BJP Mukt Bharat & Farmers’ Govt at Centre
Vanam Jwala
Narasimha Rao
The Hans India
(04-09-2022)
Reiterating and reinforcing his active
entry into national politics to bring in a qualitative change, Telangana Chief
Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao at a public meeting held in Peddapally on 29
August, asserted formation of a farmers' government at the Centre after the
2024 Lok Sabha elections. For the first time, KCR gave an unequivocal call for
'BJP-Mukt Bharat' to protect the country from the harmful divisive forces and
in the process envisioned the formation of farmers' government at the center.
KCR in explicit expression of words criticized
the union government for its anti-farmer stance like enacting the three
contentious farm laws and many more against which farmers, mainly from Punjab
and Haryana, protested against at the borders of Delhi for more than a year.
KCR said Narendra Modi had no option but to announce their repeal. This
exhibited the supremacy of a united farming community of India which is
imperative to cross all the hurdles and achieve the goals, emphasized CM KCR.
Chief Minister's announcement was a
follow-up statement after he chaired a two-day marathon meeting on August 27-28
at his official residence, Pragathi Bhavan, in Hyderabad, with nearly 100
leading farmers representing various national farmers' unions from 26 States across
the country. Prior to their meeting with CM KCR, farmers' leaders went around
the state and had an exposure, glimpse and firsthand experience as well as
physical validation of various welfare measures benefiting the farmers at
large, being implemented in Telangana and not visible elsewhere in the country.
At the meeting farmers in one voice
explicitly made it abundantly clear that the Telangana model is indispensable
for all-round development of agriculture sector in the whole country. Farmers
urged the Chief Minister to guide and support them on the anti-farmer policies
being adopted by the BJP¬-led Central government, especially in wake of lack of
support for the cultivation of crops and extending remunerative prices for the
yield.
A few of the Telangana government
schemes that the farmers studied were: Farmers' loan waiver; Rythu Bandhu;
Rythu Bheema; 24-hour quality free power; Input subsidy; Appointment of AEOs;
Farmers' coordination committees; Rythu Vedikas; Supply of seeds and
pesticides; Mechanization in agriculture; Tractors on subsidized price; Rythu
Bazars; Mobile veterinary hospitals; Micro irrigation; Construction of godowns;
Specialized markets; Ex-gratia for kin of farmers who committed suicide; sheep
distribution; Dalit Bandhu; Construction of irrigation projects, Mission
Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya etc.
Overwhelmed by astounding results of
the schemes, the farmers attending the meeting with Chief Minister KCR adopted
unanimous resolution to form a National Farmers' United Forum to press for
replicating the Telangana government's policies and welfare programs for the
farming community and the agriculture sector across the nation. It was felt in
the meeting that there is a need to organize a United Farmers' Organization to
unite every farmer in every village of the country. This in a way automatically
transforms itself into a nationwide mass movement, challenging the government
at the center and leading to eventual formation of a farmers' government as
envisioned by CM KCR.
Astonished on knowing about the
multifarious schemes benefiting the poor at large, and the farmers in
particular in Telangana, a lengthy discussion took place on the comparative
failures of the central leadership and governance during the past 75 years of
independent India in addressing and solving problems of the agricultural sector
despite availability of natural resources and cultivable lands in abundance.
The focus was more specific to Modi government failures.
This is exactly where the farmers
invited the intervention of KCR-kind of leadership to make agriculture a
profitable profession across the country. The meeting adopted a resolution
seeking him to lead the movement to unify farmers from the village level to the
national level to take up a coordinated and well-planned strategic fight
against the anti-farmer policies of the center. Participants unanimously
expressed the view that CM KCR may prepare an action plan and a blue print for
the movement, to unite the entire farming community.
Responding to the plea of farmers, CM
KCR called for putting up a united fight by combining the Parliamentary method
and the agitation approach to secure the future of farmers and ensure their
welfare. He said that history proved that movements and struggles not involving
legislature bodies were failures in Independent India. He said that the
separate Telangana Movement, which he himself pioneered, proved that everything
is possible through combined efforts. KCR gave a clarion call to farmers to
adopt a 'Telangana' model agitation to find a permanent solution to their
long-pending issues. Before starting the Telangana movement, said KCR that, he
spent thousands of hours of brainstorming with intellectuals having expertise
in various fields. He could dispel people's doubts on the formation of
Telangana state and made it a reality.
CM KCR gave a clarion call to the
farmer leaders to plunge into active politics and get elected as peoples'
representatives and enter lawmaking bodies to solve the problems of farmers. A
strong movement can be built through parliamentary form, said KCR. The first
step advocated by KCR was that the farmers' leaders go back to their villages
and discuss the issues pertaining to them at field level as deliberated at the
meeting with him. This is how the unity of farmers right from the village level
could be exhibited and also demands of farmers from all over the country could
be heard. Farmers' unions resolved to follow the path taken by CM KCR and
combine both political and agitation approaches to address the long-pending
issues of farmers.
The follow-up step deliberated and
agreed upon was to have meetings with scientists, economists, intellectuals,
journalists etc., at the national level and hold discussions. This would form
the basis for preparation of operational blue print and procedures to be
followed to protect the interests of country's farmers and agriculture sector.
The organizational structure would be in tune with federal spirit at state,
district, taluk, mandal and village level. The meeting envisaged establishment
of farmer offices to connect North and South India including Delhi and
Hyderabad.
Incidentally, a couple of days later,
on the auspicious Vinayaka Chaviti day, the 31st August, CM KCR visited Bihar
and had a meeting with his counterpart Nitish Kumar in Patna, to plan a
strategy to bring like-minded parties together to take on the Modi government
in 2024 polls. The Nitish-KCR meeting and later KCR meeting with secular leader
Lalu Prasad Yadav was seen by senior political analysts as a significant step
in the direction of achieving opposition unity for a BJP-Mukt Bharat as
declared by KCR in his Peddapally public meeting.
"We must endeavor to drive the
BJP out of power, by whatever means possible," reasserted KCR during a
press meet in Patna after his meeting with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and in his
presence. With the 2024 Lok Sabha elections due in about a year and half from
now, what shape the BJP-Mukt Bharat and formation of farmers' government
proclamations of KCR will take would certainly be a politically interesting
development in the independent history of India. Let us await and watch the
developments inquisitively. END
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