Agricultural labour, farmer unions in search of alternative as poll fever grips Punjab

By Harsh Thakor*
With election fervour at full pitch, some organisations are making effort to plant the seeds of democratic alternative in Punjab. They have reposed no faith in established political parties’ agenda. Refraining from giving tacit support to their candidates, including those put up by some constituents of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the main thrust of their programme is to expose the nature of the present social order, with the main accent on basic farmers’ issues such as scrapping debts, loan waivers, remunerative prices, land rights and communalism.
These organisations are seeking to enable the masses to link their day to day issues with election programme. They are neither boycotting the elections nor are participating in the electoral, and yet they have initiated active political campaign.
Experience from the 2012 and 2017 elections suggest that these organisations effectively raised democratic political consciousness of the peasants and agricultural labourers of Punjab and consolidated their integration. The recent successful farmers' victory in deposing farm laws has sharpened their cutting sword.
“All our members are free to vote for any political party. The sole purpose of the awareness campaign is to make the farmers aware of the divisive policies of politicians and to motivate them to further strengthen our unity to launch agitation against the government for the fulfilment of our long pending demands,” said Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Ugrahan general secretary.
“The repeal of Central farm laws has proved that united farmers could get all their demands fulfilled. Majority of farmers along with their families are attending our meetings to listen to our leaders and pledging that they will stage protests and not attend any political gathering,” added Gurwinder Singh, a Sunam farmer.
The campaign of the BKU Ugrahan is focused on sensitising farmers, who have started coming in large numbers to listen to their leaders against the policies of various governments. Special BKU Ugrahan teams have started organising meetings and circulating pamphlets containing detailed information about their pending demands, and how politicians have caused losses to farmers.
The BKU Dakonda faction mobilised farmers in Mansa and Bathinda at its ‘Jujhar rally’, a state-level protest in Barnala, on January 21. Union leaders said the aim was to target the State and Central governments and all political parties that were resorting to ‘vote bank politics’ without giving due consideration to farmers’ demands or bringing reforms to the farm sector.
Makhan Singh Bhaini Bagha, a senior leader of the union in Mansa, said, “Massive preparations were made for the 'Jujhar rally.' We have been also holding regular meetings and door-to-door activities to mobilise not just farmers, but also people from all walks of life.”
BKU Ekta Ugrahan has launched mass awareness campaign. It has printed one lakh copies of its pamphlet to educate farmers on various issues nagging them. Its State committee meeting presided over by Joginder Singh Ugrahan has decided to launch mass awareness campaign focusing on that “black laws of agriculture.”
Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, its general secretary, said that the policy of the union towards elections is not that of boycott, though adding, none of its leaders holding union office will either contest elections, nor support or canvass for any other candidate in any manner at all. Each member of the union has a democratic right to decide whether to vote for any candidate or not to vote at all.

According to him, in order to free the farmers and farm labourers from debt trap and suicides, the major issues that need to be addressed are the end to the discriminatory land holding by way of effective land reforms, end to money lending, and in addition to the issues that ruin the life and liberty of all the toiling masses. The issues of vast unemployment, price rise, increasing costs of services, the drug menace etc. as a result of the policies of privatization, commercialization, globalization, also need to be addressed.
The Lok Morcha Punjab, formed in 1996, plans to hold regular meetings in towns to explain to people the need to build “revolutionary alternative to replace the repressive so-called democracy.” It plans to mobilise farmers, agricultural workers, government employees and teachers. It has the backing of Left-wing intellectual like Narinder Kumar Jeet, Amolak Singh and Yashpal and mass leaders like Lacchman Singh Sewewala.
A major challenge of the election campaign of these organisations is to bridge the gap between the landed Jat farmers and Dalit agricultural labourers. They would also need to mobilise industrial workers and take the support of Left intellectuals, even as opposing the BJP’s divisive politics, challenging economism and linking economic demands with political ones.
Meanwhile, some organisations like the the Lok Sangram Morcha, the Bharatiya Kisan Union(Krantikari) and the Krantikari Pendu Mazdoor Union are calling for election boycott, something people are not politically prepared to accept.
---
*Freelance journalist based in Mumbai

