Since 2020, Indian farmers have been agitating against repeated attempts by the ultra-right-wing BJP-led government to open the country’s agricultural sector to big corporations.
By Abdul Rahman
DHAKA, Bangladesh | 8 January 2025 (IDN) — Thousands of farmers participated in the Kisan Mahapanchayat, or farmers gathering, in Tohana, Haryana province, on January 4. The gathering was organized in response to a call from Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM—United Farmers Front) to demand the immediate withdrawal of the draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing (NPFAM). A draft of NPFAM was presented by the government in late November 2025. SKM alleges it constitutes a move to introduce big corporate control of the country’s agricultural production and endangers the interests of millions of small producers.
The farmers also demanded that the Narendra Modi-led government start negotiations with the farmers who have been agitating for a legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) since February last year at different borders between northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.
The gathering was addressed by several leaders belonging to different constituent groups of the SKM including Rakesh Tikait of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) and P Krishna Prashad from All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS).
The speakers expressed solidarity with the agitating farmers and especially with Jagjit Singh Dallewall who has been on a hunger strike since November 27. According to a press release from SKM, the farmers reiterated their demand that Prime Minister Modi must shed his “authoritarian attitude” and “respect democratic principles of governance” and initiate talks with “all farmer organizations” without delay.
The farmers in the Mahapanchayat warned the union government that if anything happens to hunger-striking Dallewal they will hold it responsible. The primary demand of Mr. Dallewal’s hunger strike is to force the state to fulfil its promise to enact legal MSP on the basis of C2+50% formula as promised in 2021.
The ultra-right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led union government in India has repeatedly attempted to introduce regimes facilitating the entry of big corporations in the country’s agricultural sector since coming to power in 2014. The three farm laws introduced with the same intention in 2020 witnessed massive opposition by the farmers and peasants in the country.
Farmers led by the SKM were able to force the state to withdraw those laws after encircling the capital Delhi for over a year in 2020-21. The Modi government had also agreed to enact a law on MSP for all farm products. However, according to SKM, they have refused to engage in dialogue with farmers on the issue since January 22, 2021.
A united fight against NPFAM
Leaders addressing the gathering on January 4 expressed apprehension that NPFAM is more dangerous than the three farm laws introduced by the Modi led ultra-right wing and pro-corporate government. Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president of the BKU claimed that if NPFAM becomes a reality all “grain trade in the country will fall into the hands of the corporates” which are backed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) with common farmers and peasants losing the most.
SKM said in a press release on Friday that the BJP-led government “facilitates the domination and control of multinational corporations (MNCs) and International Finance Capital over domestic agricultural production and the food industry, thereby threatening India’s food security and compromising its sovereignty with the slogan of ‘one nation one market’ through NPFAM.”
Ugrahan appealed for a long fight against these global financial institutions if one wants to save Indian agriculture. He claimed that the fight to defeat NPFAM is bigger than the fight for the MSP, arguing that when corporations have full control over the processes of agriculture, from production to marketing, as NPFAM proposes, MSPs will not even be relevant.
SKM also warned that NPFAM integrates agricultural production with marketing, completely ignoring the interests and welfare of small producers and farmers. P Krishna Prasad of AIKS claimed that “in the name of reform, the government effectively allows the private sector, specifically, corporate agribusinesses, to establish dominance over production, processing and marketing.”
Krishna Prasad also warned that NPFAM violates the federal rights of the provincial governments in the country which have the primary right to make laws related to agriculture.
Various provincial governments such as Punjab have already rejected the draft NPFAM with more state governments expected to do the same in the coming days.
The meeting decided that farmers of Haryana will write a joint letter to the union minister of agriculture by January 10 asking him to repeal NPFAM without delay. The SKM has scheduled another such meeting in Moga, Punjab on January 9 with the intention to intensify the struggle to force the government to withdraw NPFAM and implement legally guaranteed MSP. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Original link: https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/06/farmers-in-india-intensify-battle-against-big-corporates-in-agriculture/
Photo: Thousands of farmers participated in the Kisan Mahapanchayat in Tohana, Haryana. Credit: AIKS.
