S Bhupinder Singh Mann BKU
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Sardar Bhupinder Singh Mann, born in Gujranwala (now
in Pakistan) on 15 September 1939 was
nominated to the Rajya
Sabha in
1990
by the Honorable President of India as
recognition to his contribution to the farmers'
struggle. He served from
1990–1996.[1] His
family moved from Lyallpur, now Faislabad during
partition to
settle at Batala. His father S. Anoop
Singh was a prominent landlord of the area and
Chak 207 in Faislabad is still named after him. http://wikimapia.org/street/17362038/en/chak-No-207-RB-ANOOP-SINGH-WALA
Socio-political activities[edit]
He was one of founder members of "Farmer
Friends Association" in 1966, which grew
to a state level organization Known as "Punjab
Kheti Bari Union", which further grew to
a National level Kisan organization, "Bharti
Kisan Union" (BKU) and coordinated with other
farmers organizations to form Kisan Coordination
Committee (KCC).
In 1967 he helped the candidate of Jan
Sangh Party,
Brig. Bikramjit Singh Bajwa. Took charge of his entire election as an
Election Agent.
Defeated Pt. Mohan Lal, the then Home
Minister in Kairon Ministry.
He had the zeal to fight corruption from the
very beginning which was deeply inculcated in
him by his mother Smt Harbans Kaur, who faced
the brunt of dislocation during the partition of India in
1947.
Sardar Mann in 1968, resisted rampant corruption
in the Food Corporation of India.
Took a pledge over blood in the market yard Batala,
not to fall prey to corrupt officials,
uprooting bribery in purchase of paddy by FCI.
In 1969 he became Director of Cooperative Sugar
Mills, Batala.
In 1972, he led the agitation for cleansing and
redefining the sugar
cane supply system to the sugar
mills which resulted in formation of Calendar
System of sugar cane supply before the start of
each crushing season. This was a landmark in the
Sugar cane procurement system.
In 1974 he led an agitation against Zonal
Restrictions of movement of wheat. He
launched a successful Agitation against Hike in
Electric Power Tariff. He was arrested along
with hundreds of Kisans, to be released only
after Punjab Government withdrew the hiked
tariff.
In
1975, Emergency was
imposed in India by the then Prime Minister Smt Indira
Gandhi.
He and his organisation opposed the imposition
of Emergency and was jailed for several months
along with many kisans.
He continued his struggle to uplift the farmers
and launched a "Lekhe
Patte Da morcha" (a morcha launched
for persuading the Government to give account of
loans due from farmers vis-à-vis the economic
squeeze of the farmers). In 1976 he spearheaded
a successful agitation against supply of tractors with
manufacturing defects (Tractor Morcha).
He led the agitation for regulating diesel supply
to farmers in 1977. He also led an agitation for
providing support price of potatoes, which the
State Government had to accept as demanded by
the farmers. He was arrested in 1979 along with
farmers from many states when they participated
in Agitation in 1979 against taking over of
Charagah at Vill Kanjhawala,
in Delhi.
In 1980, he was elected the Elected State
President Bharti Kisan Union.
He remained the President of the State BKU up to
1989. He spearheaded the famous sugar
cane agitation which changed the complete
picture of sugar cane farming 1981. The
agitation culminated in getting sugarcane price
hiked from Rs. 16
per quintal to
Rs. 28 per quintal.
He was instrumental in nationalizing the farmers
movement and in 1981, the BKU and Shetkari
Sangathna (farmers' body from Maharashtra under
the leadership of Sh. Sharad Joshi)
joined hands in a Joint meeting.
In 1984, he was elected National President
Bharti Kisan Union 1984 and re-launched the agitation for
defying for Zonal Restrictions of movement of
wheat.
In March 1984, a historical an unmatched
agitation was launched under his leadership
during an agitation when Punjab Raj
Bhawan (residence
of the Punjab Governor) was Gheraoed (seized)
for seven days by lakhs of
farmers from various states under the banner of
BKU.
This was immediately followed by a historical
agitation of Boycott of Sale of Wheat from 1 to
7 May as a result of which not a single kilogram
of wheat came to Punjab Markets.
