Dr. Ashish Mital, General Secretary of the All Indian Kisan Mazdoor Sabha. Photo: Special arrangement
When the chronicles of the farmers’ protest are finally written, it
is possible that some will call the protest a sociological miracle.
Considering how much the farmers have been smeared in the mainstream
media, how many fatalities they have suffered (636 at last count), and
how much the government has lied to them and about them, it is, frankly,
nothing short of a miracle that the 40-odd very diverse farmer unions
leading the movement have managed to remain strong and stick together
for as long as they have.
The protest has survive its moments of gravest crisis – the chaotic
events at Red Fort on January 26, the foiled attempt to attack and
uproot the Ghazipur protest site a couple of days later, and now, most
recently, the pre-meditated murder of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. The
recent mutilation and murder of a young man by a Nihang at Singhu border
have threatened to cast a dark shadow on the protest since it took
place at a protest site itself. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha has condemned
the act in no uncertain terms.
I spoke to Dr. Ashish Mital, General Secretary of the All Indian
Kisan Mazdoor Sabha, and a member of SKM, about the threats the protest
constantly faces.
Amit Malviya, head of the BJP IT cell has said that what
happened at Singhu border is the result of Rakesh Tikat’s comments about
”action and reaction” at Lakhimpur Kheri where BJP workers were also
killed. Would you agree?
Let’s make one thing very
clear. The SKM is not for violence. The mowing down of farmers in
Lakhimpur Kheri is the most horrible thing I have seen in my life. Such
violence is barbaric, and is reminiscent of what the Huns of old
inflicted on their victims. Tragically, other people were also killed in
the retaliatory violence that followed. That happened on the spur of
the moment and was unfortunately a reaction to the murderous attack on
farmers. It should not have happened.
Please also understand that there has not been an iota of
counter-violence by SKM. The SKM, in fact, prevented anything from
happening anywhere in the country in response. Please record it. Please
underline it. Please headline it.
But what about what Rakesh Tikait said?
You will have to ask him what he meant, but in my opinion, Tikait was
not calling for violence. I am very sure what he meant to say was that
what happened was a spontaneous, though very unfortunate, reaction to
the violence that was inflicted on the farmers.
This attack on the farmers, by the way, is the ‘corporate method of
governance’ that the BJP is following. Crush the opposition, quite
literally, by any means possible. For me, even more than the BJP or the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the real culprits are the corporates
who call the shots. The corporate sector is desperately trying to find a
way to stop the farmer protests. Of course the BJP also has its own
tools of punishment such as the brahminical order and Manuvad and all
that, but what you saw at Lakhimpur was, ultimately, the effect of
corporations who stand to benefit from the Farm Laws and who want to
subjugate the farmers at all costs.
What are your thoughts on what happened at Singhu border?
The Nihang Sikhs are not part of our movement. They did not come with
us on November 26, 2020. They have been riding their horses recklessly
and at times flinging their swords at people. We have tried to calm them
down and we have had a tough time dealing with them.
The man who was killed was with them in the camp, and he ran away with their granth
and was killed in a most brutal hammer for it. None of them have
anything to do with our movement. Our plea to the police will be to
please deal with them.
Do you feel there will be an escalation of tensions for the protest, now that the UP elections are around the corner?
The effects of the UP elections are one more challenge that we will
have to deal with. But before I talk about that, there is something you
need to understand about elections. Elections have unfortunately become
irrelevant to people’s struggles. They come and go, and the problems of
the people remain the same.
And although election time is supposed to be a time of political
participation for people, the government’s policy is to keep people
politically inert for five years and then make them participate in a
very limited manner at election time within the confined limits of
choosing one or the other, a limited participation zone to choose
between lesser and greater evils. To choose between the BJP which is
overtly, aggressively and violently pushing forward to enforce corporate
policies, and the other parties who are also pro-corporate but who may
be not that aggressive. Please note, other political parties are not
fundamentally against the corporates, but during election time they have
to make adequate noises against them to garner votes.
Our movement is beyond this confine. Our movement is asking political
parties to take back the thrust of this pro-corporate government
policy. These farm laws are an attack on all the people of India, not
just the farmers. Our movement is asking for a withdrawal of the attack
on the people of India that was launched by the BJP on June 5, 2020 with
the introduction of the farm bills. That is the real issue.
Our real position is that people should see through the corporates’
agenda, throw out the BJP from power and force the opposition to reject
these pro-corporate laws and give legal guarantee for MSP. That is our
real challenge.
Do you see SKM becoming a political party?
Not an electoral party, but definitely a political force of the farmers for fighting their battles.
Rohit Kumar
is an educator with a background in positive psychology and
psychometrics. He works with high school students on emotional
intelligence and adolescent issues to help make schools bullying-free
zones. He can be reached at letsempathize@gmail.com
SOURCE ; THE WIRE
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