The Rajasthan Farmers' Stir and the CPIM(s)*: Some Observations [*CPI(Marxist) & CPI(Maoist)]
The Rajasthan Farmers' stir in the late October of last year is perhaps not more remarkable than other such movements in the past, and certainly less widespread and wide-stretched and less intense than say, the famous Nasik movement of the eighties of the last century, or, the comparatively recent movement against power-tariff-hike in AP. But, nonetheless, it is noteworthy in the sense that perhaps after the anti-GM-seed move of the KRSS in Karnataka and the anti-agro-electricity-tariff-hike move in AP, it is yet again a, well, militant farmers' movement that has been occuring during the last five years in India . And it is also significant not in the composition of the organization spearheading it but in the role of a constituent organization, the CPI (M) . As that movement, or, the phase of that movement under consideration, happened almost or more than 7 months back from the publication of this article, the news need to be recollected briefly at first. For the sake of the getting certified as "doubtless" according to the CPIM's belief-system we shall re-generate the history (in brief) from the pages of "The Hindu" (a le Monsieur N. Ram's fame) from their online archive. Only in a sole case, we shall look into the "SANMARGA" (the eastern India 's one of the largest circulating Hindi newspaper) for the want of that data in the pages of The Hindu Online edition.
? As the readers see, I have used CPIM in plural — in the last part of this article I would like to draw attention to the attitude of the well known revolutionary communist organisation, CPI (Maoist), (which also may be abbreviated to CPIM if they don't mind at all ) as expressed in their print media, on this same issue.
The Happenings, As Archived in Newspapers
Farmers hold SDM as hostage, 30 hurt in police lathi charge By Our Special Correspondent
JAIPUR, OCT. 26. About 30 persons were injured when the police resorted to lathi charge and lobbed teargas shells to disperse a huge crowd of farmers laying siege to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate's office in Ghadsana town in Sriganganagar district of northern Rajasthan today. The farmers were demanding release of sufficient water from Indira Gandhi Canal for sowing of rabi crops. Several Government officials, including the SDM, the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Tehsildar and office in-charge of seven police stations — held hostage inside the office — were released in the police action. Hundreds of farmers had begun an indefinite "mahapadaav'' (mega-gathering) at the SDM's office on Monday and locked the office after pushing the employees inside. Tension prevailed in the town since Monday with the local Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders extending support to the farmers' agitation. The demonstrators allowed the food for the hostages to be taken inside only once following the failure of their talks with the higher authorities. Farmers were agitated by reports that the State Government was considering reduction in the allocation of canal waters from the existing 5.23 cusecs per 1,000 acres to 3.5 cusecs. ...
Four killed during farmers' stir By Our Special Correspondent
JAIPUR, OCT. 27. Troops were called out in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district this evening following widespread violence in the area where four farmers, part of a crowd agitating over the supply of irrigation water, were killed in police firing earlier in the day. A curfew has been declared in the affected towns. The firing took place in Rawla town on the Sriganganagar-Bikaner road after the farmers set fire to the office and residence of the Station House Officer, Raisingh Beniwal, and attacked the police. Four persons — Kalu Ram, Mangilal, Raj Kumar and Jet Ram Meghwal — were killed in the police firing while eight others with injuries were admitted to P.B.M. Hospital in Bikaner. The condition of one of them was said to be critical. According to the local people, the number of injured was more. ...
Rajasthan Watershed project bags award
JAIPUR, OCT. 28.Rajasthan has bagged the prestigious India Tech Excellence Award-2004 for successful implementation of a watershed project in Mangaliawas village of Ajmer district. The project has been hailed as an example of sustainable... ...
SANMARG: (HINDI): JAiPUR, 28 TH OCT: sinchai ke liye pani ki mang ko lekar andolanrat kisanon par polis goli chalane ke birodh me ugra kisanon ne sriganganagar jile me aaj ek aur polis chouki ko jala diya. ... ... sinchai ke liye pani ki mang ko lekar andolanrat kisanon dwara kal sarkari karyalay tatha do polis chowkion ko aag laga diye jane ke baad polis ki golion se char kisano ki mout ho gayi hey. ... [ The peasants, agitated over the police firing on the farmer's move for the demand of irrigation water, set another police outpost on fire in the Sriganganagar district.... The police fired on the farmers' mob after the latter set on fire a govt. office and two police stations yesterday....]
Rajasthan towns peaceful
JAIPUR, OCT. 29. The indefinite curfew imposed in four towns of Sriganganagar district, following Wednesday's clash between farmers and police which claimed four lives, was today relaxed for a few hours in the evening to enable people buy ...
Violence-hit areas peaceful By Our Special Correspondent
JAIPUR, OCT. 31 . The situation in three strife-torn towns in Sriganganagar district of northern Rajasthan remained peaceful during the relaxation of curfew today. ... Curfew was lifted in Vijay Nagar on Saturday following improvement in situation, even as the State Government initiated talks with the leaders of the Kisan Mazdoor Vyapari Sangharsh Samiti spearheading the agitation. ...
...Among others, the former MLA and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, Hetram Beniwal, former Minister and Congress leader, Radheyshyam, and the Pilibanga MLA, Rampratap Kasnia, participated in the talks on behalf of the Sangharsh Samiti.
The district administration has appointed two committees to assess the damage caused to public properties during the agitation. They will prepare an inventory of damage caused by arson to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate's office in Ghadsana and police posts, roadways office and Irrigation Department's buildings in the region.
By Our Special Correspondent : JAIPUR, NOV.2 . Troops were withdrawn from three towns of Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan today following return of normalcy after week-long unrest over distribution of irrigation water. ...
"The State Government is committed to supply of adequate water to farmers but the existing bottlenecks have to be removed,'' Ms.Raje said. She directed the Irrigation Secretary to tour the canal areas immediately and submit a proposal to the Government on streamlining the supply.
The meeting was told that the farmers receiving water from the Anupgarh branch of the main canal had been getting the stipulated 5.23 cusecs of water per 1000 acres of land. However, certain unsocial elements had breached the canal to illegally carry water to their fields thus causing distress to the farmers at the tail end. This also led to "misleading propaganda'' by certain persons that the water allowance had been reduced from 5.23 cusecs to 3.5 cusecs, it was pointed out.
The meeting also noted that Phase I of the Indira Gandhi Canal area had a higher water allowance than any other irrigated area in the State. Against the water allowance of 5.23 cusecs there, the Bhakra Nangal area has 2.40 cusecs, the Gang Canal , 2.56 cusecs and the Phase II of the Indira Gandhi Canal , 3 cusecs.
But!! — The "News" served by the CPIM — What was Distorted, and Why!?
Now let us look into the Peoples' Democracy ? the English mouthpiece of the CC of CPIM, and GANASHAKTI ? its West Bengal State Committee's organ, and see what they told us about the "news". The marked changes in their way of representation, and the "masquerading" from what they really are doing in their own run states, are marked here by bold italicised texts.
PD: 14.11.04: RAJASTHAN People Pine For Drought Relief, Get Bullets
Hannan Mollah
... The peasants sat in dharna on September 27, before the SDM office in Ghadsana demanding water, drought relief and food for work etc. But the BJP government chose to keep silent. Despite the peaceful meetings, deputations and dharnas, no action was taken for one month. And suddenly there was brutal lathicharge on a peaceful dharna at Ghadsana on October 26, which has caused serious frustration and anger among the peasants.
During the rallies and meetings organised on September 27, a huge posse of the Rajasthan Armed Core (RAC) encircled the towns of Ghadsana and Rawla and opened fire, killing 4 persons and injuring hundreds. A large number of people were arrested, beaten brutally and put them behind bar; about 80 are still in Bikaner jail.
... Peasants having all shades of opinion formed Kisan-Mazdoor-Vyapari Sangharsh Samity and conducted this movement.... ... We were stunned to hear that the police had opened fire to kill people. The deceased had received bullets in their hearts and backs, all above their waists. There was no magistrate to order and the police killed the people on their own. ...
GANASHAKTI : 29 OCT, Front Page: CURFEW, MILITARY TO THWART FARMERS' STIR IN RAJASTHAN
SRIGANGANAGAR (RAJASTHAN): SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: 28 TH OCT: ...On Wednesday, the police fired upon peaceful demonstrations of the farmer in Gharsana and Rawala in Sriganganager District, where four peasants were killed in the firing. ... ...The kishan?majdoor?sangharsh?samity, which was organized at the initiative of the CPIM, was spearheading the movement; and the police arrested the convenor, president and several leaders of that organisation... ...
