“Yes global agri market not in govt control,but input costs are”

Ahmedabad, DeshGujarat, 15 December, 2014

There’s no doubt that Bharatiya Kisan Sangh is the largest farmers organization in Gujarat. Its rally today on the roads of Ahmedabad today was not matching to its scale and presence in Gujarat. May be the rally was organized just for the farmers of surrounding areas of Ahmedabad.

The rally was against the state government and central government, but as Bharatiya Kisan Sangh is RSS affiliated organization, the state police and even the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation(AMC) extended full support to farmers rally. Renovation work of Sardar baug is going on, and the garden has been closed for public, but AMC permitted Kisan Sangh to hold rally in garden and opened its doors. One of the organizers of rally also spoke about this and thanked the state government, police and AMC.

The speeches in Sardarbaug were delivered from trailer of a tractor.

Speaking at the rally, Gujarat unit president of Kisan Sangh, Shri Maganbhai Patel said that the state government conveyed Kisan Sangh that 50% of its demands have been approved. Maganbhai however said that Kisan Sangh will continue to hold agitation programme. He said if next round of talks between government and Kisan Sangh succeeds, the 22 December programme of dharna protests in front of MLA houses will be canceled. Maganbhai asked farmers to watch TV and continue to get updates on the talks between government and Kisan Sangh. He said there are signals that government may accept Kisan Sangh’s demands.

Though the main agenda of today’s Kisan Sangh rally was to press government to declare increase in support prices of cotton, almost all main speakers spoke more about Kisan Sangh’s upcoming membership drive which will make this organization even stronger.

Maganbhai in his speech said that Kisan Sangh wants to enroll 50 lakh members. He said the statewide membership drive will take place in first two weeks of January. He said Kisan Sangh wants to make each farmer of the state its member.

“Our organization should be so strong, that on one message, 18,000 vehicles would travel to Gandhinagar from 18,000 villages to take part in Kisan Sangh programme,” he said.

Speaking to DeshGujarat on the sidelines of the rally event, Maganbhai said, Kisan Sangh will start its sangathan parva from village level to district and state level.

When asked about global scenario responsible for present situation of Cotton prices, he said, “when global scenario was favorable to farmers, then government in centre had restricted export to give benefit to textile industry. Farmers had suffered even when global scenario was good.”

He added, “yes, it is true that the global scenario is not favorable to farmers at present, but what about input costs? So far as input costs are concerned, they are very much in government’s control. Why input costs are growing? Let government control prices of pesticides, fertilizer etc. If input costs go south, who will demand higher MSP?”

From the rally venue: