A Million Farmers Protest Against the WTO in India

From: KRRS <swamy.krrs@vsnl.com>
Subject: Parliament Siege by over 1,000,000 Indian farmers

WTO, reforms strike the panic chord in farmers
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New Delhi: Just 12 days before the WTO deadline for opening up markets,
farmers came together in the Capital on Monday to fight a last-ditch battle
against globalization and the government's "anti-farmer and reform
policies".

They even threatened a nation wide SATYAGRAHA, direct action and a
programme for a parallel government. By the end of the day, a six-member
delegation had managed an appointment with the President of India for
Tuesday. They spoke from the platform of the National Coordination of
Indian Farmers Movements, an effort led by Bharatiya Kisan Union's
Mahendra Singh Tikait and Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, (KRRS)
President Prof.M.D.Nanjundaswamy, requesting the President to intervene.

There was some anger, some fear and some despair among more than
one million farmers who had gathered at Kisan Ghat since morning.
Farmers worried about low prices, rising input costs, eroding competitiveness
and assaults by multinationals. Local issues like power merged into the
infamous and troublesome GATT (General Agreement on Trade and
Tariffs), sharpening a sense of injustice and neglect by the government.
Unless you organize and come into the streets, nobody will listen to you, said Tikait.

Agricultural issues have grabbed the attention of political parties over the
past few months, while scientists and NGOs have been voicing apprehensions
about the effect of the World Trade Organization's trade liberalization
process. And, the government acknowledging WTO is loaded in favour of the
developed countries, has been promising a spirited fight during the review
now coming up.

For the moment, however, there is not much to be done, except keep vigil.
April 1 will see the lifting of the last set of quantitative
restrictions(QRs), leaving the government with three options on
protection-tariff barriers, anti-dumping steps and safeguard measures.

Scientists may have been restrained in their criticism but just about
everybody agrees developing countries have been denied a fair deal in WTO.
Commitments on market access, domestic support and export subsidies, it is
said, have served only to protect the farmers and farming systems of
developed countries. And, the trading regime has ensured that developing
countries take time-bound initiatives to open up domestic markets for cheap
and highly subsidized imports of agricultural commodities.

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