SKM plans to restart farmers’ agitation over govt’s ‘unkept’ promises

After a setback in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, where it failed to upend the BJP, and since it called off a 13-month-long movement last year, the SKM held its first deliberations on Monday

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) – the platform of farmers leading the 2021 agrarian protests – will launch a series of agitations from March 21 to protest the “government’s breaking of promises”.

SKM members at a meeting in New Delhi on Monday (Raj K Raj/HT)

After a setback in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, where it failed to upend the BJP, and since it called off a 13-month-long movement last year, the SKM held its first deliberations in the capital on Monday to discuss plans.

“The SKM has decided on a waada-khilafi andolan (agitation against broken promises) of the Modi government,” said Rakesh Tikait, a prominent SKM leader.

Farmers will hold protests in phases, instead of a continuous siege at protest sites outside Delhi, as they did last year, the SKM decided.

The agitation on March 21 will be a one-day affair. In the next phase from April 9-17, the SKM will launch a countrywide strike to demand minimum benchmark prices for farm produce.

“The most serious issues for farmers are that despite official assurances, cases against farmers haven’t been withdrawn and farmers have got no real justice for the murderous crime in Lakhimpur Kheri,” farm leader Yogendra Yadav said.

On October 5 last year, in Lakhimpur Kheri, a rural pocket in Uttar Pradesh, an SUV owned by the son of a minister in the central government rammed into a crowd of farmers, killing four people, for which, he was arrested but has since got bail.

The farmers had called off their demonstrations on December 9, 2021, after the SKM accepted proposals offered by the Centre in a letter written by agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal.

The Centre had stated it would set up a committee to ensure farmers got minimum support prices. Farm unions want a law to guarantee floor prices for their produce. Distress selling and price volatility cause huge annual losses, they say.

The Centre has not yet formed the committee, although agriculture minister Narendra Tomar said last month the “Centre was committed to fulfil all assurances” and the committee would be set up after the assembly polls.

The letter by Agarwal also said the “Centre in principle has agreed to withdraw all charges and cases” against farmers pressed during the course of their agitation, barring “serious offences”.

Police in various states have slapped over 40,000 cases, Avik Saha, a farm leader said.

Saha was one of them and has been charged with the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), commonly deemed an anti-terror law.

A key demand of farm unions was that the federal government should roll back three federal farm laws. Faced with discontent, the government eventually cancelled the laws in December 2021.