In January 1988, around twenty thousand farmers had gathered in the city of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. They were protesting against the government decision to increase electricity rates. The farmers camped for about three weeks outside the district collector’s office until their demands were fulfilled. It was a very disciplined agitation of the farmers and all those days they received regular food supply from the nearby villages. The Meerut agitation was seen as a great show of rural power of farmers cultivators. These agitating farmers were members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), an organisation of farmers from western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana regions. Similar demands were made by other farmers’ organisations in the country. Shetkari Sanghatana of Maharashtra declared the farmers’ movement as a war of Bharat (symbolising rural, agrarian sector) against forces of India (urban industrial sector).

Which of the following were the main demands of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) in 1988?

(i) Higher government floor prices for sugarcane and wheat.

(ii) Guaranteed supply of electricity at reasonable rates

(iii) Abolition of restrictions on the inter-state movement of farm produce

(iv) Waiving of repayments due on loans to farmers and the provision of a government pension for farmers.

(i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) 

Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh had benefited in the late 1960s from the state policies of ‘green revolution’. Sugar and wheat became the main cash crops in the region since then. The cash crop market faced a crisis in mid-eighties due to the beginning of the process of liberalisation of Indian economy. The BKU demanded higher government floor prices for sugarcane and wheat, abolition of restrictions on the inter-state movement of farm produce, guaranteed supply of electricity at reasonable rates, waiving of repayments due on loans to farmers and the provision of a government pension for farmers.