Dalit organisations and the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) will be protesting against the NDA government on August 9, asking their demands to be fulfilled.
This time, even ex-servicemen will be joining hands with them to protest against the government.
The Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM), which has in the past fought for ‘one rank, one pension’, will be participating in the protest as they feel their demands have not been met by the government. They have alleged that whatever was promised to them on ‘one rank one pension’ has not been fulfilled.
“Whatever Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised us on ‘one rank, one pension’ has not been delivered. He lied to us. Earlier, we fought separately. Now, we will fight unitedly with farmers’ organisations and Dalits,” Priyadarshi Chowdhury, coordinator for IESM, told PTI.
The AIKS, the farmers’ organisation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), has given a call for ‘jail bharo’ across the country on August 9, for bringing to light the ongoing agrarian crisis.
All three, the AIKS, Dalits and ex-servicemen have different demands but they are coming together because their aim is the same, to get those demands fulfilled.
On one hand, where the farmers’ organisation is protesting demanding the minimum support price (MSP) for all crops to be fixed at 1.5 times the input cost, guaranteed procurement, one-time waiver of all loans of farmers and land to landless farmers, on the other hand, Dalits have been pressing for restoration of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 to its original form.
The demand of ex-servicemen is complete OROP as per approved definition of Parliament, pay parity and cancellation of the Cantonment Roads order.
The three organisations are also coming together to raise their voice the growing incidents of hate crime and lynching.
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The ‘jail bharo’ agitation is supposed to be held in 400 districts across the country on August 9, whereas the Dalit organisations will observe a ‘Bharat bandh’ on that day.
Earlier, the AIKS said it would hold a rally against the “anti-people” policies of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in Delhi in September.
Lakhs of farmers, workers, and their families would join the protest.
“As part of the ongoing struggle against the neo-liberal policies and misrule of the Modi government, a huge rally of 5 lakh people will be organised on September 5 in Delhi,” News Central 24×7 quoted AIKS general-secretary Hannan Mollah.
“This will be the first worker-peasant rally since the independence of India and the largest rally of the Left democratic forces attended by CITU, AIKS and AIAWU,” he further said.
Not just issues related to farmers, but those related to students, youth, women, adivasis, Dalits, and Muslims would be addressed at the rally.