Assembly Polls: SKM to Campaign for BJP’s Defeat in Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir

New Delhi: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a collective of farmers organisations that spearheaded historic movement against three repealed farm laws, has announced that it will campaign against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections scheduled to take place October.

SKM leaders said that its constituent organisations would conduct door-to-door campaigns and appeal to people to not to vote for the saffron party as it failed to deliver on its promise of minimum support price (MSP) as per the suggestion of Swaminathan Commission recommendations of paying 1.5 times the comprehensive cost. 

Constituted in 2004, the National Commission on Farmers, headed by leading agriculture scientist late M S Swaminathan, had recommended that farmers must get 1.5 times of the total cost incurred on inputs in agriculture.

Farmers’ groups have maintained that the Commission on Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP), the central body responsible for announcing the MSP for acquiring foodgrains from farmers, has been employing a wrong methodology for calculating the input costs of seeds, fertiliser, herbicides, pesticides, diesel and harvesting. While the CACP has used the A2 + FL formula, the farmers have been asking for C2+ 50% for fair returns on the produce. A2 covers major costs, such as fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and diesel among other costs and FL implies unpaid family labour. C2 refers to comprehensive costs, which also cover rents and forgone interest on land, apart from traditional costs.

Mahapanchayat in Hisar

The SKM’s Haryana unit said it would organise a massive meeting of workers, farmers and employees (permanent and contractual) in Hisar on September 7, to launch the campaign in the state.

Inderjit Singh, one of the key functionaries of SKM, told NewsClick over the phone that although the decision to hold such a campaign was in the agenda of SKM’s national executive meeting on July 10 in New Delhi, it was formally cleared on August 20 in Bhiwani where all constituent organisations gave their consent.

“We are very clear that we will expose the government’s corporate-communal nexus; their anti-farmer and anti-worker character and punish by defeating them,” said Singh, who is also a leader of the All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS).

The septuagenarian leader went on to add that the joint programme had been convened with active participation of Central Trade Unions. “We snatched five seats (from BJP) in Lok Sabha elections (in Haryana). We will repeat the Assembly elections too,” he added.

‘Haryana CM Misguided us’

Suresh Koth, leader, Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Union, told NewsClick over the phone that farmers were agitated because the promises made during the farmers’ movement were not fulfilled. “Consecutive CMs kept misguiding us over MSP. The police cases registered during the agitation have still not been withdrawn,” he added.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision of repealing the farm laws, the Centre, through its Secretary (Farmers Welfare) Sanjay Agarwal, had assured the SKM leadership that it would form a committee, including representatives from the Centre and state governments, agriculture scientists and farmer leaders from different unions with the mandate to devise methods to implement MSP.

Agarwal’s letter dated December 9, 2021 also noted that the Union government in principle agreed to withdraw criminal cases by its agencies for participation in the historic struggle and it would appeal to the state governments to withdraw the cases, too. The Centre will also hold a discussion on the provisions impacting farmers in the Electricity Amendment Act, the letter added.

In a statement, SKM said, “The massive setback suffered by BJP across India in the just concluded 18th Lok Sabha elections -- NDA lost in 159 rural constituencies -- was mainly due to the anger among farmers, workers, youth and marginalised sections including Minorities, Dalits and Adivasis against the pro-corporate policies imposed by the Modi Government. Another drubbing to BJP in these Assembly elections will amount to a litmus test for farmers to make certain their victory in the struggle across India against the corporatisation of agriculture and in defence of their livelihoods.”

On Haryana, the statement said, “The Haryana Chief Minister had attempted to misguide the farmers by falsely claiming MSP for 24 crops consciously hiding the fact that the procurement rate is not based on C2+50% but the current rate of A2+FL+50%.

“The C2+50% rate of paddy, one of the major crops of Haryana is Rs.3012/qntl while the current rate is Rs. 2300/qntl means less by Rs.712/qntl. Paddy farmers alone in Haryana had a loss of Rs.3851.90 crore in the year 2023-24.”

The SKM said similarly, the workers’ movement was also consistently in struggle demanding minimum wages of Rs.26,000/ month, rolling back of four pro-corporate labour codes and regularisation of jobs in schemes, including Anganwadi, Asha and Mid-Day Meals.

The BJP-led state government in Haryana and the Modi government that rules over the Union territory of Jammu Kashmir through the Lieutenant Governor, had brutally ignored these huge mass sections of the working population, it said.