After two decades of liberalisation, this irony is no more hidden from the farmers of the country.

‘When the farmers broke barricades and marched ahead in November, it was the biggest clarion call against privatisation and corporatisation we have ever seen,’ said Sharma.

Farmers have also devised simplified methods to communicate such complex issues during campaigns. The protesters understand that withdrawal of state support would lead to market-driven policies and corporate giants will be the biggest beneficiaries. This is being simplified by campaigning that ‘Adani-Ambani will benefit and we will lose.’ Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani are the two richest businesspersons in India and corporatisation of any sector would potentially benefit them the most given the diverse nature of their business operations.

Different Phases of Current Protest:

‘Right now, the protest has entered its third phase,’ said Sharma.

The first phase started in July in Punjab, soon after the controversial laws were passed. There were massive protest demonstrations in these states. In October, Punjab assembly became the first in India to pass a resolution rejecting the central laws. A month before that Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the political party of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had withdrawn support from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). NDA is the BJP-led alliance ruling at the centre. Even though the resolution was a symbolic protest as it could not have changed anything in terms of law, it was a show of support by the state government.

After this, the next logical step was to congregate in Delhi, capital of the country which shares borders with states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The unions gave a call to reach Delhi in late November to demand that the new laws be repealed and minimum support price be guaranteed. After the militant fight, the farmers reached Delhi’s borders. By then it had successfully become a national movement. In a matter of few weeks, there were six protest sites, looking like makeshift tent-cities, on major highways connecting Delhi to other parts of the country.

One can see a large mobilisation of common people, other than the farmers, on the protest sites. Weekends are thriving with people joining in solidarity from across the country, though mostly from Delhi and nearby towns and villages. Trade Unions, women’s movements, students’ movements and famous personalities from the fields of arts and cinema have shown open support to farmers and their demands. An astounding mobilisation has been of the health community — doctors, nurses, public health practitioners, ambulance owners etc. Medical camps have been regularly organised on all the sites. Initially, protests were happening at three sites. This increased to five and then to six. Healthcare workers from private and government-run hospitals thronged to the protest sites delivering free of cost health services. This also provided an opportunity for health activists to organise themselves around a social cause that appealed to everyone.

In Delhi, the Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum (PMSF) has emerged as an organisation that has rallied a number of doctors behind it. The doctors would finish their regular duties at hospitals and take turns to go to the protest sites. Another organisation, Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA, India chapter of global network People’s Health Movement) also kicked in to provide medical support.

The JSA also conducted a survey to assess the situation of basic amenities at the protest sites and present demands to the authorities — local, state-level as well as national. The findings of the survey, conducted in December and released in early January, were terrifying. The survey noted that lack of proper sanitation, insufficient lighting, mismanagement of solid waste disposal, water stagnation, and shortage of warm clothes emerged as primary concerns of the protestors. Inadequate number of mobile toilets and improper maintenance by the authorities had rendered these toilets dirty and unusable, pushing a considerable number of protesters to resort to open defecation. Almost three in every five respondents — 57.5% — said that they had to rely on open sites for defecation. Most of the toilets were located in far-off places, creating difficulties in accessing them. There was no provision of lighting around the toilets which made it difficult to use them after dark.

Women protesters were found to be facing added troubles as they were averse to defecating in the open. This led to a dreadful situation where many of them said that they were eating less food and consuming less water to avoid using the toilets. Lack of basic amenities was leading to compromised health, nutrition and hygiene for all protesters, especially women.  

The situation worsened after 26th January, India’s Republic Day. In 1950 on this day, India’s Constitution came into effect. This year it also marked two months of farmers reaching the borders of Delhi. Farmers’ Unions gave a joint call for tractor rally as a show of strength and support for their demands. The annual event is famous for exhibitions of their culture by various states and agencies such as the army and navy. The tractor rally was also led by similar exhibitions, albeit about farmers’ culture and priorities.

The day saw wide-scale violence in Delhi which was telecast live on every news channel. It took the life of a farmer and several police personnel were injured. It seemed like that the protests had taken a dirty turn. However, the complicity of the government in the incident and disruptive elements as part of a conspiracy to discredit the movement has also been exposed.

‘The protests took place all over the country and they were completely peaceful. By then 150 farmers had died due to cold climatic conditions and other reasons while sitting at the protest. One cannot cite some isolated incidents to discredit the whole protest,’ said Krishnan.

AIKSCC and Samyukt Kisan Morcha, another collective of the farmers’ unions, condemned the violence. AIKS’ press release dated 27th January stated:

There have been many instances of farmers handing over agent provocateurs to the police including yesterday; notably many claimed to have been sent by the police themselves. After yesterday’s isolated incidents in the Capital condemned by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and AIKS, the BJP Government and corporate media is seeking to paint the farmers’ movement as an unruly, violent movement. Rather the SKM leadership intervened effectively in a timely manner to resist a small section that was trying to force tractors to deviate from the designated route towards the Red Fort…This effectively isolated the group that played into the hands of the Government and their game-plan. The events point clearly to the complicity of the BJP Government with the disruptive elements.

However, the government has used it as an excuse to cut down on even limited resources that it was providing. Internet services have been shut down at all protest sites, government resorted to power cuts at places such as Ghazipur border and water facilities were withdrawn too. It was in the aftermath of Republic Day that spikes and nails were put at the borders and trenches were dug. The sites also witnessed massive police repression.

This was seen as an unjustified provocation by the state. It snowballed into enormous gatherings, called the mahapanchayats, across north India. The rest of the states have been having gatherings as well. Thus, in the third phase, struggle has been intensified. Farmers continue to stay put at the Delhi borders. In addition, local mobilisations at large scale are also happening. This is also a response to withdrawal of services at the protest sites. Videos and images of large gatherings were circulated on social media with organisers asking, ‘you have shut internet at Ghazipur, how will you stop this being streamed,’ and the likes.

The anger of farmers and their supporters is also on account of the manner in which the laws have been imposed, bypassing any consultative process. The government passed the bills without discussion in the Parliament even though opposition parties had submitted their reservations against the bills. Farmers’ unions and groups were also not consulted despite these were such sweeping bills. Among a major issue is an attack on federalism.

‘Corporatisation of agriculture has been on cards for a long time. The previous government of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) tried to do the same through, for example, trying to dilute APMC Acts and deregulate markets by writing to States. In that case, the Central government pressurised State governments to implement changes. This gave some autonomy to the states respecting the fact that agriculture was a state subject. This government too, initially, tried the same route and Model APMC Act, Model Tenancy Act, Model Contract Farming Act etc were sent to States. The big difference this time is that this federal nature of implementing policies has been set aside. The central government has brought the new Farm Acts without consulting states and deems it binding for all states,’ said Krishnan. After Punjab, several other state assemblies passed resolutions against the farm laws including Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and West Bengal and Delhi.

Meanwhile, the protesters seem resolute and ready for a long haul.

‘I have come with members of my village, old and young, both,’ said Mohammed Sameer, 18, from  Charthawal block of Muzaffarnagar District in Uttar Pradesh. He said he has a fixed schedule at the Ghazipur protest site. ‘I am part of the volunteers group who keep a vigil at night. Ours is a group of 40 who keep taking rounds throughout the night ensuring everyone is safe. Then I sleep by 6 am for 4-5 hours and then help in cooking and cleaning. I take a nap again at evenings before setting out for the night-vigil,’ he informed. These mini-settlements for survival, livelihood and dignity will not be uprooted that easily. As a slogan aptly puts this:

‘Bill vapasi nahi, toh ghar vapasi nahi’ translated as ‘till the bills are not repealed, we will not go back home.’