It was Muzaffarnagar that turned in favor of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh in the 2017 assembly election. And it could be Muzaffarnagar which will prove to be the party’s nemesis in 2022.
On 5 September, 150,000 farmers from 13 states, including UP, gathered at the Government Intermediate College (GIC) ground for a mahapanchayat under the aegis of the United Kisan Morcha (SKM), while another 150,000 spread out on the streets of Muzaffarnagar. Representatives of 40 farmer organizations were on the dais as 1,000 LED screens broadcast the proceedings live.
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If the BJP thinks that farmers’ protest will die a natural death, the six-hour mahapanchayat should come as a rude awakening. When Rakesh Tikait, national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) and the most prominent face of the movement, took to the stage to launch ‘Mission UP’, urging farmers to oust ‘outsiders’ Yogi Adityanath and Narendra Modi; or when he called for a Bharat Bandh on 27 September; Or once again expressed the demand of farmers to withdraw three new agricultural laws and write a guarantee of MSP (Minimum Support Price) in the law, it all may have sounded like the voices heard earlier. It was his closing statement that marked a new register in this ongoing protest: “Now, we will not allow the BJP to start another riot,” he declared. “If they divide people, we will unite them,” he said. Now ‘K slogans’ as beforeallah hu akbar‘ And ‘Har Har Mahadevi‘Will resonate with farmers’ platform’
A subtle shift is underway in western UP, and it is nowhere more evident than in Muzaffarnagar, the site of the bloody communal riots in 2013. That violence marked the end of a Jat-Muslim unity that had long been strained by economic hardship and caste ties, with the BJP benefiting from a communally charged atmosphere in the 2017 state election. As Jats and Muslims come together again to form a common cause against the Centre’s new agricultural laws, it appears that farmers are not only fighting to protect their economic interests, they are fighting to meet their demands. Want to pay a political price to BJP for this.
This certainly cannot be good news for the BJP or the Yogi Adityanath government, six months before the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. As predicted by Harish Tyagi, Muzaffarnagar district convener of All India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Sangathan, “There will be a big drop in BJP seats from western UP in 2022.” Western UP has 136 assembly seats, of which the BJP currently holds 103 seats; It also has 20 of the 27 Lok Sabha seats in this part of the state. According to the caste census of 1931 (the last time such an exercise was conducted), 99 per cent of the state’s Jat population is concentrated in six mandals of western UP. According to a 2001 report by the Social Justice Committee, while Jats form 3.6 per cent of the backward classes of Uttar Pradesh, their share in these six mandals is 18-20 per cent. Again, out of 136 assembly seats in western UP, 49 have a Muslim population of 30 per cent or more. Jats and Muslims constitute more than half of the population in 25 seats.
BKU now wants to unite these Jats and Muslims. National President Naresh Tikait and National Spokesperson Rakesh Tikait are getting the support of the Jats’ Khap Panchayats; Naresh, who belongs to the Baliyan Khap, is actually the head of the Sarvakhap Panchayat, which is a group of all the Khaps of UP. The Kisan Mahapanchayat of 5th September was supported by all the major Khaps of Western UP. Gathwala Khap, who had stayed away from the peasant movement, was won when its Thanbedar (chief) Shyam Singh was given the responsibility of presiding over the Mahapanchayat.
Simultaneously, BKU is activating the organization from the state to the village level. Rajveer Singh Jadaun has been made the state president. He has been given four vice-presidents to help him. A president has been appointed for every mandal, district, block and village. The contours of the wider movement are decided on the basis of the feedback from village committee meetings.
PM Modi in Aligarh, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, September 14; (ANI photo)
NSWhile all this can help BKU successfully garner anti-BJP votes, how does it propose to persuade its supporters to choose parties other than the BJP, especially given that it has so far kept away from all of them? kept?
On their part, all the anti-BJP parties have promised support for the farmers. Congratulating the farmers a day after the mahapanchayat, Samajwadi Party leader and former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that the BJP should show respect to the farmers’ struggles and repeal agricultural laws. Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati lauded the spirit of Hindu-Muslim unity in the mahapanchayat, while Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra denounced the “arrogance of the government”. Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Choudhary, son of Jat leader Chaudhary Charan Singh, also said that the government has chosen to intimidate the farmers rather than solve them.
