaining that similar situation exists in other states, Vattothu urged the government to enact rules and laws “to protect farmers and the ordinary people, not the corporates.”
The Indian agriculture acts of 2020, often referred to as the Farm Bills, are three acts initiated by the Indian Parliament in September 2020. The Lok Sabha approved the bills on September 17, 2020, and the Rajya Sabha three days later. The Indian President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent on September 27, 2020, to make them laws.
However, On January 12, the Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the farm laws and appointed a committee to look into farmer grievances related to the farm laws.
The three farm laws eased rules that controlled sale, pricing and storage of farm produce that protected farmers from the free market.
The new laws allowed farmers to sell their produce at a market price directly to private players – agricultural businesses, supermarket chains and online grocers. Most Indian farmers currently sell their produce at government-controlled wholesale markets at assured floor prices, or minimum support price.