Late to join but Khaps of western UP pledge a mega push to farmers’ protest

The ongoing farmers’ movement against the three Central farm laws is likely to intensify in western UP after the heads of Khaps or caste panchayats extended support to the agitation and decided to join the protests in large numbers in two weeks time after the current wheat-sowing season ends.

On December 17, heads of these Khaps with several of their clansmen, marched to Delhi, where farmers from UP, Punjab, Haryana and other places are protesting against the laws and seeking their repeal.

Subhash Baliyan, secretary of Sarv Khap, claimed that “hundreds of farmers accompanied the Khap heads in their march on Thursday and they held a mahapanchayat at Ghazipur border led by BKU chief Naresh Tilait, who is also the head of Baliyan Khap, with clansmen in 84 villages in Meerut region”, said Baliyan.

Western UP has been known to be the cradle of farmer movements under the leadership of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) stalwart, the late Mahendra Singh Tikait. However, the region has been late to galvanise against the farm laws passed in Parliament earlier this year.

Manvendra Verma, divisional coordinator of the Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sangharsh Samanvaya Samiti, suggests the delay in extending support to the agitation in western UP was due to the farmers’ affinity for the BJP, especially after the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, which saw former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh and grandson Jayant Choudhary lose polls on their home turf of Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

“The BJP’s Hindutva card worked and farmers, mainly the Jats, voted for the party. Initially, it was difficult for farmer leaders and people of the region to accept that the BJP could bring laws against their interest. It took them time to rise to protect their interests as farmers,” Manvendra Verma said.

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BKU divisional general secretary Naresh Chaudhary said it took time for farmers to understand the disadvantages of the new laws. Now, more than 80% farmers and villagers were convinced that these laws were brought to benefit the corporate sectors, he added.

Subhash Baliyan said that before convening a meeting of the heads of Khaps at the Sarv Khap Chaupal at Soram village in Muzaffarnagar district on December 14, he sent a request for the government to convene a high-level meeting with the Khap leaders. “We received no response and, after waiting for over a week, the meeting was convened at Soram,” said Baliyan.

He said residents of 84 villages in the region owed their allegiance to the Baliyan and Deshwal Khaps. Similarly, 52 villages were loyal to the Gathwala Khap. Other Khaps also have their followers and clan members in different villages.

“They will join the movement in large numbers after completing the sowing of wheat,” said the farmer leader.

Currently, the farmers in the region were providing milk, vegetables and other essential items to the agitating farmers on the Delhi border.

Chaudhary Diwakar Singh, national vice president of BKU (Bhanu), has been leading the protest in Amroha district since its beginning. He said western UP had a population of over 10 crore and sugar was the main industry of the region and farmers were busy reaping the sugarcane crop to clear farmland so that they could sow wheat.

“Over 80% farmers of the region have small land holdings. They sow wheat only after harvesting sugarcane. The sowing of wheat would conclude in next two weeks and farmers (would) join the movement in big numbers thereafter,” Singh said.

Meanwhile, farmers associated with BKU (Bhanu) blocked traffic on the Delhi-Noida border at Chilla on Wednesday. Its state president Yogesh Pratap blamed the government and a section of the media for misleading farmers by spreading fake news about their movement.

“We cleared one lane for the convenience of commuters and misleading news was spread that we have withdrawn our movement,” said Pratap who has been on a hunger strike at the Chilla border since December 14.

“I have given up food and am surviving only on water,” he said. He alleged the government was not allowing farmers to join the protest and their leaders were being placed under house arrest or taken to police stations.

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