Vol. XLI No. 37 September 10, 2017
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Haryana All-set to Hold AIKS All India Conference

Inderjit Singh

PREPARATIONS are in full swing for successful holding of Kisan Sabha all India conference at Hisar in Haryana from October 3-6. Hisar will be hosting it for the second time while the last one it held was in 1992 when Comrades Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet had addressed a huge kisan rally. This time around the venue is named after Com Harkisan Singh Surjeet who led several peasant struggles including the historical anti-betterment levy movement. Kisan Sabha, Haryana is fortunate and proud enough to have with it some of those veterans who went to jail and suffered various other repressions during that movement which had deeply impacted the Hisar region besides other parts.

Various sub-committees like accommodation, food, transport, finance, volunteer, seminar, exhibition, decoration, souvenir, medical care, cultural etc have expedited their respective work under the joint guidance and co-ordination of reception committee, AIKS state committee and Kisan Sabha all India centre. Reception committee office is fully functional at the Sube Singh library Bhawan in Jawahar Nagar. Its e-mail id is [email protected].

The conference will commence with a massive kisan-mazdoor rally to be addressed by Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, AIKS president Amraram and general secretary Hannan Mollah. All India leaders of the CITU and AIAWU will also address the rally as large numbers of workers belonging to CITU and Agricultural Workers Union will take part in the rally and thus make it an occasion to exhibit worker-peasant unity.

The 34th conference is taking place in the background of unprecedented situation in general and agriculture sector in particular. People feel deceived with the BJP government at the centre refusing to implement the promises made by Modi during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections towards implementing Swaminathan Commission recommendations, creation of jobs for the unemployed, improving the lot of the peasantry etc. The draconian policy of demonetisation broke the back of farmers and rural poor. The pernicious measure today stands thoroughly exposed with the entire demonetised currency returning to the reserve bank.

Widespread anger among the peasantry is finding expression in strong movements emerging in different parts of the country like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan etc. BJP governments at the centre and in several states are diabolically indulging in disrupting the unity of the people on caste and communal lines on the one hand and seeking to suppress the movements by use of police lathis and bullets as in Mandsaur.

The above challenges are being met with an approach of issue based united struggles that has proved successful as seen in the stalling of obnoxious Land Acquisition Act, 2015 under the aegis of Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan, a platform of large number of all India and region based organisations.

The seminar sub-committee comprising of agriculture scientists and Kisan Sabha activists who have prepared a comprehensive note on the agriculture crisis and addressed seminars in villages included mainly the reception committee chairman Dr R N Kundu, Dr Baljit Bhyan and Dr Ramesh Sidhar. Kisan Sabha state committee has formed reception committees in several districts, sub divisions, blocks and even certain villages by including people from various walks of life and undertaking fund collection drives. Campaign teams have been formed in all districts who will visit more than 2000 villages. These teams will be accompanied by cultural troops who are preparing a street play on the deteriorating plight of the distressed peasantry and the social problems of the country side.

With the way people are coming forward to extend all-out support, the reception committee is confident that the all India conference would be a grand success.