 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. Today, we are joined by Vijay Krishnan, who is the All India Joint Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, which is the largest farmers' organization in India. And it is one of the organizations which is leading the ongoing farmer's struggle. And May 26 marks six months off this farmer's struggle. And the Samyuk Kisan Morcha, which is the collective of all farmer's bodies who are part of the struggle, has issued a nationwide protest call for May 26. And May 26 also marks seven years of the Narendra Modi government. So thank you, Konrad Vijay, for joining us today. And can you first start by telling us about the call for May 26? You know, what are the sort of actions planned? How is the agitation going to be like? And what is the sort of message that you're trying to send the government? See, it is six months after the protest around Delhi has started against the three anti-farm acts that was brought by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. And it's also the seventh year of Narendra Modi coming to power. And on 26th, across the country, keeping in mind the pandemic and the COVID protocols, we will have protests outside our houses and keeping the COVID protocol in place, where the Samyuk Kisan Morcha has given this call more than 500 organizations coming together. Other than that, the Central Trade Unions, women's organizations, students and youth, and also the organizations of the oppressed sections, they have all come together in support of this protest action tomorrow. This is sending a clear message to the Narendra Modi-led BJP government that the people of our country are not going to accept the three acts that has been passed, literally imposed on the people of our country during a lockdown period. Also the withdrawal of the rights of the working class that has been done by this government, it is a clear message against that we stand united. It's not just a protest by the farmers of our country. It is a unique unity of the working masses as well as the presentry of our country. That is sending a resolute message that come what may, we are going to resist and defeat these policies of corporatization. And talking more about the farmer's struggle, so now that we are six months into the movement, where do you, how do you evaluate the movement's position today and can also tell us more about some of the major achievements and struggles that the movement has faced? Yeah, actually, I would like to say it is almost going to be a year after the protest erupted because it is from June 1st week itself we started this protest against the, when the three ordinances were brought. But the protests which have been going on, especially around Delhi, where millions of farmers have been sitting in protest against these acts, that is six months old now. And in the six months, it is to be noted that close to 500 farmers have become martyrs in this struggle. Despite this kind of a situation, the farmers are continuing to maintain a steely resolve that this struggle will go on. The biggest victory of this struggle has been that the unity that was built, an issue-based unity built involving more than 500 organizations that is still continuing with despite all conspiracies of the ruling classes, despite all attacks by the government, repression, different kinds of cannot spread, the corporate media has been used to malign it, and there have been divisive campaigns by the Sanct Parivar and so on. Despite all that the unity has been retained so far and it is continuing, even in a situation of pandemic, the people are out in protest. That is, I think, a major victory of this struggle. Along with that, the fact that initially what started as a farmer's movement has transcended into a people's movement. You are having the entire section of working class from the very beginning of the Delhi cello. November 26 also marked the general strike called by the Central Trade Unions. The working class called the general strike and the peasantry and agriculture labour organizations called for a rural strike. So it was, you had almost 260 million people participating in this protest. So that is something to be noted also. It was one of the biggest protests across the globe. Now it is being seen as one of a historic protest with millions participating, probably the biggest peasant protest in recent history. So that is in the wake of these protests, we have also seen different efforts to divide the people who are part of the protests. There has been repression. We have seen how leaders have been arrested. There have been barricades and batten charging of the protesters. We have had the protest sites being barricaded in a big way with walls being built, concrete walls being built as well as huge nails being put on the streets, internet and water connection being cut. Despite all these kind of repression, we have been able to continue this struggle and the farmers are ready for the long haul. That's a major victory of this struggle. Another victory is that it has not just restricted itself to the three acts alone. It has also transcended in terms of issues to the taking up the issues of workers rights. If you see a large number of organizations recently were also out on protests against the Zionist attack on Palestine which was there and during the elections to the five states assemblies recently, a call of no vote for the anti-farm of BJP. So a campaign, a political campaign against the BJP was also launched and we had its results in terms of the electoral reverses that BJP has suffered in the major states. So these are some of the victories. The challenges surely