Land acquisition affected Kisan Sangharsh Samiti and CPI (ML) organized a People’s Convention on November 28 at Seth Damodar Swarup Park Chowki to discuss the issues of the injustices perpetrated upon the farmers of Bareilly by the SP government for land acquisition, and the communal politics engendered in the State through Muzaffarnagar.
Addressing the convention, chief speaker CPI (ML) General Secretary Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya saluted the courage and commitment of the farmers’ movement in Bareilly. The old ploy of breaking people’s movements through lathis and bullets does not work any longer, as we have seen in the case of the Singur farmers’ movement in West Bengal. The general perception is that the intellectual middle class does not support such movements, but in Bareilly people like Dr. Mohd. Israr Khan, Prof. in Economics at Rohilkhand University are not only supporting the movement but leading it. The manner in which the SP government arrested Prof. Khan from the university campus for supporting the farmers’ cause, and sent him to jail slapping false charges against him, and had him beaten in the thana, brings out the ugly truth of this government. Com. Dipankar pointed out that former BJP MP Santosh Gangwar was being given a compensation of Rs. 61 lakhs while other farmers were given Rs. 25 lakhs and asked on what basis these rates had been fixed.
Com. Dipankar said that as a BJP-RSS leader Modi was not much of a force but with the backing of the corporates like Tata and Birla, he has become a darling of the media. The trick of the BJP to use Muzaffarnagar as a laboratory for communalism to facilitate Modi’s PM bid must be foiled by the united farmers’ movement.
Erstwhile colleague of former BKU leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, Ghulam Mohammed Jola said that those who were dissatisfied with the BJP-ization and communalisation of the BKU have broken off to form the Kisan Mazdoor Sangh. Co-ordinator of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti and Professor in Economics at Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Ruhelkhand University, Prof. Israr Khan said that over 3 lakhs bigha of land in Bareilly is being grabbed in Bareilly under the pretext of various projects. The State government is acting as the agent of big companies and builders. 66 years after independence, he said, 1000s of riot-affected people have been living for months in camps around Muzaffarnagar, for which the BJP, the SP and the Congress in Delhi must be held accountable.
The people’s convention was addressed by All India Kisan Mahasabha National Vice President Prem Singh Gehlawat, CPI (ML) CCW member Com. Krishna Adhikari, AIKM State Secretary Ishwari Prasad Kushwaha, United Muslim Morcha State President Iqbal Ansari Advocate, Satish from Inqalabi Mazdoor Kendra, and others. The Convention was presided over by CPI(ML)’s district in-charge Com. Ali Kumar Rishi and conducted by Party State Standing Committee member Afroz Alam.
A resolution was passed in the Convention to demand a stop to forcible acquisition of farmers’ land in Bareilly, taking back of all cases against Prof. Israr and other farmers, and fair compensation for the lands grabbed in the name of the Big By-pass project. The Convention condemned the State government’s bowing down to the sugar cane farmers and not making the payment due to the sugar cane farmers.
