People's Democracy

Save Peasantry, Save Agriculture, Save Country

S Ramachandran Pillai, president and K Varadharajan, general secretary of All India Kisan Sabha issued the following statement on September 15, 2006.

THE All India Kisan Sabha has decided to organise four national jathas – from South (Kanyakumari), from West (Mumbai), from North (Jammu) and from East (Agartala) – which will converge in New Delhi in a mammoth peasant rally on November 20, 2006. Local jathas at the state, district and village level will be organised to supplement the main four jathas. These jathas are organised to rally the peasantry against the wrong agricultural policies and to fight for alternative policies.

India is experiencing an unprecedented agrarian crisis. All sections and spheres are affected by the crisis. Peasant suicides are increasing. Starvation deaths are taking place in different parts of the country. Unemployment is growing. Poverty is spreading to newer sections and newer areas. Migration of agricultural workers and peasants is taking place causing serious economic and social problems. The rate of growth of agricultural production and particularly foodgrain production is declining, India is fast moving towards food shortage and famine and again India has to depend on import of wheat from foreign countries, the prices of agricultural commodities are falling and fluctuating. There is severe shrinkage of institutional credit facilities and peasants have to depend on moneylenders who charge exorbitant rates of interest. The insurance schemes are inadequate and fail to give any protection. Serious ecological changes are happening. The impact of the natural calamities are increasing year by year. 

The crisis is the result of the wrong policies of the government. The government has reduced investments in agriculture, dismantled the procurement system, opened up Indian agriculture to the exploitation of the world market forces, reversing land reform measures, privatising the resources such as electricity and water, giving up priority for foodgrains production – all contributed to the emergence of the present situation. 

The recent agreement with United States of America called “US-India Knowledge Initiative on Agricultural Education, Research Service and Commercial Linkages” is a dangerous one and enables the multinational companies to exploit Indian agriculture. The Seed Bill introduced by the UPA government will take away the birth right of the peasantry to produce, save and exchange seeds. The packages announced by the union government for Vidarbha and Kerala are inadequate and cannot find any solution to the basic problems in agriculture.

The promises made in the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA and the recommendations of Dr M S Swaminathan Commission have not been implemented by the UPA government. 

All India Kisan Sabha stands for:

• More public investments for increasing productivity and production

• Ensuring remunerative price for agricultural commodities 

• Instituting a price stabilisation fund in order to ensure remunerative price for agricultural commodities. 

• Expansion of credit facilities 

• Reintroduction of quantitative restrictions on imports 

• Expansion of crop insurance 

• Scrapping of Knowledge Initiative Agreement with America 

• A comprehensive protective legislation for agricultural workers 

• Passing of the Scheduled Tribe (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill with amendments 

• Census of suicides and All India Debt Survey 

• Forming national and state level Farmers’ Commissions 

JATHAS PROGRAMME DETAILS 

Details of jathas starting dates and venues are as follows: 

First Jatha (North-East, East and North ) 

Starts from Sabrum (Tripura), on November 5, 2006, at 8.30 am  

Enters Assam on November 7 at Karimganj. Then passing through Assam, it enters West Bengal on November 9 at Coochbehar.

Crossing north part of West Bengal, it enters Bihar on November 11 at Kishanganj. Then via Purnia it reaches Bhagalpur (Bihar) same evening to join the second part of jatha which starts from Berampur ( Orissa ) on November 2 at 9 am and reaches Dantan

(West Bengal) on November 7. 

This part of jatha passes through West Bengal, Jharkhand and then joins the first part of the jatha at Bhagalpur, Bihar on November 11 

From Bhagalpur, after crossing Bihar it enters UP on November 16 at Pratap Pur, then covering UP, it reaches Delhi on November 20. 

Second Jatha - (South) 

It starts in two parts from Kanyakumari on October 31. First part of this jatha after crossing Tamilnadu enters Andhra Pradesh on November 7. The second part of this jatha covering Kerala from November 1 to 7 enters into Karnataka at Hosangadi on November 7. Both parts of jatha meet at Hyderabad on November 12. Then it advances towards Maharashtra. It enters into Maharashtra on November 13, then into Madhya Pradesh on 16th at Chhindwara. From MP it enters Agra (UP) on November 19 before reaching Delhi. 

Third Jatha - (South-West) Starts from Mumbai on November 11 and remains for four days in Maharashtra. It enters Gujarat on November 15 and then enters Rajasthan on November 17 before reaching Delhi. 

Fourth Jatha - (North-West) Starts from Kathua (J&K) on November 12, then passing through Himachal Pradesh it moves into Punjab touring for three days, then in Haryana for three days before reaching Delhi.