Ryots change tack, to launch e-campaigns against farm policy 

KRRS president Badagalapura Nagendra said farmers will prevail on the government to rethink and withdraw the anti-farmer bills.
Farmers on Monday went on a state-wide strike but have now realised that they cannot garner national attention for long with conventional protests | shriram B N
Farmers on Monday went on a state-wide strike but have now realised that they cannot garner national attention for long with conventional protests | shriram B N

MYSURU: Farmers, up against the Central and State governments pushing the Land Reforms Act and farm produce bills, are looking at novel avenues of protest, like social media, to expand their reach and sustain their campaign. In a sign of the changing times, farmers are planning to launch an online protest, complete with speeches and statistics, on a huge scale. 

They have realised that they cannot garner national attention for long with conventional commonplace protests — bandhs, tractor rallies, burning of effigies, camping and cooking on highways.These sons of the soil are turning to their children and siblings working in the IT sector tocounter the government’s campaign claiming the bills are not anti-farmer. They are working out a counter-campaign, plucking out speeches by late BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, who had opposed the then UPA government’s plan to amend the APMC Act.

KRRS president Badagalapura Nagendra said farmers will prevail on the government to rethink and withdraw the anti-farmer bills. “We will use social media to counter the BJP campaign misleading the farming community and public. We will use the services of IT workers from farming families to reach out to lakhs of farmers, and we will go door-to-door, educating people on anti-farmer policies and save them from being taken over by corporate firms,”he added.

The Confederation of Farmers’ Organisations is going through clippings of  BJP leaders’ speeches to use them to counter the Modi and Yediyurappa  governments.Also planned are multilingual handbills that have the BJP’s claims with counterpoints, besides the government’s inordinate hurry in pushing “anti-farmer policies” like the APMC Act, Land Reforms Act, privatisation of Escoms, the conspiracy to withdraw free power and abolish Minimum Support Price to encourage corporatisation of the agricultural sector, Nagendra said.

The Confederation, under the Kisan Manch, has successfully roped in Dalit organisations and trade unions for the fast on October 2, Gandhi Jayanthi, across Karnataka.A two-day Ikya Samavesha (unity meet) of various progressive organisations is planned in Mysuru to work out a roadmap to build pressure on the government. The farmers are also planning a mega rally, mobilising over 1 lakh farmers during the winter session in Belagavi, to urge the government not to present the Land Reforms Bill in the Legislative Council.

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