Various news clippings can be viewed at:- https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.204955936230747.50285.100001490260539&type=3
He was instrumental in the formation of the all
India level Kisan Coordination Committee
(KCC) which is a coordinating platform of
various State level Farmers organizations,
currently 17 in number.
In 1985, he was elected Chairman Kisan
Coordination Committee (1985–1988).
In 1986, he launched an Anti-corruption drive
and lakhs of rupees was
got returned from the corrupt officials.
He also got the waiver of arrears of Brick
Lining of canal Distributaries amounting to Rs.
3.50 billion.
In 1989, he was nominated as Member of
Consultative Committee of Punjab State
Electricity Board, PSEB for the term of
1989–1990.
Nominated to Rajya Sabha[edit]
In 1990, he was nominated to Rajya
Sabha. [1] [2] [3] [4]
During his tenure as a Member of Parliament, he
raised 118 starred or un-starred questions in
the Rajya Sabha.[5]
Few special achievements in Parliament:
1.
This was for the first time that the then
Prime Minister, Mr. Narasimha
Rao, while replying to his question,
had to accept in Rajya Sabha, that Indian
Farmers are victims of Negative Support
amounting to 72% of value of agriculture
produce. This was done after extensive research
work on agriculture costing, subsidisation and
other parameters governing the intricate
economics of agriculture.
2.
Agriculture Minister Mr. Balram
Jakhar, was made to admit on the
floor of Rajya Sabha that Farmers cannot freely
add value to their produce, not even shell rice
from their paddy produce.
3.
Main focus in the Rajya Sabha remained to
explore and raise the economic issues if Farmers
of the country.
In
1995,
continuing his struggle, and to highlight the
Zonal restriction levied by the Government to
suppress the costs of agriculture produces, he
led an agitation to press government to allow
free movement of wheat. He being a Sitting Member of Rajya Sabha
was arrested along with hundreds of farmers
while breaking un-announced restrictions on
movement of wheat. [4]
He was a member of delegation of Indian Members
of Parliament to UN in 1995.
In 1997, he led a march to Wagha Border,
along with Sh. Sharad
Joshi and
thousands of farmers from Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar
Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh,
and Punjab,
as a symbolic gesture to impress for free trade
route through Pakistan.
In 1998, there was a spate of suicides by
farmers in Punjab due to rising debt. Alarmed,
he led thousands of farmers to pray and pledge
before Shri Akal
Takhat Sahib, Amritsar,
not to commit suicides, but to fight against
anti-farmer policies, on 15 August 1998.
An agitation was launched in 2000 against
procurement of Paddy at prices even lower than
Minimum Support Price (MSP) fixed by the
Government of India.
During 2001, there was an ongoing debate on the
benefits of WTO.
Many people were raising doubts on the opening
of the Indian economy. He organised a talk on
WTO by Sh. Sharad Joshi and other renowned
scholars at Chandigarh,
to highlight the rights of farmers to be
liberated from the unconstitutional and inhuman
economic blockade. Thousands of farmers attended
and got educated on the true picture.
In 2002, under his leadership, the BKU in Punjab
supported Congress to power in Punjab.
In 2003 he led a successful Agitation against
the Punjab Government (Congress which his party
had supported to Power) to get the arrears of
sugarcane, by organising a massive Dharna,
at National Highway at Dina Nagar, Gurdaspur
district, and afterwards Gheraoing DC
Gurdaspur Office Complex for continuous 16 days.
This resulted in release of all the arrears of
800 million rupees.
He participated in Global
Forum on Agricultural Research at Dakar,
Senegal. May 2003.
He was re-elected Chairman of the KCC for three
years in 2003.
He led a massive Kisan rally in front of Parliament of India in New
Delhi highlighting lower than cost of production
procurement prices of food grains, paddy, wheat
and sugar cane and payment of arrears of sugar
cane
in 2003.
The Chief Minister of Punjab,
Captain Amarinder
Singh also sat in the agitation
along with the farmers.
In 2004, he organized a seminar on the
significance and importance of the River Water
issues. Capt Amarinder Singh, CM Punjab was
honoured for taking a bold step on protecting the
rights of Punjab in this regard.
