New Delhi: Sardar VM Singh, the convener of Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) informed that the AIKSCC is planning to hold a massive protest on social media, starting from July 6. He also said that he is in talks with trade unions and will be trying to bring farmers and labour unions on a single stage to raise their voice.
AIKSCC, a conglomerate of more than 200 farmers unions from across the country has been holding Twitter campaign with hashtag #KarjaMafiPooraDaam from May 6 to reach out to the government with their demands. The past two campaigns were top trending in India and now AIKSCC has decided to repeat the practice every month.
“During the Corona crisis and Lockdown period, physical protests are not possible due to the threat of infection and restrictions imposed by the government. So we decided to start this social media campaign which was quite successful and now we have decided to do it on 6th of every month in the memory of six farmers who were killed in Mandsaur when they were protesting with demands of full loan waiver and price for their crops. AIKSCC was formed after Mandsaur incident only” he said.
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The decision to make issues trending on social media is being considered as a smart move by the Farmers’ organisation as most of the government ministries, ministers and even the Prime Minister are very active on social media. Most of the statements and information are issued on social media to maintain social distancing. VM Singh hopes that their message will directly reach to the Prime Minister and he will ultimately consider their long-pending demands. AIKSCC has also raised concern over rising diesel prices and demanded that the MSP should be reviewed by the government.
“The MSP for Kharif Crops announced recently was before the rise in diesel prices, thus the cost calculation was done accordingly but now that the price of diesel is skyrocketing, the cost needs to be re-assessed and MSP should be announced after that only. Also, the government should guarantee the purchase on that MSP,” said VM Singh.
Citing the example of Maize, the farmer leader said that the MSP for maize as announced by the government is ₹ 1760 per quintal but farmers are only getting ₹800-1100 per quintal in Mandis. They are suffering huge losses as they have to either sell their produce far below the fixed MSP or to wait for the price to come up. Meanwhile, the news is making rounds that the government has allowed import of 5 Lakh tonnes of Maize on a subsidised duty of 15%. The usual duty on Maize import is 50%. Now farmers are concerned that if such huge amount of Maize from outside will enter the domestic market, they will never get a reasonable price for their maize. However, some experts say that no consignment has arrived as yet and that will take more time.
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