New Delhi: Terming the ongoing farmers’ protest as a ‘violent movement’, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has said that it’s the farmers who suffer when a “political movement” is furthered in their name.
The farmers’ outfit maintained that it has been ‘continuously fighting to demand remunerative prices for the produce of farmers based on their cost’.
“BKS has been strongly representing the farmers’ concerns by communicating with the government. Wherever we feel the dialogue is not resulting in concrete action we have led agitations too,” said Mohini Mohan Mishra, all India general secretary of the BKS.
Farmers affiliated with nearly 150 farmers’ unions from around the country have given out a call to reach Delhi to put pressure on the government to agree to their demands, which include a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) and implementation of the recommendations made in the Swaminathan Committee report.
Asked whether BKS supports the protesting farmers’ demand for a legal guarantee for MSP, Mishra said the Sangh affiliate would rather press for its demand for MRP (profitable price). Farmers from Punjab are asking for a legal guarantee for MSP since they are chiefly rice and wheat growing farmers, but there are hundreds of other crops too, he pointed out.
The BKS, while stating that the farmers’ protest in 2020 was politicised, had at the time criticised the use of force by the state against protesting farmers.
Mishra cited the ‘disciplined peaceful demonstration of one lakh farmers in the form of Kisan Garjana Rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on 19 December’ as an example of agitations led by it to demand profitable price for produce. “Farmers from all over the country came to Delhi, expressed their views before the government in a peaceful and democratic manner and returned without troubling anyone,” he said.
He also termed the ongoing protests political in nature.
“It hurts when some people with political intentions use the shoulders of farmers to further their political interests. Bharatiya Kisan Sangh believes that when a political movement is carried out in the name of farmers, it is only the farmers who suffer the loss. The movements in Mandsaur and Delhi in the past years are proof of this. At some places the figure reached six and at some places even up to 600, where farmers lost their lives. Their issues and demands remain the same,” he said.
Mishra added that “political election manoeuvring in the name of farmers should be stopped”.
“Organisations fighting for the interests of farmers are continuously fighting to solve the problems of farmers. Irrespective of whose government is in power, they are finding solutions to problems faced by farmers, with harmony. The farmer has the right to get retail price on the basis of cost and he must get it. Today, seed and market are the main problems of farmers, whether inside or outside the market, exploitation of farmers in seed and market should be stopped.”
Mishra said when movements are led in the name of farmers during elections with political intentions, “then the violence, chaotic environment and loss of national property during the movement give rise to negative feelings towards the farmers in the society”.
“The farmer struggling for his betterment has to pay the consequences of this. That is why Bharatiya Kisan Sangh does not support violent agitation.”
“We urge that those who want to fulfil their political ambitions should do so. But do not create negative feelings towards farmers in the society. We reiterate that the farmer should get the retail price based on the cost, which is the right of the farmer,” he added.
Putting forth the demands of the BKS, Mishra reiterated that the Sangh affiliate wants MRP and not MSP for farmers.
“GST on agricultural inputs should be abolished. Kisan Samman Nidhi should be increased. GM seeds should not be allowed. Seed is the right of the farmer,” he said.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)