In 2005, he was invited to attend the World
Agriculture Forum meet at St.
Louis,
USA from 16–18 May 2005 on the issue "The key to Peace,
Security and Growth- Local Regional and Global
Agri Food System".
He was nominated as a Member of Sub Committee
of Central
Electricity Regulatory Commission in
2009.
BKU, under his leadership supported Congress in
Punjab and Haryana for the Lok
Sabha Elections.
In 2010, he organised meeting of the Kisan
Coordination Committee in September 2010 under his Chairmanship in
which one of the main issues discussed was
regarding land acquisition, which is a burning
issue in India at the moment. While discussing
the issue of land acquisition, it was stressed
that the fact that in India,
companies are allowed to purchase thousands of
acres of land and earn profits to the tune of
crores of rupees whereas on the other hand, land
Ceiling Act is implemented against the
poor farmers who cannot even sustain themselves
on whatever little land they have. This clearly
shows the callous attitude of the governments
towards the farmers.
That the Companies, either themselves or through
the government, which takes the land from the
poor farmers and after acquiring it, gives it to
multinational companies at throw away prices who
can otherwise also purchase the said land at
market price and when it comes to farmers, the
land Ceiling Act comes into play. It was also
stressed that such a policy should not be made
by the Government without consulting the members
of the Kisan Coordination Committee and in case
the Government went ahead with the draconian
laws and policies framed against the farmers,
the Kisan Coordination Committee would start its
nationwide protest against the Government from
its next Convention proposed to be held at Kerala.
In 2012, he and his BKU fully supported the
Congress party under the command of Capt
Amarinder Singh
because of his pro farmer approach, clean
governance and administrative skills.
In
2012,
he led a delegation to Sh Rahul Gandhi to
request him that Government should start giving
payments to the farmers directly instead through
the commission agents
(direct payment to farmers). Gandhi was
convinced and he deputed a team to visit Punjab
to carry out a detailed study on this aspect.
In 2012, UPA government had opened up FDI in
retail. He led a team to thank Smt Sonia Gandhi
ji for this farmer friendly step. He presented a badge of BKU to Smt Sonia
Gandhi ji for this historic step.
In 2013, he gave a detailed memorandum to Sh.
Jai Ram Ramesh, the then Rural Development
Minister to request him to include small and
marginal farmers in the MNREGA. This suggestion
was greatly appreciated and this scheme was
included in MNREGA as an amendment to the act.
In 2014, Sh Rahul Gandhi invited him for
suggestions on the Congress Manifesto (2014
polls). He gave very elaborate suggestions to
him during a session organised at Ghanaur,
Panipat.
UPA government had passed a historic Act to
protect farmers in land acquisition.
But when Modi Government came to power, they
wanted to dilute this Act. However, he on behalf
of BKU and KCC submitted his strong opposition
(2015) to any dilution to this Act before the
committee headed by SS. Ahluwalia, MP.
In 2014 and 2015 he led a delegation (three
times) of BKU to submit memorandum to Punjab
Governors (Sh. Shivraj Patel and Prof Kaptan
Sinh Solanki) to highlight the plight of Punjab
farmers because the then Punjab Government had
fully failed in protecting the interests of
farmers.
In 2016 he led a delegation of BKU to meet the
Chief Electoral officer Punjab requesting him to
make the election manifesto legally binding
document.
In 2016/2017 he and his BKU fully supported Capt
Amarinder Singh led Congress party. He canvassed for
Congress candidates in many constituencies and
highlighted the leadership qualities of Capt
Amarinder Singh and his pro-farmer work done
during his last tenure.
In 2017 April he organised a National Level
meeting of KCC at Chandigarh. From here he
launched a uniqu andolan “Jo vada kia vo nibhana
padega” to force Modi
Government to fulfil his poll promise of
implementing Swaminathan Report.
This andolan was spread throughout the nation by
the KCC. This andolan has spread like a wild
fire across nation and has pushed the Modi
Government to the corner.
Currently, he is National President of BKU and
Chairman of the All India Kisan Coordination
Committee.