Rajesh Prabhu Salgaonkar
The megacity of Mumbai felt tremors on March 11, 2018 when some twelve thousand peasants and Vanvasis came knocking at the doors of the city from Nashik. The media totally ignored this Long March of 200 Km till it reached the outskirts of Mumbai. Then it went in blitzkrieg mode projecting the march as annoyance of the farmers with the Devendra Fadnavis led Maharashtra government. However, Chief Minister Fadnavis tackled the situation very well much to the relief of the Vanvasis and asserted that “I would do anything to satisfy the downtrodden Vanvasis”.
It must be noted that media first ignored the Long March and misrepresented it as a farmers’ march, when 95 per cent of the participants were landless Vanvasis. Their chief demand was forest land rights. These people have never been officially farmers as they don’t have their own land and thus, they were not covered under the Farm Loan schemes. Talking to Organiser, Fadnavis said, “When my ministers and workers visited Long March, we immediately knew that these were landless Vanvasis and not traditional farmers. Why the media ignored the fact or missed it, is a matter of surprise!”
Fadnavis government showed sensitivity towards Vanvasis, showed courage to face the agitators and firmly gripped the administration and police department at the time of mounting tensions. The Maharashtra government was successful in avoiding any untoward incident. It also provided medical care to the agitators, and arranged two special trains for return of the agitators from Mumbai to Nashik after their demands were met. Government officials and police officials were specially instructed to be sensitive to the Vanvasis, to avoid clashes, to help the Vanvasis in whatever possible ways, and provide sharp security, throughout the Long March from Nashik to Mumbai and back.
Anatomy of the March
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) led All India Kisan Sabha led the march. It had declared to lay siege of Vidhan Mandal—the Legislature building in South Mumbai from March 12 onwards. Marching from Nashik, landless Vanvasis reached Somaiyya Grounds in North Central Mumbai on March 11, 2018. However, standing for the gravity of the situation, the government requested the organisers of the march to stay at Azad Maidan so that every day living of the city may not get affected. The marching Vanvasis complied and negotiations with the government were awaited.
The Chief Minister along with other Ministers sat with the organisers to discuss the demands at Vidhan Bhavan premises. The meeting was attended by the organisers of the march Dr Ashok Dhavale, Dr Ajit Nawale, MLA Jiva Pandu Gavit and Opposition leaders Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Ajit Pawar, Jayant Patil, Dhananjay Munde etc., while the agitators were waiting at Azad Maidan.
The meeting ended with the organisers coming out along with Ministers Chandrakant Patil and Girish Mahajan. They had a written assurance by the government on all their demands and they agreed to call off the agitation. The delegation along with the Ministers proceeded to Azad Maidan to talk to the tribal participants. At Azad Maidan, they declared that the Government had agreed to all their demands and already given written assurances on the demands with a fixed time frame. The Ministers on behalf of the Maharashtra Government spoke to the agitators confirming this. The agitation of the Long March was finally called off!
Politics around the Agitation
Congress and Nationalist Congress Party leaders who participated in the meeting were not happy as the agitation ended “too soon”. Some of them even called names of CPM leaders accusing that they “got managed” by Bhartiya Janta Party leaders.
However, though the crisis was managed due to far-sightedness of Devendra Fadnavis, his actions were guided through his sensitivity. He told Organiser that Dr Ashok Dhavale said to him that they were expecting a lathi charge and were also expecting the police siege of the march and that the leaders would be arrested at the Mumbai border. According to Fadanvis, Dhavale told him that this was the first time any government had received and tackled the agitation and the delegation so sensitively, heard the demands and tried to solve the issues so genuinely.
It goes without a mention that Fadnavis was well-versed with the issue since he added that, “There are genuine issues at ground level and people have been fighting for it for years. When we get chance, we should try to solve them. The demand for Forest Land Rights is very old and Atal ji brought it the legislation giving forest land rights to the Vanvasis. My Government is successful in settling over 60 per cent claims, and I am sure, we will successfully transfer remaining land rights within next six months.” The issue thus, must be summed up as the crisis of the landless Vanvasis and not as any farm unrest in particular as media depicted it.
However, the rise of the Communists among the peasants is quite worrisome. However, efforts of the Fadanvis government must pay off. The government has announced to include the farmers, from 2001 to 2008, in the farm loan waiver scheme called Chhatrapati Shivaji Shetakari Sanman Yojana. The sensitive gestures of the government were unusual for the administration officials, but not new to the Sangh Parivar, as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh works sincerely and tirelessly for the Vanvasis and knows the issues at the ground level well enough. n
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