A travel magazine editor stood with a farmer. A teacher stood with a zari worker.
A human chain took shape in the heart of Kolkata on Thursday to congratulate the farmers protesting at the gates of Delhi for a year. People from the city and districts, and from different walks of life, were part of the chain.
From the assembly rose cries of despair on how income had stagnated, costs had escalated and life had become miserable. The salt on the wound were the alleged attempts to foment communal tension, said many. A deep distrust and a sense of anger against the Modi government were palpable.
“Jinish er daam bare. Goreeb manush er daam bare na (The price of commodities keep rising. The lives of poor people hardly have any value),” said Banu Bibi, who makes bidis for a living. Banu was part of a large group of bidi workers from Murshidabad’s Kandi who came to be a part of the chain.
Banu is entitled to “Rs 120 for binding 1,000 bidis every day”. She can manage only around 500 a day, after doing all the household chores.
“The production cost is skyrocketing. One bag of fertiliser, which cost Rs 1,100 in 2019, comes at Rs 1,700 now. The Centre has done nothing to regulate the prices of fertiliser,” said Gokul Hazra, a farmer from Murshidabad, who stood in the chain on SN Banerjee Road.
Hazra, in his 50s, owns 3.5 bighas of land on which he cultivates rice. He was part of a group of 50 that left home at 5.30am on a bus to reach Kolkata.
Hasim Molla, a zari worker from Chengail, stood with a poster that read: “Jokhon krishok mojur ak hoye, raja hujoor bhoy paye (when farmers and labourers join hands, kings and lords get scared)”.
“Three years ago, I used to get Rs 500 for embroidery work on one sari. I still get the same amount. But the cost of everything — from raw material to daily groceries — have gone up so much,” he said.
A forum called Bengal Against Fascist RSS-BJP, which had organised a long-running campaign against the BJP during the Bengal elections, had given the call for Thursday’s human chain.
The L-shaped chain started from Esplanade, in front of a shopping arcade that has come up where Metro cinema once stood, and took a left turn on SN Banerjee Road, going till Janbazar.
The Esplanade-Moulali channel is synonymous with protest meetings and marches. But the novelty of a human chain drew the attention of pedestrians and commuters alike.
The assembly pledged solidarity with the decision of the farmers to not budge an inch unless the Narendra Modi-led government accepted all their demands — including a formal repeal of the farm laws in Parliament, a law ensuring minimum support price for all farm produce and the dismissal and arrest of Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni over the Lakhimpur Kheri atrocity.
“We have defeated the fascist forces in elections. But the street fight against fascist agenda is far from over,” said Kushal Debnath, one of the founders of the forum.
“India is on the brink of turning into a majoritarian state. We don’t trust this government. Modi might repeal the farm laws but if voted back to power, he might bring the bills back again, in a different avatar. The Uttar Pradesh vote is so important for the country,” said Mahasweta Samajdar, editor of a Bengali travel magazine and one of the conveners of Bengal Against Fascist RSS-BJP.
The speakers, who addressed the gathering from a mini truck, urged people to raise their voices against “draconian laws like the UAPA, that is used both by the Centre and state governments”, and other “authoritarian” moves of the Modi government, like extending the BSF’s jurisdiction in border states.
“The UAPA is worse than the Rowlatt Act. It is just a tool to crush dissent,” said rights activist Sujato Bhadra.