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On the 81st anniversary of the “Quit India Day” called against British Imperialism, on 9th August, 2023, farmers, agricultural workers and workers of India had collective actions across the country with the slogan “Corporate Looters, Quit India, Quit Agriculture” in protest against the pro-corporate policies of the Narendra Modi-led BJP-RSS Union Government.AIKS congratulates the lakhs of peasants and workers who came out to send a resolute message against the corporate-communal nexus.
Demonstrations and rallies were held across the country by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions (JPCTUs) in many places. The AIKS, CITU and AIAWU worked in a coordinated way along with other constituents of SKM and JPCTUs to ensure the success of the programme.
Major rallies were taken out at Churu in Rajasthan, Bhiwani in Haryana, and Solapur and Nashik in Maharashtra. Demonstrations were held in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Assam, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Maharashtra. Despite heavy rain in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and other states, people came out in large numbers drawing inspiration from the August Kranti Diwas. Some States held the protest on 8th August, 2023.
The massive nature of protests is an expression of the anger of the masses against the BJP-led Union Government which is facilitating corporate loot of our resources, handing over Public Sector Undertakings, farm-land, forests and agriculture to their cronies, snatching the hard-won rights of the peasants and workers.
The corporate-communal nexus is not only attacking farmers and workers but also carrying out a divisive, violent onslaught on minorities and the oppressed. The recent communal violence in Nuh, Haryana, where VHP and Bajrang Dal mobs instigated the local populace, or the three-month long ethnic and communal strife in Manipur engineered through divisive policies expose the dangerous direction in which the BJP Government led by Narendra Modi is leading the country.
The major demands of the nationwide actions today were:
- enacting a law for remunerative MSP @ C2+50% with assured procurement,
- comprehensive loan waiver to free all the farm households from indebtedness,
- scrapping of the four Labour Codes, curb price rise, stop disinvestment of PSUs,
- withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022 and smart metres,
- dismissal and prosecution of Ajay Mishra Teni, the Union Minister of State for Home, responsible for the massacre of farmers and a journalist in Lakhimpur Kheri,
- withdrawal of the pro-corporate PMFBY and establishment of a comprehensive Public Sector Crop Insurance Scheme, Farmer’s Pension Scheme of ₹ 10,000 per month for all small, marginal, middle farmers and agricultural workers,
- scrapping of the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act 2023,
- removal of Chief Minister N Biren Singh to establish peace in Manipur,
- stop the communal carnage in Haryana etc.
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