The problem is that “anti-BJP parties in UP are not active on the ground”, says Dr Baburam Malik, who has been running a clinic in Muzaffarnagar’s Jat-dominated town of Sisauli for the past 43 years, making the BKU the main opponent of the BJP’s agrarian policies. Not only this, Dr Kalam Singh, former head of the department of sociology at DAV College, Muzaffarnagar, says that BKU will have to “unify forward castes like Tyagi with backward Saini, Kashyap and Gurjar castes, besides uniting Jats and Muslims. Farmers’ movement in western Uttar Pradesh By joining the dominant forward castes, these backward castes can make a difference in 60 assembly seats in western UP. In 2017 these small castes had rallied in favor of BJP.
Aware of the shifting ground, the BJP has started damage control. On 14 September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of a state university in Aligarh named after the Jat king Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh. He used this opportunity to tell other Jat leaders like Chhotu Ram and Charan Singh how the latter also took care of the small farmer. The PM said that all the efforts of the Centre, be it MSP, Kisan Credit Card, crop insurance or pension scheme, are to empower small farmers. BJP is trying to create another split in the farmers movement by focusing on the small farmer and is trying to loot his ballast.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is also holding meetings with farmers’ bodies every month to assess the problems of farmers. He has also withdrawn the cases registered against the farmers arrested for burning stubble. The Yogi government also says that it is implementing development schemes worth over Rs 10,000 crore in western UP. “These development schemes have been made keeping in mind the farmers,” says state BJP minister and in-charge of Saharanpur district, Chandramohan.
The Adityanath government is also contemplating an increase in sugarcane prices, which is being demanded by 45 lakh sugarcane farmers of UP for the last three years. The state advisory price of sugarcane was raised only once, that too by Rs 10, after the BJP came to power in UP in 2017. It may be time to sweeten the deal again.
Why are farmers angry?
not fair price of produce
Corruption in the government procurement process of the crop due to the nexus of big farmer-officers. Small farmers forced to sell crops at a price lower than MSP in the open market
rising cost of electricity
Electricity rates in rural areas have increased by 40 per cent in the last four years. In 2017, the cost of electricity to run a 10 HP tubewell increased from Rs 900 per month to Rs 1,850 per month. Non-payment was subject to surcharge and fine. All this has been added to the cost of the crop. Farmers have also got arbitrary electricity bills
dissatisfaction with land compensation
Farmers of many districts including Shamli, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr and Bareilly are protesting against the land being bought for large-scale development works in UP and alleging less than the prescribed land compensation.
Irregularities in Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme
About 750,000 people in Uttar Pradesh, who are not small or marginal farmers, have reportedly taken advantage of the scheme. The state government has ordered that such people should be identified and action should be taken against them.
denial of crop insurance
Farmers in two dozen flood-hit districts of UP allege that a survey conducted to assess crop damage showed only half the loss to be denied the benefits of crop insurance.
Damage Control by Yogi Sarkar
return of cases
In what relief may come to over 10,000 farmers in western UP, the chief minister has ordered withdrawal of cases registered for burning crop stubble.
OTS Scheme
One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme will be implemented for interest subvention on old electricity bills. Electricity connection will not be cut even if the bill is due
special grant
UP farmers will be given a grant of Rs 250 per quintal on paddy and Rs 400 per quintal on wheat seed. This proposal was approved in the cabinet meeting held on 16th August under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister.
modern markets
Work is going on in 27 modern mandis so that farmers get fair price for their produce. In the last four years, 20 Krishi Kendras have been established with 220 new agricultural markets
Agricultural Machinery Bank
Co-operative societies and village panchayats will get grants for setting up agricultural machinery banks. The grant by the Agriculture Department will cover 80 per cent of the fixed value for purchase of agricultural machinery up to Rs 5 lakh.
solar pump
To promote the use of solar pumps as an alternative to electric and diesel based irrigation, farmers will be given a subsidy of 40-70 per cent on the fixed price of solar pumps.
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