Farmers Agitation

Don't Be Fooled, BJP's Counter-Offensive Against Farmers Is Very Much Still on https://thewire.in/politics/dont-be-fooled-bjps-counter-offensive-against-farmers-is-very-much-still-on 05/JAN/2022
The forced surrender and public humiliation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the politico-economic battle over the farm laws engenders feelings of revenge against the farmers.

Punjab’s farmers’ organisations and their wider networks of support need to be particularly aware of the dangers presented by the BJP’s counter-offensive. From the perspective of defeating farmers’ resistance to agro-business capitalism aligned with Hindutva, winning the 2022 election in Punjab is even more important than in UP. If the BJP loses UP but wins Punjab, it will have two more years to regain the upper hand in UP in advance of the 2024 General Election. However, if it loses in Punjab – even if it wins in UP – its agenda to advance agro-business interests would be effectively defeated. If the BJP were to lose both in Punjab and in UP, that would be the biggest possible setback for the agro-business and Hindutva agenda.

Punjab’s farmers’ organisations need urgently to craft a well-thought-out election strategy that can defeat the BJP’s attempt to gain power in Punjab. The decision by 22 farmers’ organisation (out of the total 32 from Punjab involved in the current farmers’ movement) to contest the 2022 Punjab assembly elections under the banner of the Samyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM) will be keenly observed from the angle of sustaining the unity of farmers organisations and the potential to defeat the BJP’s counter-offensive. 

Exclusive Conversation With Naresh Tikait:"Farmers Will Never Forget Their Humiliation" |Arfa Khanum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78DYTHAflOI 
Dec 30, 2021 

A breakdown, and the rise of farmer leader Rakesh Tikait https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GIy_w_ylmA Jan 30, 2021

Rakesh Tikait the most unlikely adversary of the central government has seen his political stock rise in the past week. The Bhartiya Kisan Union leader’s emotional speeches and ground level connect with the Jat community makes him formidable. After the 26th January violence during the farmers protest tractor rally his call of not relenting has rallied the Jat farmers from Haryana, Rajasthan and western UP to join the protests in greater numbers.

Farmers, Economists & Democracy ||| Parakala Prabhakar Dec 22, 2021

There is an insidious project underway with regard to the now repealed Farm Laws. The ruling party, an influential section of our economists, a large and vocal section of the urban middle class, and the mainstream media are stealthily, but effectively, pushing a narrative. In this Episode Dr Parakala interrogates this narrative and shows that the farm laws are merely aimed at accelerating market dynamics in the sector without addressing the core issues that plague the agriculture sector in the country. And shows how this narrative's understanding of agriculture merely as an economic sector, the peasant as only an economic actor and food as nothing but a tradable a commodity is completely flawed.