Volume 6, No. 9, September 2005

Once again Rajasthan was in turmoil. On June 13, 05 Jaipur Tonk National highway was stained with human blood. Hundreds of agitating farmers gathered there on protest against the State Govt. from various parts of Tonk district. They demanded water to green their arable land. They demanded drinking water to quench their thirst. In response the State Govt. deployed hundreds of police personnel, the custodian of the ‘biggest democracy of the world’ and they did not hesitate to open fire on the plea of maintaining "law and order". Four of the agitating farmers and one Hansa, a pregnant housewife who was serving ‘chapatti’ to her son and mother at the first floor of her house, were killed and many were injured. The farmers had no arms in their hands, nor did they turn violent. They were just shouting slogans on their demands. Even then this was considered as a violation of the law and order and some sort of vandalism by the trigger-happy guardians of democracy. To cover up their brutal atrocities the police, as usual, managed three bus owners to file FIRs alleging vandalism.

Most of the farmers who gathered there were from Tonk, Malpura, Todaraising and Peeplu tehsils of Tonk district. For the last few years the farmers of these areas have been demanding that the water should be released from Bilaspur dam to Todisagar dam. The dam was built over the Banar river at Todaraising. The water of the said dam was the main source of irrigation of these tehsils. As the said dam has dried up, they do not have water for irrigation. Though arrangements were there to supply water from Bilaspur to Ajmer, Sawai Madhopur Krishangarh and Beaver, this was not available for the farmers in Tonk. Whereas, these are the farmers who were displaced for the construction of Bisalpur dam which was chalked out as a scheme for irrigation and drinking water. The command area of the dam extends upto some parts of Bhilwara district. It also covers parts of Tonk, Boondi, Nasirabad, Ajmer town, Jaipur and Kekdi. Farmers of the above tehsils have watched the water being given to Unniara tehsil, represented by Agri-culture Minister Prabhu lal Saini, while Tonk and other tehsils have been left out. This sort of discrimination, even within the district, continues the aggravating resent-ment of the farmers. They are deprived of water though their areas are within a radius of 40 km in the command area. Whereas water of the Bisalpur dam are being provid-ed through canals to areas which are 70-80 km from the command area, they are not even getting drinking water from the tube-wells which were installed for pumping water as these have become useless. Five years ago tubewells of 10 HP could pump out water. Now even 20 HP do not serve any purpose. As a consequence, out of 237 Panchayat Samities, 87 are even in the "dark zone" i.e. where the water levels are beyond reclaim.

While the underground water level has been going down every year, the ruling parties have been continuing to politicalize the issue. During the previous Congress regime farmers agitation over water problems was utilized by the BJP and it promised to solve the problem. Even before the Assembly Election in 2003 and the Lok Sabha election in 2004 the present Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje promised to make necessary arrangements for providing water from the Bisalpur dam. After the victory in the State Assembly elections, the BJP came to the power and did not fulfill their promise. The aggrieved farmers organized themselves and formed the Bisalpur Bandh Samgharsh Samity led by Zahir, a local resident. On June 9, the Bandh Samgharsh Samity (B S S) organized street corner Meetings and submitted a memoran-dum to the collector and also to the irrigation minister. On that occasion they demanded that the Govt. should at least initiate the process of taking out tenders for canal construction to meet their long-standing demand for irrigation water. A large meeting was held on the next day. The farmers were eager to meet the collector or any other Govt. representative to get an assurance regarding initiation of the canal construction. The heartless authorities maintained an insulting indifference and did not take any initiative to have a dialogue with the agitating farmers, though in last October, after the police firing the Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje promised "Never again will this occur. We should have main-tained a constant dialogue with the farmers".

On June 13, the police once again opened fire on hundreds of unarmed peaceful agitators. Within the past one-and-a-half years of the Vasundhara Govt. the police opened fire eight times on farmers and other innocent people. The firing thereby proved that the government is expert in hollow promises rather than keeping it’s words. All the political parties other than the BJP supported the farmers’ agitation and condemned the police action for their varied self interests and vote politics. As soon as the news of police firing had spread, farmers in Sriganganagar and Hanuamngarh came on to the streets and raised their voice against police brutalities. In Ghadsana, Anoopgarh and Rawala farmers shut down the government granaries. Farmers organized rallies in different parts of the State to express their solidarity to farmers of Tonk district and to condemn the police atrocities.

On June 15, opposition parties began to place their statements in public demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. They termed her regime as an oppresive one and she had no right to continue. Following the usual norm of mainstream politics Vasundhara Raje blamed the opposition parties for instigating farmers. Amid this game of blame and counter blame the police have been continuing to terrorize the people even after a week hunting for those involved in the agitation. Today, particularly the CPM is playing the active role of fire-fighters turning up at all the trouble spots — whether Ghadsana, Gurgaon or elsewhere. As true fire-fighters their job is to diffuse the anger and seek a compromise in the best interests of the establishment. While farmer’s resentment has been spreading in various parts of the state, the Raje Govt. has responded by transferring the District Magistrate, Add Dist. Magistrate, the S.P. and A.S.P. That was nothing but a cunning trict to dilute the intensity of the agitation. The new collector has also been following the same policy of repression in other ways. He is now busy to advice victims’ family about the futility of the agitation — an indirect threat, well understood by the villagers at large.

All the opposition parties (both the ruling class and other parliamentary parties) are trying their best to utilize the situation. The leaders of these parties are enthusiastically visiting the affected villages and are paying lip-service to entice the farmers. These votaries of ‘main stream’ politics are endeavouring to increase their vote bank, and to have a better edge than the others. So their demands are concentra-ting on compensation money and resigna-tion of the Vasundhara Govt. Neither do they arouse the people against this oppress-ive state machinery nor do they put forward any concrete plan to solve the scar-city of irrigation water and drinking water.

All these ruling class parties are in governmental power either at the central or at the state level. These governments are following the same state policy and have stained their hands with the common man’s blood. They are preaching a lot about democracy and are following the policy of state autocracy. Whenever the people organize themselves to assert their democratic rights, Govts guided by these parties came down on them, deployed the state armed forces, terrorized the people, tortured them to death and opened fire, at will to kill them. Hundreds of democratic movements were drowned in pools of blood by the state’s armed forces.

These very ruling class parties and their govts are always advising people to be in ‘main stream’ politics for the fulfillment of their democratic rights. Farmers of Tonk district demanded their right to have access to drinking water which is the fundament right of the people. They demanded water for irrigation from the Banas River on which the Bisalpur dam is situated. As the farmers are living in the vicinity of the river they are the rightful claimants for irrigation and drinking water. Even then the govt. throttled their voice and unleashed brutal atrocities claiming five lives. Then, why do they not take up arms to resist state violence and assert their right to save their own lives?

<Top>