...At first it was made known that three peasants were killed in police firing in Rawala. But the fact is, after firing upon the peasants' rally in Rawala at 11AM , the police again fired upon peaceful demonstration of the peasants at Gharsana at 5 PM ....
...On Thursday, the sangharsh?samity called for a strike-action in that district and adjacent areas. Numerous peasants joined the road-blockades. The DM office was also blockaded. The CPIM MLA Amba Ram and the State Committee Secretary of the party Basudev led that movement. The party District Committee member Nabrang Singh told that everywhere the movement was peaceful .
The State's Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Surendra Kumar claimed that cars were damaged in the Sriganganagar-Bekaneer road and a police station was set into fire. Nabrang Singh complained that such baseless propagandas were meant for diverting the public attention from the rightful demands of the peasants. Even the setting of fire in the govt offices and police stations were totally fabricated , he alleged. He farther told that during the month long movement of thousands of peasants no untoward/violent incident ever occurred. The SDO office gherao took place in Monday, but there also the peasants remained restrained... .
Curious Distortions For Notorious Reasons
It is overtly revealed that the CPIM was trying to hush up the militant expressions of the movement. They laid stress on the term — " peaceful ". Mr Hannan Mollah, the veteran leader of the CPIM's peasant wing used that term, " peaceful ", twice in his coverage, and the GANASHAKTI correspondent used it thrice . The latter went so far ahead in distorting as to describe, "Even the setting of fire in the govt offices and police stations were totally fabricated... ". Have they thought that the people had forgotten what peasants, angered over police firing, might, could and did do in such situations anywhere in India in the past? How can the peasants and 'farmers' remain "restrained" after a month-long movement gets no positive result, the govt remaining dumb and the fields getting cracking dry! Or, are they shameful to admit that the peasants of Rajasthan acted spontaneously, normally and naturally in that situation? What else do they expect! " ... ...the peasants remained restrained ", "peaceful"...!!! As rulers in Bengal for more than a quarter of a century, they might demand that their "subjects" should remain quelled even if the police fires on a mob of agitating peasants. Mr Mollah wrote, " We were stunned to hear that the police had opened fire to kill people. The deceased had received bullets in their hearts and backs, all above their waists. " But, sir, how the WB police shoot! Mollah Sahib should stop throwing such ugly jokes. Right from the Marichjhanpi-island (on refugee-peasants) and Calcutta Port (on workers) in 1978, the WB police (and later the CPIM hooligan-squads too) did fired hundred times or more, and killed scores of working people! Whom you are trying to befool, Mollah Sahib? Cannot you say explicitly that 'gherao' is de facto banned in WB? Didn't the WB police opened fire on gherao-ing workers of the Hanuman Jute Mill and killed one of them just 12/13 years ago to get this plain truth into the head of the workers of WB?
And what despicable expurgation! — They even purged out the word 'byapari' (businessmen) from the name of the organisation spearheading the movement from their Bengali mouthpiece! See The Hindu of Oct 31, the PD of Nov 11, and the Ganashakti!!
# They should have admitted that in WB, even if same drought-like situation occurs, canals bring much less water, basing on what happened in the past one can forecast that — the peasants 'can be kept' restrained within a limit by the administration (including police)-party combine, if one neglects the recent peasants' localised rebellions against that power oligarchy in some villages in Aug-Sept'05 as exceptions. # They should have confessed that in similar situation of near drought, the peasants' wing of the WB CPIM, and also of their 'friendly' or 'comrades-in-arms' Congress never 'dream' of waging a peasants' movement in WB demanding water for irrigation. Rather they do some 'stage shows' of their 'movements' demanding more Central Govt aid for drought-relief! # They should have admitted that — in WB, after their long rule, not even a third of the agricultural land gets govt irrigation in proper quantity. And the remaining peasants are left at the mercy of the water-lords who sell irrigation at an exorbitant rate or the rain-god! # Even this year they have declared (in some localities) that the canals would not be able to irrigate the area they were meant for! There are hundreds of villages in WB that get summer cultivation irrigation from govt canals only in alternative years! [**May I be permitted to add here hastily that by such criticisms as stated above we by no means plead for organising peasants' movement with the demand for irrigation in WB or any other state. ]
# Certainly they will teach the Rajasthan farmers how to behave properly if they (along with their allies like Congress) ever succeed in seating in the Rajasthan throne. The ruling classes of India have got an obedient servant in the CPIM, and surely they will forgive the CPIM for such 'movements'; those are necessary for those governmental parties for the electoral game. #The same can be said about the CPIM and others' anti-electricity-tariff-hike movement in the AP. They are continuously increasing that tariff in WB, restricting electricity supply... etc where they are in governmental power!
