Indian farmers organize national day of action against FTAs

Farmers from across India held protest meetings, burnt effigies, blocked roads, and carried out civil disobedience actions during the nationwide observation of “Pledge Day against FTAs” (Free Trade Agreements) its union government has signed with various countries.

Farmers claim the FTAs are a form of economic warfare against India’s agriculture and petty producers and demand their immediate cancellation. They also demanded the Narendra Modi-led government not sign a proposed FTA with the US.

A call was made for the observation of “Pledge Day against FTAs” by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a common platform for India’s major farmers’ unions, and was backed by the left parties and various other unions.

The SKM also wrote a letter to the president of India highlighting the potential negative impacts of the FTA with the US and asking her to stop the Modi government from “imposing the anti-national” act on the people.

“The FTAs, negotiated in secrecy and under corporate pressure, are a profound betrayal of India’s national interest, designed to sacrifice the livelihoods of India’s agricultural majority at the altar of global corporate profit and its deindustrialization; thus they are the blueprint of economic colonization,” the SKM said in its letter to the president.

The SKM and other unions claim that the FTAs already signed with countries like the UK, New Zealand, and one with the EU will lead to the “systematic corporate capture of the vast Indian market, decimate domestic agriculture and industry, and ruin employment opportunities.”

Most of the FTAs, proposed or already signed, allow tariff-free trade in agricultural products, an area which most of the earlier governments in India have refused to touch due to strong opposition.

Indian farmers claim that most of the European countries and the US provide massive subsidies to their farmers, which make their products cheaper. Over and above that, the reduced tariff will lead to the flooding of the Indian markets with subsidized dairy, processed foods, wines, and spirits.

The FTA with the EU, for example, also has a provision of high level intellectual property protection which is “a Trojan horse for European seed and agro-chemical monopoly. It aims to impose TRIPS-plus provisions on seeds and plant varieties, criminalizing our ancient rights to save, exchange and reuse seeds,” the SKM’s letter to the president said.

No FTA with the US

Though farmers have been protesting against these FTAs for months now, accusing the Modi-led government of compromising the interests of millions of India’s small farmers and petty producers, its proposed FTA with the US has invited the strongest opposition.

A trade deal with India was announced by the Donald Trump administration in February with provisions of free trade in agricultural products as part of the agreement over the reciprocal tariff regime.

Following the US announcement, the SKM and other farmers’ unions had accused the Modi government of double speak on the matter. They reminded him about his earlier promises of not compromising the interests of the farmers, arguing that he “sold out the sovereignty of the country under US pressure.”

The proposed FTA with the US “will deepen the agrarian crisis and undermine the country’s self-reliance” All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the left-leaning farmers’ union said in a statement expressing solidarity with the call for a national pledge day.

“The US has only 1.88 million farmers compared to over 146 million operational holdings in India. Around 2% of the workforce in the US depends on agriculture while in India 48% of the workforce and 65% of the population depend on agriculture and allied sectors,” the SKM’s letter to the president underlined, in an attempt to present the extent of possible damages the FTA with the US can cause.

The SKM warned of greater agitation in the coming days in line with the 2021-22 protests on the borders of Delhi if the government fails to listen to their demands to scrap the FTAs.