Farm protests: Breakaway factions make their presence felt

Since the Nov 2020 protests against the now repealed farm laws, several farm bodies have split leading

Three years since the farm bodies put up a united front and sat on the borders of the nation’s capital New Delhi against (repealed) three farm laws between November 2020 and December 2021, the bond seems to be in tatters.

Farmers during a protest march to the national capital in Noida on Thursday. (PTI)

As the farm bodies from Punjab and Haryana are mustering support to kickstart protests in Delhi on February 13, a breakaway faction has given a call for Bharat bandh on February 16.

“The scenario of the protest has changed drastically within two years since 2021 when the 13-month-long protest ended in December 2021. The aspirations and expectations of the farm activists and the leader are very high now. The number of farm bodies has also multiplied,” admitted Balbir Singh Rajewal, who heads a faction of Bhartiya Kisan Union and addressed a press conference here on Friday to give a call of Bharat bandh on February 16.

Farm organisations have become an example of fusion and fission politics when the leader breaks away to form separate bodies and join hands, at convenience.

There are nearly 100 big and small farm bodies which exist in the state now in contrast to the number of farm bodies that constituted the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) that led the protest in November 2020. At that point, SKM consisted of 36 farm bodies.

As many as 17 farm unions are supporting the protest march to Delhi on Feb 13, while 36 have given a call for Bharat bandh on February 16.

Several organisations have split since December 2021 when the protest in Delhi ended with splinter groups emerging which are peddling an aggressive agenda of taking the fight to the centre.

Two key farm bodies, Rajewal’s Union and BKU (Ekta-Ughrahan), which used to claim the largest support base, including among the females, have split vertically.

Rajewal faction split with its district-level leader Jagjit Singh Khosa forming BKU (Khosa), while Ekta-Ughrahan’s breakaway faction BKU (Azad) is an alliance formed by one of the junior-level leaders.

“Now the farmers are divided into two sections - SKM (non-political) and the other that contested the 2022 Punjab assembly polls. But those claiming non-political are more political than us,” said Jagmohan Singh, general secretary of BKU (Dakounda).

Jagmohan also points to an interesting fact that the number of educated youngsters getting attracted to farm organisations to take up the agrarian issues has jumped.

SKM (non-political) which includes Jagjit Singh-led BKU (Dalewal) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha that claims support of 17 farm bodies has given a call for a march to New Delhi on February 13 to press the Centre for farmers’ demands.

The issues the two sections are raising are largely the same — minimum support price (MSP) for all crops, total waiver of debt on the agrarian community, withdrawal of cases registered against the farmers who took part in the protest of 2020-21, jobs for the kin of farmers who lost their lives in the protest, and compensation for persons who were injured in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Days before the planned march towards Delhi, three Union ministers held a meeting with farm bodies in Chandigarh on Thursday to discuss their demands.

Minister for food, public distribution and consumer affairs Piyush Goyal; agriculture minister Arjun Munda; and minister of state for home Nityanand Rai held meetings with Mann and the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU)-Dallewal led by Jagjit Dallewal, and a breakaway faction of BKU (Ekta-Ughrahan).

Commenting on the latest stir, Pramod Kumar, director of institute of development and communication, said the timing just ahead of the parliament polls shows that farmers learnt the art of topicality and negotiations.

“They have ceased to be apolitical. The farm bodies at this stage can be divided into three sections SKM (Taksali) one led by (Balbir Singh) Rajewal, SKM (non-political) led by Dalewal and one SKM (Ughrahan) led by Joginder Singh Ughrahan,” he said.

GFX

A divided house

3

Main groups – SKM (Taksali), SKM (Ughrahan) and SKM (Non-political)

96

Farm bodies now

32

Farm bodies at time of 2020 protest

17

Farm unions supporting protest march to Delhi on Feb 13

36

Support Bharat Bandh of Feb 16