Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, 24 July, 2024
Over 5 months ago, on 13 February, 2024, the Haryana government erected barricades at the Shambhu border in Ambala district and Khanauri border in Jind district. These barricades were put up to prevent kisans of Punjab from coming to Delhi in their tractor-trolleys, to place their demands before the Central government.
The BJP-led Haryana government dug up the roads across the inter-state borders with Punjab. Multiple layers of barricades were put up so that tractor-trolleys could not pass. Police placed concrete slabs on the roads and special nails to destroy the tires of tractor-trolleys.
Kisans were brutally lathi-charged. The police and paramilitary forces used water cannons and fired tear gas shells at the kisans. These tear gas shells were of military grade, which are to be used by the army during wars. The government used special purpose drones to attack kisans with tear gas shells from the sky. The Haryana police also used live ammunition to fire on the kisans. Hundreds of kisans suffered serious injuries and were hospitalized for long periods. One young kisan, Shubkaran Singh, was martyred in the firing by the police. Many others have died in the course of the ongoing agitation at the Punjab-Haryana border.
What is the crime committed by kisans that they have been attacked so brutally by the government and its security forces? Kisans have only been demanding the implementation of the agreement made by the Central government with the kisan andolan, on the basis of which the kisans agreed to suspend their 13 month-long agitation at the Delhi border on 11 December, 2021.
The central government had promised it would implement a legally guaranteed MSP for all crops. It had promised to withdraw all criminal cases against kisans for participating in the andolan. It had promised punishment for those responsible for the murder of kisans at Lakhimpur Kheri. None of the promises made by the Central government have been implemented. It is for this reason, that kisan organisations resumed their agitation in February 2024.
The kisans who have gathered at the Punjab-Haryana border have been the target of the most vicious propaganda. The Central government has tried to communalise the atmosphere by painting the kisans as Sikh terrorists, in order to create a religious divide amongst the people. It has propagated the lie that kisans are violent and want to spread mayhem and violence everywhere. However, the kisans have refuted these lies and acted in a wise and mature way. For over five months, they have dug in their heels at Shambhu and Khanauri borders, refusing to withdraw their plan to reach Delhi. At the same time, they have refused to fall for the provocations of the Central government. The kisans have declared that they will resume their planned march to Delhi when the barricades are removed. They have boldly declared that no matter how many years it takes to secure their demands, they will not withdraw their agitation.
On 10 July, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the Haryana government to lift the barricades on the Punjab Haryana border. It must be noted that not only kisans, large number of businesses along the border have been affected by the closure of the border. These businesses have also appealed to the Haryana government to lift the barricades and allow free movement across the interstate border. However, instead of implementing the decision of the High Court, the Haryana government has moved the Supreme Court to stay the High Court judgment.
The Communist Ghadar Party of India condemns the anti-kisan attitude of the Central and Haryana governments. Delhi, the capital of our country, belongs to the people of the whole of India. Kisans from every region of India, including Punjab, have the right to come to Delhi and raise their demands. To prevent kisans or any other section of our toiling people from gathering in Delhi to voice their concerns is a most blatant violation of the democratic rights of our people.
The demand of kisans that the Central government guarantees security of their livelihood by ensuring MSP for all agricultural crops is an entirely just demand. If kisans are guaranteed MSP and workers are guaranteed living wages, the conditions of the whole of society will improve. Kisan leaders are repeatedly pointing out that the only reason why the government is refusing to implement MSP for all agricultural produce is that it is pursuing the agenda of the big monopoly capitalists, Indian and foreign, who want to ensure their domination over agricultural trade.
The kisan leaders, including Jagjit Singh Dallewal of Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Siddhupur, Sarwan Singh Pandher of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, Surjit Singh Phool of Bharatiya Kisan Union Krantikari, and several others have declared that they will march to Delhi when the barricades are lifted. They announced that they will burn effigies of central ministers on 1 August, and organise tractor marches in different districts across the country on 15 August, as part of the campaign to force the government to concede their just demands. As part of this campaign, they announced that a massive mahapanchayat will be organised in Haryana in September.
Through life experience of the past 76 years since independence, kisans are coming to the conclusion that the existing economic and political system in our country is anti-kisan, anti-worker, and anti-social. It is a system in which about 150 monopoly capitalists are enriching themselves at the fastest possible pace by intensified exploitation of workers, robbery of peasants, and plunder of our country’s rich natural resources. Life experience has shown that neither kisans nor workers can trust the political parties of the bourgeoisie, like the BJP or the Congress. When they are in opposition benches, these parties shed tears for the plight of kisans and workers. But when they are given charge of running the government, they implement the agenda of enriching the monopoly capitalists at the cost of the interests of workers and peasants.
The Communist Ghadar Party of India hails the fighting spirit of the kisans, who are steadfastly refusing to be cowed down by all the violence and all the calumnies that the rulers have unleashed upon them.
The struggle of the kisans is part of the struggle of the working class and all the oppressed, for a new society, in which the toiling people will be the decision-makers and the aim of the economy will be to fulfil the ever-growing needs of the working people, not to enrich the capitalists. The way forward for the kisans is to unite with the working class and all the exploited and oppressed, and step up the struggle to create this new society.