[# The hypocrisy of the CPIM is again exposed in a recent, local & abortive movement against the govt's cut in irrigation water quota in a certain place in WB; but we shall go to that story a bit later, at the end part of this article, because a revolutionary communist organisation was involved in that movement.]
The CPIM has proven it time and again that it is a close ally, sometimes saviour, of the Congress; and now even they are not avert to the idea of such multi-class (!) organisation as the 'kishan?majdoor?byapari-sangharsh?samity', a hotchpotch mix of workers, farmers and businessmen! Though, for reasons easily understandable, their Bengali organ edited out the word 'byapari'. No matter — byaparis (businessmen) are already there inside the Party since long time; from village bigwigs to promoters and their musclemen, all are their insiders of the Party and the Panchayat bodies. And of course they have peasants and workers in them. (Though the spontaneous support bases for them among these classes are waning in WB.) Fine class collaboration, not only in composition — what is revealed day after day more and more markedly, but also in actual everyday deeds — that is the CPIM. But, anyway, they are intolerant to any idea of collaboration with other entities like byaparis overtly in WB as they did in Rajasthan, because that collaboration already exists there inside themselves, inside the same party; the kishans and majdoors are compelled to follow their class-collaborationist line of surrendering the interest of the toilers; why then either the CPIM or the byaparis will need such an overt multi-class organisation in WB? In WB, such an organisation as in Rajsathan would mean collaborating with 'Byapari's who are outside of their party ? an intolerable thing for their WB wing!!
The View Of The CPI (Maoist) from the pages of Peoples' March
(from: peoplesmarch.com ) We, as usual, put the some portion in italicised texts to show, ...well, we'll see.
Volume 6, No. 1, January 2005 Farmers in great distress — M. Sunil
Para 1: Farmers are in great distress. In Rajasthan they are struggling against the BJP govt. and state forces which took six lives. Only one third of agricultural land have the facilities of irrigation and even those are not assured. Irregular supply and ever-increasing charges of electricity, cost of other agri-inputs and depressed prices of the crops have become a common phenomena. Farmers are raising their voice against govt. policies and demanding remunerative prices of their products. Suicide deaths by farmers which has been very much conspicuous since the last five years, have been continuing. Despite sweet promises of several govts, landless and poor peasants , particularly tribal people of rural India , have been continuing to die due to starvation evoking everlasting debates on the number and causes of death. Alongwith the vagaries of nature, the vagaries of the world market prices cause havoc to the farmers. Believing all tall talks about the land reform programme, the old class structure despite some changes, basically remains intact adopting newer forms of exploitation—exploitation through feudal land rent in various forms, usurious rate of interest by money-lenders, forward purchasing, hoarding—have been continuing.
Last Para of the Reporting of The Rajasthan Movement:
Though the leadership of this powerful spontaneous outburst was usurped by the ruling class parties like CPI(M), Congress and others to serve their political interest, it exposed the brutal character of the state forces once again . It also helps the farmers realize the true character of so-called democracy.
The Conclusion Of The Article:
Conclusion
The resentment of the farmers have been increasing. It is gradually taking the form of protest marches, agitations and even violent struggles and spreading throughout rural India . We have stated here some of these movements. The peasants have been raising their voice against the economic reform programme of the govt. which have opened the domestic economy to the MNCs for their plunder. The agrarian economy of the country is now at the mercy of the imperialist forces who control the international agri-commodity market rendering great sufferings to the farmers of underdeveloped countries like India .
Agriculture of our country is still predominantly dependent on nature which causes havoc to farmers' livelihood. The basic inputs like water and electricity are still scarce. For want of these the farmers have to face bad harvesting or even discontinue cultivation again and again.
As the age old class structure exists the big land-owners, money-lenders, traders and hoarders continue their inhuman exploitation taking advantage of the distressed condition of the peasants.
