 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. In India, a massive farmers agitation is going on where tens of thousands of farmers are camped on the various highways connecting the capital city New Delhi to the rest of the country. These farmers are demanding that the far-right Narendra Modi government repeal the three agricultural bills that were made into laws earlier this year. To talk more on this issue, we are joined by Ashok Dhavle, who is the president of the All India Kisan Sabha, which is a national level farmers organization affiliated to the Communist Party of India Marxist, and it's also one of the primary organizations mobilizing the farmers for their struggle. Thank you for joining us today. So, can you first briefly tell us about these bills, these laws themselves, you know, which are so worrying for the farmers that it is causing them to agitate in this cold weather and in the middle of a pandemic? You know, see, all these three laws that have been very undemocratically got passed in parliament by the Modi government, they are, first of all, totally anti-farmer, anti-people and pro-corporate. That is the bottom line of these laws. The first law is regarding they want to actually eventually totally do away with the existence of the APMCs that what we call the Mandis and all the start private Mandis, that is be led by Ambani, Adani and all these other big corporates, both foreign and Indian. So, they want a parallel structure where the farmers can sell and the APMCs which are there will slowly be gone out of commission. That is the intention of the first act that they have passed. The second act is about totally encouraging contract farming all over the country and they have given a certain listings of rules, etc., which are all very heavily weighted against the farmers and in favor of the corporates who will be doing the contracting. That is the second important act. The third important act is the amendments to the Essential Commodities Act, which means that where they was earlier, limit to the stocks that the traders can hold. Now, they have removed all the stocks on rice, wheat, all other cereals, pulses, cooking oil, potatoes, onions. So, therefore, now the corporates and the big traders have no this thing regarding keeping stocks. They can keep as much stocks as they want and this will lead to tremendous black marketing, which used to happen earlier before the Essential Commodities Act was actually promulgated many decades back. So, that amendment is removing all the stock barriers, etc. and this is going to affect not only the farmers, but the people as a whole because the cost of all this is going to rise tremendously and therefore, the people who are buying all these goods, that means the consumers in both cities and rural areas are all going to be very badly affected. So, these are the three laws which they have passed and which are actually affecting the farmers very badly. None of these laws they are mentioning that the purchase should be at the MSP. The word MSP does not occur in any of these laws at all that is one. Apart from that the whole weightage of the laws is basically favoring all the corporate lobby and against the farmers and that is why the farmers bodies have all come together. More than 500 farmers bodies have come together now under the banner of the Sayukta Kisan Morcha and they are now actually agitating at the Delhi borders in a very huge way. And multiple talks have been held till now between these farmers groups and the government and another round is scheduled for later today. So, what has been the government's response so far? What has been discussed in these talks? What are your key demands and what are you expecting today? See in the very first talks there was nothing that the government offered. In the second talks they tried to say that okay we will make some amendments in the laws, minor amendments etc. Then yesterday we had a meeting of the leadership of the Sayukta Kisan Morcha at the SINGO border and there unanimously all the farmers organizations decided that there is no question of accepting any amendments. We will not be satisfied until there is a complete repeal of all the laws. That was the unanimous opinion yesterday. So therefore today in the talks that will be happening with the government the whole Sayukta Kisan Morcha delegation will take the stand that there is no question of amendment because the entire laws are flawed. All the laws are very heavily weighted in favor of the corporate law and therefore just making some tinkering in those laws in the form of amendments is absolutely not acceptable. We will not rest until all the three laws are repealed. That is going to be the stand of the farmers organizations today in the talks with the government. So now let us see what happens in the talks today. And one of the main criticisms that has been pointed out by the farmers is that these laws will lead to the eventual dismantling of the APMCs as you mentioned earlier but the government has been countering saying that you know this is not going to happen the APMCs are still going to exist. So then what can you tell us about that then what then the government is asking what is the reason for farmers to agitate. So what can what is the farmers response to that. See the response is this they are making all these statements. Now if the APMCs are not to be dismantled then what is the need of the law itself you know that is the basic point that we are raising. If you are going to continue with MSP if you are going to continue with APMCs then why do you at all bring in a law which actually leads to dismantling of APMCs and gives a full weightage to the corporate lobby to indulge in agricultural trade that is the basic issue that we are raising. Therefore if you are saying that APMCs will remain etc then you just repeal the law simple as that that is the main point that we are saying. You understand the government is very actually double forked they say on the one hand APMCs will remain but the effect of the law will be eventually to dismantle the APMCs that is what the farmers realize very well and that is why they are taking such a stern stand on this issue of the repeal of the laws. Can you also tell us about the vilification campaign that is going on you know about these farmers that there is only a certain state which is protesting Punjab and these are raising other anti nationalist demands as well all sorts of things being said to derail the movement can you tell us more about that. You know see these are all canards being spread by the BJP and RSS against the farmers movement number one on the 26th of November we know that there was a whole nationwide upsurge it was not limited only to Punjab and Haryana the entire country the working class and the farmers came together the working class came together for an all India strike on the 26th of November they were protesting against the four labour courts that were passed in parliament just after these three