Farmers under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Tuesday launched a campaign christened ‘Awake Bharat, Defeat Modi‘ campaign ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Paying tributes to farmers who were mowed down during a protest in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh on October 3, 2021, they set the ‘farmers’ agenda‘ for the Parliamentary elections — which they said was fulfilment of the promises made by the Centre to farmers at the time of repealing the three controversial farm laws.
Observing this day as a ‘black day‘, they said that those behind the violence remained unpunished. They raised slogans pressing for statutory backing to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime for all crops as per the formula evolved by agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan (C2+50%) and withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill which threatens to do away with subsidised power for farmers practicing rain-fed agriculture. They also raised slogans against genetically-modified crops stating that they adversely affected human health and the environment.
Leading the protest, Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam State general secretary K.V.V. Prasad recalled that former Union Irrigation and Power Minister K.L. Rao had advocated minimal power tariff for farmers of upland areas as they grew crops without assured irrigation water and end up making losses in the event of the failure of southwest and northeast monsoons.
SKM Prakasam district convener Ch. Ranga Rao said the Centre should stop its policy of monetisation of the assets of public sector units, including the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) and also scrap the “draconian” Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as both the laws were allegedly misused by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against those opposing the ‘‘corporate-friendly’‘ economic policies of the Narendra Modi government.
Acharya N.G. Ranga Kisan Samata general secretary Ch. Seshaiah lamented that the high level of indebtedness of farmers which forced them to end their lives was as a result of institutional credit remaining elusive to a majority of farmers, including small, marginal and tenant farmers. He demanded constitution of a debt relief commission as in Kerala to come to the rescue of farmers caught in a debt trap.