I would say that it is in times of agricultural activity, lacks of farmers are sitting in this protest. All sections have lost incomes due to the policies of the government. There is no income support. In a situation of extreme adversities, the farmers are still continuing the protests. That is I think the silver lining of this entire protest. And I suppose another challenge of course is the pandemic which you just mentioned also that the government has absolutely failed to handle. So of course the pandemic has had a devastating impact on people's lives and also the economy and employment. Can you also tell us more about how it has impacted farmers and the agrarian sector? Yeah, actually from the very beginning of the pandemic in 2020 when the lockdown was announced itself, farmers who are expecting a bumper harvest, we saw how there was a harvesting and marketing crisis and all sections losing incomes in a big way. The agriculture labor lost employment opportunities. You had the migrant workers who are forced to literally into an biggest exodus after the partition where millions and millions of migrant workers were forced to flee to their home states and with the government not doing anything to help them. So that situation even now in this present second wave we find a lot of news coverage goes to the urban centers. But the rural areas, what is the situation, the dismal status of the health infrastructure? What is the situation of the vaccination for the poor and the presentry and agriculture labor? We have been demanding free universal vaccination. What is the status of that? The deaths that are going unreported. We are seeing today how dead bodies are floating on the Ganga and a large number of them come from these rural areas. That is a situation where the people of the rural areas are losing incomes. They are not having proper health facilities. There is no proper earnings so that they can get the best of medicines. Neither is the government pitching in to help them in any way. No kind of income support is being promised by the government. So this is, we are staring at a crisis that will literally blow up in the face of the ruling classes here because in a big way the rural areas are being affected by the pandemic in the recent phases. They are just being left to fend for themselves. That is a situation where we have stories of oxygen shortages, stories of shortages of medicines from the cities of our country. But what is the situation? The situation is far, far more dangerous in the rural areas. That is something which the government and all political parties should give primary attention to and try and address the situation if at all we have to save lives in the rural areas. And in these last six months or one year actually of the farmers movement as you said, how has the government's response been to the demands? Has it changed in any way in these last few months? We see that of course talks were being held between the farm leaders and the government but those who have stopped and we also see that for instance recently in Haryana farmers are continuing to face violence. So can you tell us about these instances and the overall response of the government? See the government had almost 12 rounds of talks where they stuck to their position that these acts are going to benefit the farmers. These acts were not something which were demands from the grassroots by the farmers. Under a lockdown situation keeping the farmers and agricultural labour and the toiling masses under lockdown these acts were brought to actually unlock the gates for corporate profiteering. So the government has only stuck to its adamant position that it is not going to withdraw these three acts. But however the farmers have continued the protest with the strong resolve that it will go back, the protest will only be withdrawn if the three anti-farmers acts are withdrawn and as well as the changes brought to the electricity act, the amendments would be withdrawn. We saw that this campaign was taken to the states that went to elections recently and the ruling party has suffered huge reverses despite spending a huge amount of money and corporate media assisting in their campaign despite that they had to face reverses in these elections. So I think the government is sticking to their adamant stance at their own peril. The farmers of our country, the working class supporting us in a big way, we have come here ready to carry on this struggle till victory and the government better understand that the struggle is going to go on and we are not going to allow these policies that will benefit only the likes of Adhanis and Ambani and their ilk that we will not allow its implementation here. We also see how whenever there are protests in Haryana there have been brutal attacks on the farmers when they have protested against ministers and chief minister. Recently in Shupur in Madhya Pradesh, the union agriculture minister was shown, there was a protest against him and that was also a brutal lotty charge, a baton charge was we found there. But in Haryana yesterday after a massive protest, the district administration has been forced to withdraw all the cases. They have been forced to withdraw all the cases and also whatever damage has been the vehicles of the farmers have suffered damages, compensation to be paid for that and so on. So that shows that this movement has only grown from strength to strength and we are not going to get caught down by these kind of police action or repression that this government is unleashing. We will march on till our demands are met. Right. Thank you, Konrad Vizu for joining us today and that's all the time we have.