farm acts were passed now these four labour courts are absolutely again totally anti working class totally when promulgated to help again the corporate lobby. So, therefore, the working class of protesting against that all over the country in the form of an all India strike they came on the streets also in millions of numbers all the farmers bodies had given a call for a all India road blockade on the 26th of November now this happened in several thousands of places all over the country not only in Haryana and Punjab but all over the country there was huge upsurge of farmers against these three farm acts. So, therefore, that is one major point that must be understood that on the 26th of November the entire farmers of the entire country rallied against the farm acts that is number one not only that you see now after that we had given a call for intensification of the agitation all over the country. So, right from 1st December we are seeing all over the country huge actions are taking place now day before yesterday I was in Maharashtra 3rd December we had given a call for very big actions all over the country the all India Kisan Sabha the all India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee and the Sayukta Kisan Murcha we had all given a joint call for big agitation. So, there in Maharashtra and all over the country thousands and thousands of farmers came on the streets even on the 3rd of December. So, this is a nationwide struggle number one of course there is no doubt that the farmers from Punjab and Haryana especially Punjab have taken part in a massive way and before the vilification campaign let us just point out this the way that the central government and the Haryana government both of the BJP have dealt with these farmers coming from Punjab and Haryana. Such a thing is unprecedented in the history of independent India because the government has been acting as if it is waging a war against the farmers and that is exactly what was seen at the Haryana border where they employed tear gas shells where they employed water cannons where they put up barbed wire they put up barricades they in fact dug up the highways 10 feet you know to create those trenches so that the farmers and their tractors and trolleys could not come and they also arrested hundreds of activists in Haryana. So, this entire repression by the BJP central government and the Haryana government is something unheard of in our country for the last several decades. So, therefore, they are actually waging a war against their own people and that is the main point that we are stressing in all our this thing this thing in the all over the country. So, therefore, all these tactics are being employed to vilify the farmers movement, but they will not wash because everybody realizes that this is not going to be successful anymore it is a main line this thing of the farmers who are coming on the streets and lakhs of lakhs are there now in the Singhu border Tikri border. Now, we have seen the farmers from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand having come to Ghazipur just outside Delhi. So, there that highway is also being blocked etcetera. So, therefore, there is a upsurge now which was never there before for the last several decades and where all the farmers organizations have actually sunk all their differences political and otherwise in favor of this united struggle. So, therefore, these vilification things will never wash there is no doubt about that. And finally, can you tell us about the struggle so far you know how have all these different organizations managed to organize and come together and also what is next if the if the demands are not heard today by the government then what are the next steps the farmers are planning how long are they prepared to stay here for. See, this will be from our point of view a prolonged struggle unless the government repeals these laws and withdraws the electricity bill that is also a very dangerous bill because it in effect removes the cross subsidy given to farmers and to the ordinary people staying in the Jhuggi Jhopades of Delhi all over the country etcetera. And they are trying to see to it that the industrialists and the people and the farmers are given a similar rate of electricity tariff. So, that is the whole law and also totally encouraging privatization in the electricity sector. So, that electricity bill 2020 has been placed it is not yet made into an act. So, that is another of our demands over here that withdraw the electricity bill 2020. So, this now will be a long strong struggle yesterday we held a press conference where we have given a call for the 8th of December as a Bharat Bandh all over the country in support of the agitating farmers. So, therefore, we are intensifying the struggle much more we are giving calls to all the nearby states to mobilize in even greater strength in and around Delhi. So, that call also has been issued yesterday the nation for farmers led by P Sainath and others. They are mobilizing intellectuals cultural artists literary figures and so many other people from the middle class to come and stand staunchly in favor of the farmers. So, that front is also doing extremely good work all over the country we are prepared the farmers over there Punjab and Haryana. They are saying that we are willing to stay here for even 3 months or 6 months if the need be because we are not going to go back without a repeal of these laws. So, that is very clear now and this actually the numbers at the border both Singu and Tikri they are actually growing day by day in farmers are actually coming even more in thousands every day and are converging over there. So, therefore, if the government thinks that all its you know these maneuvers and all will help to sort of dissipate the struggle they are dead wrong it will never happen and the farmers are extremely angry at the entire neoliberal policies of the government which is leading to these kind of laws number 1 and they are also very angry with the kind of repression that the BJP RSS government has rained on them as a result of this whole their whole strategy. This time they are coming into a lot of trouble because they tried it with students they tried it at the Delhi riots they tried it at the CAA, anti CAA, NRC agitation, but here it is the main line farmers who are actually coming into the path of struggle and they realize that going for repression beyond a point that will be very counterproductive to them all over the country and therefore, all this you know they are on the back foot today the government is very clearly on the back foot and we will have to just push forward the advantage even more all over the country because this is this started as a national struggle and it will have to be intensified as a national struggle in the days to come. Thank you Kamrat Dhavali for talking to us today and that is all the time we have for more news on the farmers struggle keep reading and watching both people's dispatch and news click