Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan warned Andhra Pradesh government that he along with farmers in the state will take up Maharashtra type agitation if Amaravati land acquisition was not stopped. He made these comments while addressing a convention on 2013-Land Acquisition Act at Uddandarayunipalem in Amaravati.
What’s the issue here:
There are actually couple of issues here. First one, acquiring more than required land from farmers in the name of world capital city. Pawan Kalyan yesterday recalled that Chandra Babu earlier told him that only 1800 acres were required for capital city but now, AP government is saying, around one lakh acres of land required for this capital. Second, farmers who have assigned land are offered much less compensation. Most of these farmers who are offered meager compensation are from Scheduled castes. These farmers are demanding similar compensation as others and government is denying it. Third, farmers displaced by various projects in the state have met Pawan Kalyan and asked for his support as they didn’t yet receive benefits from government as per the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.
What is Maharashtra like agitation:
It may be recalled that the farming community in Maharashtra had protested en masse. Thousands of farmers in Maharashtra marched from Nashik to Mumbai to pressurize the government on their demands like complete waiver of farm loan and of power bills, better prices for crops and pension scheme for farmers. Farmer organisations planned it perfectly and farmers marched overnight into Mumbai to avoid obstruction of traffic during the day and this got sympathy for them from the people of Mumbai. They marched in thousands, if not lakhs, to gherao the state assembly. The movement was led by All Indian Kisan Sabha (AIKS), a farmer organisation affiliated to CPI(M) .
Is Pawan serious about Maharashtra like agitation:
Actually after some mainstream media stopped airing Pawan’s news, inforation on many of his activities not reaching people. But he seems to be doing his work silently. Pawan Kalyan silently mooted JAC with farmers displaced by various projects in the State to launch a movement on the lines of the farmers in Maharashtra around a month back. He announced about Maharasthra like agitation on that day itself. These were the people displaced from Amaravati, Kakinada SEZ, Polavaram, Sompet, Vamshadhara project, Bhavanapadu Port, Kovvada Nuclear Power Station and Bhogapuram Greenfield airport. Firstly, Pawan was successful in bringing all these displaced farmers onto a single platform. He asked them to elect leaders among themselves and come up with an action plan. Several farmer activists in the state also joined with them.
Secondly, yesterday he had a convention on 2013-Land Acquisition Act at Uddandarayunipalem with farmers. Surprisingly this was attended by retired supreme court judges who were experts in Land Acquisition Act and they pointed out irregularities in the implementation of the act in AP.
Thirdly, it was also attended by the farmer leaders who ACTUALLY designed and organized the Maharashtra farmers agitation. The communist party that was behind the agitation in Maharashtra is sailing with Janasena in the state now, at least in these kind of agitations. So Pawan already prepared the set-up to launch farmers agitation silently. It may be just matter of time, when he launches this.
Will it be a success in AP?
In Maharashtra it was very successful and government has offered to talk to the representatives of the agitating farmers and also decided to appoint a six-member committee to look into the farmers’ demands. Pawan is now saying they will storm Amaravathi with one lakh farmers if government doesn’t oblige the demands. However, Chandra Babu has been taking necessary actions whenever Pawan raises some issues. When Pawan criticized Janmabhoomi committees, the next day he suspended them. He behaved the same way on several issues raised by Pawan in order to avoid anti-incumbency piling up. Now also CBN may take necessary actions so that this agitation will not be taken up. However, in case CBN overlooks this or stay firm on this, agitation may be taken up and Janasena, communits parties and JAC of farmers formed a month ago definitely has the required set-up to protest on the lines of Maharashtra agitation and it may become a turning point in AP politics if it happens.
Hopefully, AP government take up a discussion with these farmers and resolve the issues. Otherwise farmers agitations, as proved earlier, have the power to turn down the governments.
-ZURAN (@CriticZuran)
