Like the prime minister, Narendra Modi who can assess the identity of the people from his dress, these intellectuals could also identify the chhotakisan from their dresses and behaviours. Their attempt to segregate and ghettoise the farmers makes it amply clear that their primary motive is to serve the interest of Modi and the saffron brigade. These people from the beginning of the protest movement have been making all kinds of efforts to label the movement as of the rich farmers inspired and supported by Khalistanis. Initially they tried to portray it as the movement of the rich farmers from Punjab. But with farmers from Haryana, Rajasthan and UP joining the protest, they have taken to new strategy of decrying the movement as it does not participation of the chhotakisan.

These are the people who have been dividing the farmers’ movement on caste line. For them any movement of farmers is the movement of the boys and supporters of Shetkari Sanghthan of Sharad Joshi or Choudhary Charan Singh. Describing the agitation as being of rich and middle class helps serve the interest of the RSS and BJP. They try to create an impression that the rich and middle class farmers have been exploiting the chhotakisan.

These self-styled agriculture experts have been following in the footsteps of the RSS and BJP and echoing their voices. They argue that this protest is not of the penurious chhotakisan, but of Charan Singh’s khudkasht peasant-proprietor who has seen better times. It is a historical fact that the problems of these two class of farmers are of varied nature. This was due to the size of their land. While the rich and middle class farmers owned more lnds, the chhotakisan owned less than 2 acres. If the big farmers sold their products in the market, the chhotakisan also did not produce only for self- consumption or meet its subsistence need. He also sold his produce to meet his other family needs.

In fact these chhotakisans have been the worst sufferers. This van well is exemplified by the miseries they face in Bihar. They have to sale their produce at throw away prices. They need some money to survive. In some cases they have also become sharecroppers and also joined the ranks of the agriculture labourers. Legalising the MSP will immensely benefit them. They will be assured of getting enhanced price. With their life style similar to a labourer often they were segregated from the rich and middle farmers. They were identified more with the agricultural labourers.

Even the communist parties in sixties and seventies perceived them as two warring classes. The nature of cultivation and use of the man power resources put the two against each other. Rich and big farmers hired the labourers and middle themselves performed the task. But the situation underwent a change in the wake of globalisation, reforms and neo liberalism. Basically the intermediate castes and the OBCs constituting the middle class was the maximum beneficiary. Initially it benefitted from the market, but it nursed a grudge against the MSP, which was insufficient. Obviously being numerically strong, they are seen at the face of the agitation against the farm laws. But the fact is the chhotakisan is the main force.

Not less than 70 per cent of the middle and chhotakisan own the operational holding below 1 acre. Though these intellectuals and also Modi lament that chhotakisan and marginal farmers could never eke out an honest existence, no matter how much they worked their small piece of land, they do not muster courage to confess that it is the wrong MSP policy of the government that has been at the root of their miseries. The Modi government is trying to push through its laws on the pretext of being reform measures, but the fact is it would simply further pauperise this class of farmers. They will be denied whatever they have been getting in the existing situation. Undoubtedly the crisis of Indian agriculture is of the chhotakisan but perilously the government’s reform measures do not imed at uplifting this stratum of smallholders.

Of course the movement will help the Charan Singh’s khudkasht peasant-proprietor but more that that it would boost the economic condition of the middle, small and chhotakisan. One argument is also placed forward that the middle farmers have experienced a roughly four-decade spell of prosperity from the 1970s and now has its back to the wall. Does it imply that they should be dragged down to the level of small or chhotakisan or to the category of agricultural labourer?

Do these intellectuals ever thought of why the small and chhotakisan of Bihar have become labourers and have been ekeing out their livelihood by working on the fields of farmers of Punjab and Haryana? Almost all the sugarcane factories are closed. They have to sell their rice at Rs 900 per quintal instead of the MSP of Rs 1868. Why they are not getting any protection?

The massive turn out at the mahapanchayats of the farmers make it explicit that rich or middle class farmers are not the participants at these meetings instead the huge population of the poor and chhotakisan has also thrown its weight behind the satyagrah. The fact also cannot be denied that this time the farmers protest acquired a new dynamics as well dimension only for the participation of the rich and middle farmers in the protest. They might not have come forward if the so called reform measures would not posed a serious threat to the farming profession, the agricultural activities, itself. The move of the Modi government has in fact endangered the existence of the farmers, irrespective to their class divides.

So fat the farmer leadership has keeping away the political parties and their leaders from the protest. But one thing is crystal clear that time has come when the political forces must intervene and come out openly in support of the movement. With Modi unwilling to accede to the farmers’ demand, the movement need to be spread amongst the urban middle class. This class has been main support base of Modi and looks at the protest with contempt, a move aimed to destabilise the Modi government. This is the reason that this class is not so keen to provide even moral support. The basic reason is this class nurses many wrong notions about the agitation. This was deliberately fed to them. They must know about the machination of the BJP-RSS.

By now it has become that BJP member Dipu and his friends have planned and executed the January 26 incident. The Delhi police is in possession of concrete evidences, but even then it has not been withdrawing the cases slapped against the innocent farmers.It is unwilling to provide information about 16 farmers who have gone missing. It is clear that the time has come for direct political intervention to sustain the farmers’ struggle by mobilising public support across the country in the face of the government’s refusal to concede the demand for the repeal of the three controversial agriculture laws. It is a fact that the protest can be sustained only by turning it into a people’s movement. Farmers have started the movement, it is a movement for their existence.

The real intention of Narendra Modi got exposed on Wednesday when speaking in Lok Sabha, he took exception to the protesting farmers “abusing” the “private sector”, and again used the term “andolanjeevi” to disparage a segment of the protesters. The farmers have criticised not the entire private sector but “Adani and Ambani”, seen as Modi’s “crony capitalists” friends. True enough what did intend to convey when he said; “The culture of abusing the private sector is not acceptable any longer.” What was most intriguing was his correlating attack on the private sector as “insulting our youths”. “We cannot keep insulting our youths like this,” he said.

Modi accused his political rivals of tarnishing the farmers’ “pavitra (pure)” agitation and took a dig at the Congress, saying it was “divided and confused”. In all fairness instead of insinuating and maligning the protest, he should come forward and help the “pavitra” agitation. The people look forward to his gesture, before his administration and cronies crack down on the common people, for which preparation are already being made. (IPA Service)