Samyukt Kisan Morcha takes 15 Punjab outfits back to its fold

But Rajewal, Chaduni can return only if they disbanded their political outfits, SKM leaders say

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) appears to have resolved its organisational issues by taking back about 16 farmers’ organisations who formed the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM) ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections in January. A meeting of the SKM, held in Ghaziabad on Sunday, decided to expand the SKM’s ambit by making it a national platform of various farmers’ organisations. The meeting, chaired by All India Kisan Sabha leader Ashok Dhawale, also saw discussions on the two-page guidelines distributed to all constituents. The guidelines speak of SKM’s proposed organisational structure and will be adopted at its next meeting, after the discussions within various farmers’ associations.

About 200 delegates from 15 States participated in the meeting. The meeting also decided to expel the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangh (KRRS), headed by Chandrasekhar Kodihalli, from the SKM. Mr. Kodihalli was earlier caught in a sting camera operation allegedly taking a bribe to settle a transport strike. SKM’s Karnataka chapter had probed the allegations and recommended that the KRRS be expelled from the SKM.

Though most of the Punjab-based farmer organisations are back in the SKM’s fold, senior farm leaders Balbir Singh Rajewal, who founded the SSM, and Gurnam Singh Chaduni, who formed a political party, are still being kept out of the SKM. Leaders of the SKM told The Hindu that they will be taken back only if they disbanded their political outfits. Mr. Rajewal unsuccessfully contested the Punjab Assembly elections. The meeting expressed confidence that the SKM’s doors will always be open to all farmers and farmers’ organisations of the country, and expressed hope that the farmers’ struggle against the Centre would become more intense and powerful.

The meeting expressed its disappointment with the Centre and said that neither had a committee been formed on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) nor the allegedly false cases registered against farmers during the agitation been withdrawn. “The government is trying to introduce the Electricity Bill in Parliament. The government is not even ready to consider the biggest demand of the farmers, i.e., the legal guarantee of a minimum support price,” the SKM said, and added that it will hold “protest against betrayal” public meetings at the district level from the start of the monsoon session of Parliament on July 18, till July 31, the martyrdom day of Shaheed Udham Singh.

The meeting also decided to mobilise unemployed youth and ex-servicemen against the Agnipath scheme. “To expose the Agnipath scheme, ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ conferences will be organised across the country from August 7 to August 14, in which ex-servicemen and unemployed youth will also be invited,” the SKM said.

The meeting also raised serious concern over the growing repression faced by farmers and human rights movements. “The arrests of social activists and journalists such as Teesta Setalvad, R.B. Sreekumar, and Muhammad Zubair indicate increasing repression on democratic rights across the country,” the SKM said.