The ruling class parties and their farmers' wing have been utilizing the dissatisfied farmers to increase their votebank or to have a better edge in the power structure. To keep the farmers resentment within manageable limits they give some releifs. These parties and their peasant wings favour the economic reform programme which impoverish the peasants and other sections of the people. Thus these parties and farmers' organigations, led by them, betray the farmers. Now farmers are getting more and more frustrated with these leaderships. This has become a great concern for the ruling classes and their masters. These anti-farmer forces have taken initiative to form a national apex body of farmers to take up issues of the farmers. This organization will work in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industries. The undeclared aim of this organization is to hoodwink the farmers and distract them from the path of greater agitation.
Moreover this apex body will serve the MNCs and important agro-based industries to tap the produce of farmers.
The seething farmers are getting more and more frustrated being betrayed by their leaderships. They need an organization guided by the revolutionary forces who organise them and lead them to develop a mighty struggle against the anti-farmer policies of the govt throughout the countryside. The revolutionary forces need to shoulder this task, and lead them against the imperialist forces and their domestic cronies. In the course of development of these struggle the revolutionary forces can help farmers develop their political consciousness which lead them to realize the necessity of a people democratic state which follow an economic policy of self-reliance.
Some Observations From Revolutionary Marxist Standpoint
1. I quoted just a small portion of text from the article of com. MS in Peoples' March leaving aside the detailed account of the movement; and in the prtion , the word "farmer" came more than 20 times , whereas we find the word "peasant" 5 times only. MS used these two words as meaning the same, and substitutable, and swapped from one to the other quite easily! No, I do not venture a semantic exercise here; but this has extremely important political implications. One cannot gloss over such a 'small ' thing, because the substitution of these two different words, two different categories, taking them as identical, [and that too in the topmost journal of a CR group] causes grave mistake, serious blunder in political vision and tactic. Present day bourgeois economics teach us to treat these two words as same, e.g., while presenting, say, "The distribution of ownership holdings among rural household", they sub-categorise the 'farmers' into:?
Category | Implying Ownership of Land |
Landless | = 0.02 Ha |
Marginal | = 0.02 Ha, < 1.00 Ha |
Small ... | = 1.00 Ha < ... |
But the revolutionary communists know that such sub-categorisation or such divisions are meaningless politically, i.e., in terms of the real class-basis of such 'farmers', and hence they use completely different set of terminology, e.g., agricultural-labourers, share-croppers (this category also can be, and in reality are differentiated into the next described three categories), poor-peasants, middle-peasants & rich-peasants; these are the toilers in the field. Also there are landlords, and in country like ours they are feudal or capitalist or often a mixture of the two in various proportions. They do not toil in any major agricultural operation and extract surplus-produce/surplus-value from the toil of the sharecroppers / agro-labourers. In a backward country like ours the agro-labourers are also backward, most of them are not regular farm-employed ones, on an average they couldn't yet become half or a third employed; and many of them become peasants themselves by leasing in paltry land pieces irregularly/regularly. The 'peasants' are of three types according to their production-relations; 'poor' are they who cannot maintain livelihood by their small crops (or share of crops) and must go to 'sell themselves off' somewhere for the sake of living — they are close to the agro-labourers in this sense. 'middle' are they who find it extremely difficult to make both ends meet, but carries on somehow; they, in general, do not exploit hired labourers, and even when some of them need to have some hired-helping-hands, the cost of that might well is met by hiring himself (that middle peasant) out. Rich peasants are them who have more lands than the household labour supply can cultivate by its own toil, and regularly hires a good proportion (say, 15% i.e., one-sixth or more) of the total labour needed from the agro-labourers. They are generally, in today's condition, strongly against any move for increasing wage of the agro-labourers. Perhaps it was Marxist academician Ms Utsa Pattanaik who used a good (in my personal opinion) describing term 'cultivating landlord' to describe the often found capitalist landlords of our country, the latter employ and are totally dependent on hired labour for their cultivation, themselves, at times, in many (but not all) cases, performing the managerial / entrepreneurial tasks. Feudal landlords, well we have seen enough of them, and they deserve no farther explanation of term.
These then are classification according to the Marxist tradition, which needs no use of the term "farmer". If one needs to use that term, s/he must first cite an explanation/meaning of the term in Indian context. Literally that term only means an ownership of a farm, and 'common sense' may add that the farmer fellow does his farming hiring labourers; and then the farmer gets equated to the 'cultivating landlord' as described above. In classical usage of the term, the 'farmer' may well not own land at all, s/he acquire land on rent from the landlord-turned-capitalist, the latter extracting capitalist ground rent from the former, as seen in old British villages.
