News Analysis India

Tag: Bharatiya Kisan Sangh

  • Bharatiya Kisan Sangh demands revival of three farm laws

    By Express News Service

    NIZAMABAD: The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), a member of the Sangh Parivar, demand that the Union government bring the recently struck-down farm laws back with necessary amendments. The organisation will launch agitations across the country from January 1 to build pressure on the Centre.

    This decision was taken at the BKS’ national executive meeting in Delhi. The agitations will continue at the block headquarters of the BKS till January 11, 2022. They also propose to submit a representation to the President of India on January 11.

    BKS national secretary K Sai Reddy said that had demanded a few amendments to the farms laws and not their repeal. He said that they had already submitted their demands asking for remunerative prices to farmers for every crop, abolition of market fees at every yard and protection of ryot’s interest in contractual farming.

  • Farmers not involved in Lakhimpur violence, people from political parties behind it: Bharatiya Kisan Sangh

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Seeking the harshest punishment for those involved in the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, the RSS-affiliated farmer union BKS on Monday said people from various political parties, and not farmers, were behind it.

    Describing the incident as “unfortunate”, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) in a statement said, “The people involved in the incident were not farmers, they belonged to various political parties. The incident was carried out using leftist methods. People were mercilessly beaten to death with sticks, something farmers cannot do.”

    The BKS claimed that the way the people took the law into their own hands and committed murders in public shows that they were part of some professional gangs.

    ALSO READ: BKU chief asks BJP workers not to visit UP’s rural areas as farmers angry

    Seeking the harshest punishment for those involved in such acts, it said that justice should be done to the families of the deceased by conducting an impartial inquiry into this heinous incident at the earliest.

    Eight people were killed — four farmers allegedly run over and four people in a convoy of BJP workers who were lynched — on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers’ protest in Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh.

  • RSS-affiliate farmers’ body to stage nationwide dharna against agri laws on September 8

    By PTI

    BALLIA: RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has decided to hold a nationwide dharna on September 8 as the Centre has failed to act on its “ultimatum” on considering demands regarding three new farm laws and MSP by August 31.

    The minimum support price (MSP) of crops should be decided on the basis of cost and a new law should be formulated, keeping in mind the concerns raised by the farmers to resolve the dispute arising out of the new farm laws, the BKS said.

    “For these demands, a nationwide symbolic dharna will be organised on September 8. The (Narendra) Modi government was given time till August 31 to act on the demands. As there are no positive indications from the government, we will be holding the dharna on September 8,” BKS treasurer Yugal Kishore Mishra told reporters here on Wednesday.

    He said press conferences will be held on the day at all district headquarters to tell people about the plight of the farmers.

    “We will decide the future course of action after September 8,” he added.

    “Farmers do not get a remunerative price for their produce. The MSP is not remunerative,” Mishra said.

  • RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Kisan Sangh warns of nationwide agitation from September 8

    By PTI

    BALLIA: RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) on Tuesday warned of a nationwide agitation from September 8 if the Centre fails to act on its demands on farm laws and MSP by the end of this month.

    Minimum Support Price (MSP) should be decided on the basis of cost, and a new law should be formulated, keeping in mind the concerns raised by farmers, to resolve the dispute arising out of the new farm laws, it said.

    “For these demands, a nationwide symbolic dharna will be organised on September 8. The Modi government has been given time till August 31 to act on the demands. If it does not take a positive stand on our demands, then after the dharna on September 8, a decision will be taken on further steps,” BKS treasurer Yugal Kishore Mishra said here.

    ALSO READ | Farmers’ protest: Centre, states have to find solution for removal of road blockades, says SC

    “Farmers do not get a remunerative price for their produce. MSP is not remunerative,” he said, adding that his organisation was being compelled to agitate because of this.

    “RSS does not run the Narendra Modi government, otherwise our organisation would not have to resort to agitation. No government has been serious on issues that are in farmers’ interest,” the BKS leader said.

    Asked about the Modi government’s promise to double the income of farmers, he said it should first be determined how much is being spent by them.

    To a question on whether both the Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Narendra Modi governments ignored farmers, Mishra replied, “Absolutely.”

    “Neither the Atal government nor the Modi government considered the issue of remunerative price on the basis of cost,” he said.

  • ‘New farm laws need improvement’: Bharatiya Kisan Sangh calls for legislation on MSP

    By PTI

    NAGPUR: The RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) on Thursday said the outfit will stage a nationwide agitation on September 8 to press for ‘remunerative price’ to farmers for their produce to cover their production cost and called for “improvement” in the Centre’s new agri laws that are facing opposition from a section of cultivators.

    The farmer body said that the Central government should either bring a new legislation or make changes in the agri-marketing laws enacted last year to add a provision for payment of minimum support price (MSP) for major farm produce.

    Top BKS functionary Dinesh Kulkarni, addressing a press conference here, said that farmers should get ‘remunerative price’ for their produce to cover their cost of production, which they are not getting in the existing system.

    ALSO READ| Rajnath Singh defends farm laws but says ready for talks if any clause against farmers’ interest

    “Remunerative price is cost of production plus profit – that is what we demanding. Remunerative price is the right of farmers, which should be facilitated by the government,” said Kulkarni, the BKS’s Akhil Bharatiya Sanghatan Mantri (national organising general secretary).

    “The MSP announced by the government today is not a remunerative price. However, even if it is not doing that it should at least give the MSP it is announcing and make a law for the same,” he said. Kulkarni said the three new farm laws do not have any clause about ensuring MSP or remunerative price for agricultural commodities.

    “The government should ensure this remunerative price in the present farm laws or make a separate legislation for the same. The government should make guidelines in respect of contract farming wherein crops are not purchased below MSP. This should be at least implemented for the 23 crops that are currently under the MSP regime,” he said.

    Asked about his views on the Centre’s new agri-marketing laws, against which farmers are protesting for the last ten months, Kulkarni told PTI that they need “some improvement”.

    “For example, there should be an agriculture court (to tackle disputes). Similarly, (private) traders coming into the farm sector should be registered and should give bank security. Thirdly, there is a huge flaw in respect to (changes) in the Essential Commodities Act as far as consumers are concerned,” he said.

    The BKS leader said that the government, in order to promote business, has given huge exemption to big companies, allowing them to stock some commodities as much as they want and this needs to corrected.

    The 2020 amendment to the Essential Commodities Act, which is part of the new agri laws, removes restrictions on stocking of certain essential commodities. To a query on the BKS’s view on the ongoing farmer protest, Kulkarni said the nature of the agitation changed after January 26, when the stir took a violent turn in New Delhi.

    After that dialogue with the Centre stopped, he said. The government and farmer unions have held 11 rounds of talks so far, the last being on January 22, to break the deadlock on the new laws and end the protest.

    “It (talks) would have paved the way for discussion with the system for implementing remunerative price in the right manner. However, that dialogue stopped,” Kulkarni said.

    The three farm laws enacted in September 2020 have been projected by the Modi government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country.

    However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of MSP and do away with the mandis, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

    The Centre has repeatedly asserted that these mechanisms will remain in place.