Over the past month, district-level conferences of All India Kisan Mahasabha had been held in several districts of Bihar – and the 7th Bihar State Conference of the Kisan Mahasabha was held on 1-2 Nov 2014 in Vaishali district of Bihar. The conference began by paying tributes to all martyred comrades and flag hoisting at the Shaheed Smarak by Com. Ramashish Singh. Inaugurating the conference, Kisan Mahasabha General Secretary Com. Rajaram Singh critiqued the Modi government’s policies related to land and the agricultural sector – the concessions to foreign corporate companies investing in India, the field trials of GM seeds which will gravely endanger food crops, the proposed pro-corporate and anti-farmer reforms in the land acquisition Bill and the dilution of environmental standards. He pointed out that the phenomenon of sharecropping is on the rise in Bihar, but instead of helping the smaller sharecropper by encouraging public investment, the central and state governments are making all sorts of cuts in farmer subsidies. As a result of the government’s policies in the agricultural sector, farming outlays are getting costlier through privatisation of farming material, even as the government refuses to give sharecroppers the status of “farmer” and the benefits which go with it.
Kisan Mahasabha National President Com. Ruldu Singh also highlighted the deteriorating socio-economic conditions of farmers due to the rising cost of farming inputs. He pointed out that farmers in the so-called rich agricultural belt of Punjab were inveigled and trapped in the debt syndrome and weighed down by loans to the tune of thousands of crores. More than half of the debts were owed to private moneylenders and usurers, leading small farmers to commit suicides in large numbers. National secretary Purushottam Sharma from Uttarakhand said that the uncontrolled industrialization and indiscriminate tourism development in that State was destroying the villages of poor farmers. CPI(ML) leader Com. Rajaram Singh said that recently the Party had conducted a survey of 2 lakh farmers in Bihar, especially sharecroppers, and studied their problems. In the coming days the Party would be taking up steps to organize poor farmers and sharecroppers and initiate struggles.
Focusing on the need to raise sharecroppers’ issues effectively, Bihar State secretary Birendra Gupta pointed out that as a good portion of farm labour is engaged in sharecropping, there are increased possibilities for a united struggle. Vice President of the Bihar State Kisan Sabha (affiliated to the CPI) Com. Ramchandra Mahto and State secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha (affiliated to the CPI(M)) Com. Awadhesh underlined the need to develop a united farmers’ struggle to combat the impact of neoliberal policies. Com. Surendra Singh and Com. Rambali Prasad also spoke of the devastation caused by neoliberal policies, stating that not only were farmers being deprived of economic rights, their right to organized struggle was also in jeopardy.
Samkaleen joint editor Pradeep Jha pointed out that agriculture was gradually moving from a feudal sharecropping system to a corporate sharecropping system, even as the farmer has not been able to get ownership rights to his crop. He stressed the need to find new ways to strengthen small farmers and to fight the ruling class attempts to wedge a divide between farmers and sharecroppers in Bihar. He appealed for widespread dissemination of the D. Bandopadhyay commission recommendations relating to sharecroppers and for a concerted effort to build an effective farmers’ and sharecroppers’ movement.
The delegate session was held in the evening of 1 November. Reports of the earlier work of the mahasabha were presented, in which issues such as the dilapidated condition of canals, ahars, and government hand pumps, black marketing of seeds and fertilizers, corruption in PACS (primary agricultural cooperative societies) elections and crop purchase centres, shelving of the D Bandopadhyay recommendations, and forceful land acquisition were discussed. In particular, the denial of sharecroppers’ rights was highlighted. Struggles of the Kisan Mahasabha in the last 4-5 years for sharecroppers’ rights and crop purchase, and for sugar cane farmers’ issues were detailed. The intervention of the Mahasabha in farmers’ protest against land acquisition was also discussed. A 17-point list of responsibilities was presented, for widening the organizational strength of the Mahasabha.
32 representatives participated in the discussion. They discussed issues such as the economic oppression of workers in dairy farms, water logging problems in several districts, false electricity bills and extreme shortage of electricity, problems of fruit and vegetable growers due to lack of local mandis, common farmers being deprived of PACS membership, the need to fix the sugar cane purchase price before the sugar mills start working and to include representation of sugar cane farmers in the process of price fixing, failure of the government to buy the crops at the appropriate time, extreme delay in payment, and lack of proper compensation for destroyed crops.
On 2 November, the presiding board declared the inclusion of the issues raised by the representatives in the agenda of the Kisan Mahasabha. Com. Shivsagar Sharma and Com. Krishna Dev Yadav stressed the need for strong intervention on farmers’ issues, especially sharecroppers’ issues. The report was then passed unanimously. In the final organizational session, National Secretary Com. Ishwari Prasad Kushwaha oversaw the election of new office bearers. 76 comrades were elected to the 81-member council, while 5 places remain vacant. A 33-member executive was elected from among the council members. Com. Vishveshwar Prasad was elected State President and Com. Sudama Prasad State secretary. 8 Vice Presidents and 8 joint secretaries were also elected. Finally, a 12-point political resolution was passed. It was resolved to observe the week from 28 November to 4 December as a state-wide “Demand Week” to demand sharecroppers’ rights through organized dharnas in all blocks. The conference ended by paying tributes to Com. Shah Chand, news of whose sad demise reached just as the conference was coming to an end. Prior to this state conference, at the district-level conferences of the Bihar Kisan Mahasabha had been held in Bhojpur, Rohtas, Siwan, Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur, Jamui and Begusarai.