Anyway, it can assertively be said that the different classes/strata described above according to the Marxist tradition, do not and cannot have same class interests; they should never be lumped together, never be seen as an undivided whole or different parts of a same hotchpotch. What interest the communists are movements of the toiling masses of villages, namely, the agro-proletariat, semi-proletariat ? i.e. the poor peasants, and the middle peasants. The strata/classes above the formerly said three categories, e.g., the rich-peasants (kulaks ? in well known and often used Russian terminology), the entrepreneur landlords, may and do use the formers for the purpose of their own need, may and do use the formers as pawns in their battles against the state; but by the participation alone of the formers a movement can never be characterised as a peasants' movement, and hence, cannot slickly claim significance, sympathy and solidarity.
As for example, first let us attentively study the first Para of the article and the first Para of the conclusion. From these two Paragraphs it becomes quite evident that the writer will be sympathetic to movements demanding — *higher subsidies in inputs, *irrigation facilities, *higher prices for farm-produces, etc, etc. In the pages of this journal (FAPP) it has already been shown with concrete facts of a relatively advanced (in Indian sense) fields of agriculture (of South Bengal) that for the last mentioned demand the bulk of the village toilers will suffer from price raising, themselves being more of a net purchaser than a net seller of agro-produces! And those who exploit labourers are mainly them who articulate all three demands mentioned above! If one has to prove the opposite s/he must submit concrete cost analyses of cultivations of the poor and middle peasants along with those of the upper crust of the villages; and from there has to deduce the contrary. One need to remember that almost a half of the rural households have practically insignificant land, and the bottom three quarter part of the rural populace perhaps has less land then the top quarter has. Often the lower two-third cannot afford irrigation in the summer cultivation; summer paddy needs much more fertilisers and irrigation, and is too costly for many households in the lower categories. Cotton cultivation is also too costly for a poor or middle peasant to continue. And often one can find rich-peasants / cultivating-landlords, according to Marxist taxonomy, inside, even the "marginal farmer" category of the govt statistics. A one or one-and-three-quarter Ha land owning sahib who cultivates with hired labours and never let his hands get soiled may demand to get recognised as a 'marginal' or 'small' farmer, then one can 'substitute' the 'farmer' with the word 'peasant' — well, but such tricks cannot befool a CR cadre, who sees that sahib as a capitalist landlord, not at all worthy of his sympathy.
2. "The seething farmers are getting more and more frustrated being betrayed by their leaderships." Wherefrom one can draw such conclusion? If that were true, it must have some reflections in the political & social arena. But the opposite is sadly true now, in general, in the sense that the bulk of the peasantry, the rural masses, are still in the grip of the parliamentary parties ? their dissatisfaction with one leading them to supporting the other. The general picture of ever changing governments in different states shows that. It is of course true that many of the rural masses are turning towards political passivity, showing lack of spontaneity in their political support in electoral battles, towards anti-politics / political apathy sometimes and to some extent, etc, etc. But certainly these have not much positive value to the CR camp. The situation can change, but only with a continuous, consistent & conscious role of the CR camp in the rural arena.
3. Of course "They need an organization guided by the revolutionary forces who organise them and lead them to develop a mighty struggle against the anti-farmer policies of the govt throughout the countryside. The revolutionary forces need to shoulder this task, and lead them against the imperialist forces and their domestic cronies." But, the farmers are to be deleted, and the peasants inserted first. Then, " In the course of development of these struggle the revolutionary forces can help farmers develop their political consciousness which lead them to realize the necessity of a people democratic state which follow an economic policy of self-reliance" . Perhaps 'these struggle' is a printing-mistake, but if one has to read instead 'these struggles' or 'this struggle against anti-farmer policies...' the question inevitably comes that, 'What are these struggles'? If by these struggles the 'movements' for 'Minimum Support Price hike', 'higher input subsidies, etc are meant, then it can definitely be said that those 'struggles' cannot and will not develop towards revolutionary direction. Any struggle cannot and must not be led by the communist revolutionaries, and any struggle does not have the innate potential to develop in the revolutionary direction . 'Struggles' for reforming Globalisation policies, like, a bit more input subsidy ? as that was in the golden pre-Globalisation days ; for more public-outlay for irrigation and spreading govt irrigation to some more area, etc. are intrinsically reformist in character , and never can they be developed towards Democratic Revolutionary struggle. Never can revolutionary consciousness be developed through such 'struggles' however militant they may be . Militancy is only the form of expression of such struggles; their content is reformism. In the past, say, '65 to '70, we have seen much of militant reformism from the CPIM. At present and also in the future we shall see many militant movements; but the form cannot and must not overwhelm us towards being blind to the class-content of the demand and the movement. Militancy alone can never give rise to revolutionary consciousness spontaneously, and so, to say that, "Though the leadership of this powerful spontaneous outburst was usurped by the ruling class parties like CPI (M), Congress and others to serve their political interest, it exposed the brutal character of the state forces once again . It also helps the farmers realize the true character of so-called democracy " will be utter naivety. That realisation is dependent on conscious interference of the CR camp.
