United front a win-win situation for SKM, protesting farm bodies

The move to put up a united fight against the Centre by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and the farmer bodies protesting at Punjab’s Khanauri and Shambhu border points seems to be a win-win situation for them.

The SKM — an umbrella body of the farm unions that had spearheaded the stir against the Centre’s now-scrapped three farm laws in 2020-21 — had stayed away from the current protest being held by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Sangh.

Several leaders of the SKM feel that they are “quickly losing ground” because of their failure to unite with the SKM (Non-Political) headed by fasting farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal.

Several SKM leaders admitted in private that the growing sympathy for Dallewal was “making them nervous” despite a show of strength held by them in Moga on January 9.

Meanwhile, the Dallewal-led farmer bodies too are set to benefit from the united front.

With the help of the SKM cadre, they expect to intensify their stir, which has remained restricted to the Punjab-Haryana border points for almost a year now after the protesting farmers’ march to Delhi was halted last February.

Though the public sympathy for Dallewal is pouring in, they still do not have the numbers for everyone to take note.

Farmer leaders feel the joint front will force the Centre to restart negotiations over their issues, including the demand for a Central law assuring a minimum support price for crops.

Also, with the Centre keen on bringing into force its Draft National Policy Framework on Agriculture Marketing, perceived by farmers as having the same draconian provisions the now-withdrawn three farm laws had, the two sides were feeling the pressure to unite. Last week, Punjab’s Aam Aadmi Party government rejected the draft policy.

Though the Central government has so far made no attempt to talk to the protesting farmers, the BJP-led government also stands to benefit as it will have a wider farmer leadership to negotiate with. However, the unity among farmer bodies, will still be very different from the one achieved during their protest at the Delhi borders against the Central laws.

The SKM then included 32 farmer unions from Punjab to protest against the laws, withdrawn by the BJP-led Centre after a year-long stir.

The BKU (Ekta Ugrahan), the biggest farmer union of the state, had not joined the SKM’s protest at Delhi’s Singhu border then. Instead, it chose to protest at the Tikri border point of the Capital. The 2025 farmer unity, on the other hand, is perceived as being achieved more to rebuild public perception in favour of each of the farmer organisations than to save the agrarian economy.