As the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (non political) (SKM-NP) decided to reject the Centre’s proposal to procure five crops on minimum support price (MSP) for five years based on contracts and resume their Dilli Chalo protest from Wednesday, the original Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) welcomed the move and said it is in the direction of greater unity. The SKM (NP) also responded and said differences between the organisations could be resolved through united struggles.
In a statement in New Delhi on Tuesday, the SKM welcomed the SKM-NP‘s announcement to continue struggles till all the common demands are achieved.
“SKM considers at this time of huge human disaster due to the lingering agrarian crisis — 27 farmers commit suicide every day and young farmers are forced to join the rank of migrant workers to work for a pittance in the urban centres and 80 crore people depend on free ration under the Modi Raj — the need of the hour is the unity of the kisan movements against the corporate forces,” the statement said.
The SKM urged all the farmers’ organisations across India to support the mass protest of farmers in the constituencies of the BJP-NDA MPs on Wednesday, demanding the implementation of the agreement signed by the Narendra Modi government with the SKM on December 9, 2021.
SKM-NP’s leader Shiv Kumar Kakka told The Hindu that the SKM is not part of the ongoing protests and they have no rights to comment on SKM-NP’s protests. He said the SKM-NP and the Rashtriya Kisan Maha Sangh, the organisation he leads, usually does not hold any protests during elections so that no political party suffers from their actions. “Kisan movement has now split into two. But protests will continue seeking a solution for the issues of farmers. At a right time, based on these issues, we need to have united struggles,” Mr. Kakka said.
The SKM questioned the argument that legal guarantee for the procurement of all crops at minimum support price could spell ‘fiscal disaster’. “This argument is the logic of corporate forces. SKM and all the pro-people experts and scientists have reasoned no MSP means human disaster — as the country is witnessing in the countryside today — filled with intensifying poverty, indebtedness, unemployment and price rise,” the statement said.
The SKM asked the Centre and State governments and the public sector to abet the producer cooperatives and non-corporate private sector to undertake post harvesting operations of procurement, primary and secondary processing, storage and infrastructure building and branded marketing. “This policy shift will bring employment generation, better price and wage to workers and farmers and more tax income to the Centre and State governments,” it added.