4. The same can be said about the organisation that conducts the movement; the nature and character of the organisation directly influence the outcome in the realm of consciousness. A hotchpotch organisation like the kisan-majdoor-vyapari-sangharsh-samity, dominated naturally by the 'babu-kisans' , i.e., the kulaks and capitalist-landlords, and businessmen — surely dominated by them, otherwise they will never join hands with the toiling-kisans ['chasha' in Bengali slang] and 'labours' who often belong to the 'lower castes', as equal partners, let alone under the proletariat-peasant leadership, at least in this stage of history, and this stage of movement — such an organisation is in no way conducive to development of democratic-revolutionary consciousness, leave aside the proletarian-socialist one. This is true even if some CR cadres take part in the organisation, even if they are within the leadership body, etc; because within that organisation, within that leadership, those CR forces are bound within the lakshman-rekha drawn by those upper crust people, at least at this stage of history & movement.
5. And last, but not the least important, question is ? what the agricultural labourers and the poor peasants, the toiling poor of the village, who generally stay in front of the struggling lines, who bear the burns, bullets and police tortures, what do they usually get from such movements? Do the big landholders get sympathetic to them and raise their paltry wage to a humane one? Do those businessmen give the poor the things they need on credit without interest? Such 'daydreams' never come true; but every time, sadly, the poor become 'martyrs' for the struggles not of theirs.
Now it is time to look at the story of that recent unsuccessful movement on the same demand, on the same ground, in WB. The authority already in January declared that the supply quanta of the Panagarh Branch Canal will be cut, and hence the lower end area covered by that canal will not get irrigation water for summer paddy. Some villages in that victimised area, belonging to the Ausgram P.S. of Bardhaman district of WB, got hot up. Cadres belonging to a CR org (who participate in an organisation called Yuba-Bharat ) also got excited, thought it will open up in front of them a chance for widening political activity, and jumped on that issue. Many rural folk, particularly and mainly the more-landed ones , started a movement, and those cadres joined in that. They decided for a road-blockade. The alert govt administration deployed the notorious RAF (rapid action force). The RAF forcibly didn't let the blockade happen. [That's one of the magic of how the CPIM maintains peace in WB.] The partly frustrated lot decided then to go to the district magistrate or any such dignitary to tell their woes and put forward their demand. One leading fellow, who, by the way, perhaps owns some 13-14 Ha of land (!! A peasant indeed!!), gave the delegation his motor vehicle ( perhaps one of the trucks he owns ) to go to the District HQ. But the administration stood stiff, and didn't bulge. Then the CPIM started its manoeuvrings ? it met the village stalwarts ; incidentally they were those spearheading the move. What occurred after that is that the move simply vanished in the blue by the tricks of the CPIM. What actually the CPIM did is not known, but it can be assumed that they persuaded (perhaps indirectly implying things more or less mightier than the pen) to 'cool' them down (and made those people understand that water will not come whatever 'movement' they conduct). The lower strata, the masses of the toilers, were not very eager or enthusiastic participants of the movement; so, in spite of all the wishes and endeavours of those CR cadres, the movement get foiled. In another incident, in a different place of the same block (mandal ? in govt Hindi), the Congress spearheaded another movement on the same issue. They started a mass indefinite fasting in front of the DM office in Bardhaman, and participants were not a few in number. The district administration promised them to discuss things properly and requested to end the fast. That happened, but ultimately no water was released for that part of the block also. [All these happened within the first few half of Feb '05.] Besides the hypocrisy, double-speak of the CPIM, this story also exposes to all the CR cadres that — which forces are behind which movement, who strongly put forward such demands, the class-nature of such demands, etc, etc. .
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