In the Lok Sabha, MPs debated a no-confidence motion against the government. One kilometre down Sansad Marg, several thousand farmers meeting under the banner of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) had already voted in their own Kisan Avishwas Prastav Sabha (Farmers’ No Confidence Motion Assembly) on Friday. Their verdict was unanimously against the government.
“This government has failed to keep any of the promises it made to farmers in its election manifesto. It’s so-called historic MSP hike is simply a fraud ... The last three governments — two led by Manmohan Singh and one by Atal Bihar Vajpayee government — gave higher increases,” said Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav. Then he asked the assembled farmers to vote by raising their hands if they had lost confidence in the government. A sea of waving arms responded, as anti-government slogans rent the air.
Among them were Nirpal Singh, president of the Amritsar branch of the Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, who had come to the protest along with his 11-year-old son, Gursewak Singh. “The government failed to keep its promises on the Swaminathan Commission recommendations. Our costs are very high, but the prices we get are very low,” he said. He doesn’t think there is a future in farming for his son, unless government policies change. “It is not only the Centre; our State government’s policies are also equally harmful.”
“We want our rights, and we have come to Delhi to demand them,” said Mohammed Ali of Bijnor district in Uttar Pradesh, waving a black flag. “Small farmers and agricultural workers suffer the most.”
The longest journey had been made by a group of four farmers from the rice bowl of the Cauvery delta in Tamil Nadu. “We hold protests back home as well, but the State government will say rice prices [set by MSP] are a Central decision. So we have come to the capital to protest,” said 74-year old Aadi Kaliyaperumal. He owns four acres of paddy fields in Thanjavur district, but struggles to make profits because of rising input costs and stagnant returns.