A political march-Movements such as the farmers’ march in Delhi can be sustained only if they resist short-term electoral baits

• Conversations with many of the farmers who had occupied the streets of New Delhi in November revealed that their inspiration to protest was drawn from the Kisan Mukti March that took place from Nashik to Mumbai early this year.
• It also flowed from the poignant images recently seen in the media — of the bleeding and blistered feet of farmers, of Tamil farmers with human skulls at Jantar Mantar, and of the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally in Delhi this September.
• Yet this time was different and unprecedented.
• The tens of thousands of farmers had travelled from across the country enduring difficult journeys to the capital.
• Their sole aim was to get their demands heard, to reclaim their rural livelihoods, their fundamental rights, and Parliament itself wanting a resolution to the agrarian crisis.
• The most striking aspect of the rally, however, was the coming together of diverse local issues.
• The trickier question, however, is whether broader and deeper alliances and solidarities with the urban working class, who tend to share more in common with the rural distressed, will yet emerge.

The HIndu