On Tuesday, 10 central trade unions will meet here to finalise their nationwide protests in the coming months against Narendra Modi government's disinvestment policies. A day later, over 60 farmer organisations will hold protests in several districts of the country to demand that the government implement the MS Swaminathan Commission's report, especially deliver on its poll promise of farmers getting one and a half times price for their produce and announce a countrywide farm debt waiver.
At a time when Opposition political parties look dispirited after the defection of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to ally with the National Democratic Alliance, trade unions and farmers organisations plan to launch protests that would culminate at Parliament during its winter session in the second half of November.
Both, the farmers organisations as well as trade unions, have asked mainstream political parties to keep away from their protests. "The farmers unions represent all hues of political ideologies and we do not want party politics to weaken our movement," a farmer leader said.
The leaders of 10 central trade unions, with the exception of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, are slated to meet at Delhi's Talkatora Stadium on Tuesday. "The objective is to forge a cohesiveness unity among trade unions efforts to protest the government's disinvestment policies. Lots of protests are taking place across the country but we want to put up a show of strength that should make the government sit up and take notice of our demands. We are opposed to the disinvestment in the railways, ports and docks, defence and other sectors," Hind Mazdoor Sabha's general secretary Harbhajan Singh Sidhu said.
The 10 trade unions are likely to finalize their declaration, which would include a 12-point charter of demands. They will also finalize their protests, including plans to hold a nationwide industrial strike in February 2018.
The 60 farmers organisations, which includes those earlier affiliated to the RSS as well as Communist Party of India (M) affiliated All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), plan to hold protests across the country. "We have come together on two principal demands, that of loan waiver and farmers be paid one and a half times price of the cost of their produce," AIKS's Hannan Mollah said.
Ever since the police firing in Mandsaur, in Madhya Pradesh, in which six farmers were killed, farmers organisations have come together for sustained protests in Delhi and elsewhere in the country. These will continue until November, when these organisations plan to protest outside Parliament during its winter session. Farmer leaders like Lok Sabha member Raju Shetti, Sunilam, Shiv Kumar 'Kakkaji', Yogendra Yadav, and others, will take part in the protests.
While the farmer protests would raise the issue of the harmful impact of demonetisation on the farm sector, the trade unions would highlight the adverse fallout Modi government's 'noteban' decision had on small and medium sector enterprises.