Bharat Bandh Today Live Updates: Highways, rail tracks blocked; strike successful, says Rakesh Tikait / Bharat Bhushan: Time for farmers' movement to launch a political party
Normal life was hit as farmers blocked highways and squatted on railway tracks at many places on the occasion of the Bharat Bandh called on Monday against the three contentious farm laws. The bandh began at 6 am and ended at 4 pm on Monday. BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said, “Our Bharat Bandh was successful. We had the full support of farmers…We can’t seal down everything as we have to facilitate the movement of people. We are ready for talks with the government but no discussions are happening.”
In both Punjab and
Haryana, national highways, state highways, link road and railway tracks have
been severally blocked, bringing road and rail traffic to a halt. In Punjab
farmers protested at over 350 places. Punjab’s Additional Director General of
Police(AGDP) has issued instructions to the police forces of the state to
ensure law and order at protest places. A close watch is being kept at all the
dharna sites. In Haryana too, highways are blocked 25 places alone in the
Jind district.
In Punjab, the ruling
Congress said it firmly stands by the farm unions’ Bharat Bandh call against
the three contentious laws. The shutdown was almost complete in the state, with
transport services suspended during the bandh period, while shops and other
commercial establishments remained shut at most places. National and state
highways in several districts, including Amritsar, Rupnagar, Jalandhar,
Pathankot, Sangrur, Mohali, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Bathinda, were blocked by the
protesters.
Vehicular movement was disrupted in several parts of Jharkhand as supporters of the Bharat Bandh blocked roads and highways. Shops were shut in state capital Ranchi, while government offices and banks functioned as usual. Farmers took out rallies on the major roads and held meetings….
With less than six
months to go for the Punjab state assembly elections, the mainstream political
parties are growing apprehensive that the ongoing farmers’ movement may convert
itself into an independent political party. Electoral calculations of the
existing political parties in Punjab (and Uttar Pradesh) could go awry should
that happen.
Bharatiya Kisan Union
(BKU) leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni, has been arguing that the only way to
“change the system” is for the farmers’ unions to contest the forthcoming
Punjab assembly polls. He was not contrite even after the Samyukta Kisan Morcha
(SKM), coordinating the farmers’ movement, suspended him for a week for this.
Chaduni, who has
earlier contested elections in Haryana, may not be alone in thinking about
contesting Punjab polls. BKU leader Balbir Singh Rajewal was denied a ticket by
the Akali Dal in 2017 and he supported the Aam Adami Party thereafter. Posters
have now come up in Khanna projecting Rajewal as the next chief minister. In
the context of UP, Yogendra Yadav, one of the faces of the farmers’ agitation,
has also suggested that farmers must not remain apolitical.
It is an opportune
time for the farmers’ movement to convert itself into a political party.
Despite being sustained for over a year, the farmers’ agitation has made no
progress in forcing a repeal of the three agricultural laws. The Centre could
be digging in its heels based on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s
calculation that but for the opposition in the north Indian states, the farm
laws are popular in the rest of India and will lead to electoral gains for it.
ALSO READ: Live news updates: Bharat Bandh protesters block Delhi-Meerut
Expressway
In this stalemate, the
farmer’s movement will dissipate its political energy. Indefinite mass
mobilisation would be difficult to sustain. There is no guarantee that the
Opposition political parties that supported the farmers when they blocked the
highways to Delhi, will do right by the farmers if they defeat the BJP. The
farmers need a direct share in political power instead of untrustworthy
proxies.
While the farmers’
unions are not politically united and do not share a clear ideological
framework, all of them want a systemic change which gives requisite weightage
to agriculture vis-à-vis industry. Despite internal differences, the 32
farmers’ unions were able to institutionalise themselves into the SKM. Can the
tactical formation of the SKM farmers’ movement make the quantum leap into a
political formation?
History is replete
with examples of social movements transforming into political parties – the
nav-nirman movement of Gujarat and sampoorna kranti (total revolution) of Jai
Prakash Narain became precursors to the Janata Party and more recently the
“India against Corruption” movement led to the formation of Aaam Adami Party.
Initially both were against entering politics directly.
Farmers could learn
from the failure of the Shetkari Sangathana to make an impact on the politics
of Maharshtra. It demonstrates how reticence towards political participation
can harm a successful farmers’ movement. Sharad Joshi, the moving force behind
Shetkari Sangathana, began as an avowedly apolitical leader who thought he
could transform agricultural policies through mass demonstrations. He only allowed
his members to contest elections to cooperatives in the Sangathana’s goal of
ensuring remunerative prices for farmers. He cultivated useful allies from the
existing political parties across the ideological spectrum--inviting leaders
ranging from Sharad Pawar, Chaudhary Charan Singh to Manohar Joshi and Pramod
Mahajan to the Sangathana’s rallies but he avoided direct political
participation in elections.
Sharad Joshi aligned
himself with V P Singh and when Singh became prime minister, he appointed Joshi
as chairman of the agricultural policy drafting committee with the rank of a
cabinet minister. However, even before Joshi could submit his report the
government fell. While it stayed away from electoral politics from 1980 to
1989, the Shetkari Sangathana finally decided to contest the Maharashtra
assembly election of 1990. In 1994 Joshi launched the Swatantra Bharat Paksha,
an avowedly free-market party along with Ram Jethmalani and others, that
claimed the right-wing legacy of C Rajagopalachari’s Swatantra Party.
He kept shifting
alliances and even became a Rajya Sabha MP with the help of the BJP and Shiv
Sena in 2004. However, his party’s fortunes continued to decline both in
Maharashtra assembly elections (from 5 seats in 1990 to 1 in 2004) and in the
Lok Sabha, failing to win even a single seat in the general elections of 1996,
1998, 1999 and 2004. Both Joshi as well as his protégé and later rival, Raju
Shetty, were unable to get out of dependence on the BJP and Shiv Sena. Shetty
got elected to the Maharashtra assembly in 2004 and to Parliament in 2009 and
2014 with their support. But as a result his position as a farmers’ leader was
considerably weakened.
The Shetkari
Sangathana story should warn the farmers’ movement that they should not miss the
political bus. Sharad Joshi himself admitted that a major reason for the
electoral failure of Shetkari Sangathana was its ambivalence towards electoral
politics and inordinate delay in joining it. Joshi’s later dependence on
opportunistic alliances left the farmers confused.
In more than a year of
the mass mobilisation of the farmers, new cadre and new organisational
leadership has emerged from the village, block and district to the state
levels. It should crystallise into a political party while the movement’s
energy is still peaking. It must not be dissipated by the fear of electoral
politics.
Farmers who could fund
a year-long agitation, should be able to fund election of candidates in Punjab
and UP, and later in Haryana and Rajasthan. Their elected representatives will
learn to negotiate the legislative process for the benefit of their
constituency rather than being supplicants. It will also help the farmers’
leaders to broaden their agenda to include the interests of farm labour and
form meaningful political alliances with industrial workers and other sections
of the population. India could do with the emergence of a party which speaks
for the largest interest group in the country and which is committed to
pluralism and diversity.
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