West Bengal Elections: SKM Releases Letter Urging People Not to Vote for BJP

Kolkata:  The top leadership of Samyukta Kisan , Morcha (SKM), an umbrella organisation of over 40 farmer unions, on Friday released an open letter to all farmers in West Bengal urging them not to vote for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the ensuing Assembly elections.

In the letter, the SKM, which is spearheading the over 100-day countrywide farmer protests, said  voting for BJP, which is ruling the government at the Centre and had brought in three controversial farm laws,  would be detrimental to farmer’s interest across the country, adding that the party was “anti-farmer.”  

The letter was released at an event held at the Press Club in Kolkata, attended by farfmer leaders, such as Balbir Singh Rajewal, Hannan Mollah  Satnam Singh Ajnala, Yogendra Yadav, Atul Kumar Anjan , Sunilam, Rajaram Singh and social activist Medha Patkar  among others.

Later, at a programme organised at Gandhi Statue, the letter was handed over to 294 kisan doots  9farmer envoys) who would take the letter to the all 294 Assembly segments  and through a ‘relay system’, will reach farmers across the state.   

Speaking in the programme, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) general secretary Hannan Mollah said over 100 days had elapsed since the start of the movement by farmers at the border of the national capital. He said the farmers’ movement was unified on the issue that the three laws should be repealed.

The movement has given a new identity to farmers, that they are kisans, Mollah said, adding that when every sector of the economy was seeing a drop in producton during the pandemic, it the farmers who kept production going, with the agriculture sector doing well.

The AIKS leader termed the Narendra Moid-led BJP government at the Centre as “the most treacherous government after Independence”.

Later, speaking at a mahapanchayat organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee’s West bengal unit at Ramlila Park in Central Kolkata, its convenor Amal Halder said  farmers of  West Bengal were in a “deplorable condition”, as they were not getting the right price for paddy, jute and potato .

A total of 227 farmer suicides have occurred in the past few years in the stat, he claimed.

Mollah said Prime Minister Modi had told farmers in a video conference that he is “just one phone call away”, but that phone call never came to farmers.

Making it clear that SKM was not campaigning for any political party, it appealed to West Bengal’s farmers to vote for any political party, but not BJP, which had rained tear gas shells, water cannons, and showered protesting farmers with slurs and false accusations.

The farmer leaders talked about their over 100-day struggle and said the Union government was dealing with them in a “demonish” way.

The kisan leaders said “BJP is desperate to win the West Bengal elections, and if they lose, their anti- farmer arrogance would be destroyed, forcing the  Modi government to accept the demands of the agitating farmers”.         

The mahapanchayat ground saw a mix of flags fluttering, such as AIKS’ red flag, the white and green flag of SKM  and yellow and green flags of Swaraj India.

The kisan leaders also spoke of the fight of Bengal and Punjab during Independence. It also accused the Union  government of “looting” the farm sector by attempting  to offload the sector to two industrials houses  -- Adanis and Ambanis..

The farmer leaders reached Ramlila Park in tractors and decorated vehicles and where scheduled for an interaction with intellectuals at Khalsa High School in Bhawanipore. 

A press note by the SKM read that kisan mahapanchayats would be held at Mayo Road, Bhawanipore and Nandigram, after which the team would proceed toward Haldia and Asansol, and will be joined by Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait who will also appeal for “No Voting fpr BJP”  in the Assembly elections.

The farmer leaders said they would be attending Kisan Mahapanachayats in all 29 states  of the country, including the five states that are up for Assembly elections.