Comments

Lata Mangeshkar, a Dalit from Devdasi family, 'refused to sing a song' about Ambedkar

By Pramod Ranjan* An artist is known and respected for her art. But she is equally, or even more so known and respected for her social concerns. An artist's social concerns or in other words, her worldview, give a direction and purpose to her art. History remembers only such artists whose social concerns are deep, reasoned and of durable importance. Lata Mangeshkar (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was a celebrated playback singer of the Hindi film industry. She was the uncrowned queen of Indian music for over seven decades. Her popularity was unmatched. Her songs were heard and admired not only in India but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other South Asian countries. In this article, we will focus on her social concerns. Lata lived for 92 long years. Music ran in her blood. Her father also belonged to the world of music. Her two sisters, Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar, are well-known singers. Lata might have been born in Indore but the blood of a famous Devdasi family...

The soundtrack of resistance: How 'Sada Sada Ya Nabi' is fueling the Iran war

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* The Persian track “ Sada Sada Ya Nabi ye ” by Hossein Sotoodeh has taken the world by storm. This viral media has cut across linguistic barriers to achieve cult status, reaching over 10 million views. The electrifying music and passionate rendition by the Iranian singer have resonated across the globe, particularly as the high-intensity military conflict involving Iran entered its second month in March 2026.

'Batteries now cheap enough for solar to meet India's 90% demand': Expert quotes Ember study

By A Representative Shankar Sharma, Power & Climate Policy Analyst, has urged India’s top policymakers to reconsider the financial and ecological implications of the country’s energy transition strategy in light of recent global developments. In a letter dated April 10, 2026, addressed to the Union Ministers of Finance, Power, New & Renewable Energy, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and the Vice Chair of NITI Aayog, with a copy to the Prime Minister, Sharma highlighted concerns over India’s ambitious plans for coal gasification and the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

Food security? Gujarat govt puts more than 5 lakh ration cards in the 'silent' category

By Pankti Jog* A new statistical report uploaded by the Gujarat government on the national food security portal shows that ensuring food security for the marginalized community is still not a priority of the state. The statistical report, uploaded on December 24, highlights many weaknesses in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in state.

Why Indo-Pak relations have been on 'knife’s edge' , hostilities may remain for long

By Utkarsh Bajpai* The past few decades have seen strides being made in all aspects of life – from sticks and stones to weaponry. The extreme case of this phenomenon has been nuclear weapons. The menace caused by nuclear weapons in the past is unforgettable. Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 1945 come to mind, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities.

Subaltern voices go digital: Three Indian projects rewriting history from the ground up

By A Representative A new wave of digital humanities (DH) work in India is shifting the focus away from university classrooms and English-language scholarship, instead prioritizing multilingual, community-driven archives that amplify subaltern voices . According to a review published in the Journal of Asian Studies , projects such as the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), the Oral History Narmada archive , and the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre are redefining how the country remembers its past — often without government funding or institutional support.

Beyond Lata: How Asha Bhosle redefined the female voice with her underrated versatility

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The news of iconic Asha Bhosle’s ‘untimely’ demise has shocked music lovers across the country. Asha Tai was 92 years young. Normally, people celebrate a passing at this age, but Asha Bhosle—much like another legend, Dev Anand—never made us feel she was growing old. She was perhaps the most versatile artist in Bombay cinema. Hailing from a family devoted to music, Asha’s journey to success and fame was not easy. Her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar, had already become the voice of women in cinema, and most contemporaries like Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, and Noor Jehan had slowly faded into oblivion. Frankly, there was no second or third to Lata Mangeshkar; she became the first—and perhaps the only—choice for music directors and all those who mattered in filmmaking. Asha started her musical journey at age 10 with a Marathi film, but her first break in Hindustani cinema came with the film "Chunariya" (1948). Though she was not the first choice of ...

Search This Blog