Huge response to farmers’ march spells trouble for the government

Thousands of farmers marching into the national capital right in the midst of peak assembly election season for big states in the country is a very bad signal for the BJP led NDA government at the Centre. The marching farmers are demanding a special session of Parliament just to discuss the agrarian crisis which is pinching them very badly since the past many months and it seems like all promises delivered by Prime Minister Modi ahead of the 2014 polls about giving reasonable prices to the farmers have not worked. Its time for the government and the BJP to take note of this.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and many other speakers at the farmers’ rally in the national capital basically alleged that Modi government is only busy serving the big capitalists and industrialists and this is being done at the cost of farmers. “Modi and his government should pay just one-tenth of attention to the farmers of what attention they are giving to the big industrialists, if that happens, the farmers will never have to come out on streets,” Kejriwal said at the rally. Rahul Gandhi said, “This government has waived of Rs 3,50,000 crore loans of industrialists but is not willing to give any loan waiver to the farmers and small traders.”

This is not the first farmer rally or march that a large Indian city has seen in the past few months. Just six months ago, farmers marched into Mumbai demanding higher prices for the crop and proper implementation of the loan waiver scheme. In June 2018, Maharashtra saw the first of its kind ‘farmers’ strike’ where farmers refused to carry their produce to the city markets. In Maharashtra, sugarcane, onion and tomato farmers have suffered very badly this year. Now, its high time that some solutions are worked on or found.

Most agro-economic experts now agree on the fact that the already poor condition of India’s farmers was aggravated because of Modi’s government’s decision of demonetisation. The monsoon in 2016 was good all over the country but in November, demonetisation suddenly delivered a bad blow because all money from the agro markets just vanished. The rural economy was not ready to handle this shock and farmers all over the country suffered very badly for months after this decision. PM Modi’s own handpicked Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian said just a day ago that demonetisation was a draconian blow to the economy.

The two steps that need to be taken urgently now is working on a robust credit system for small farmers and second is to ensure minimum support price (MSP) is given as promised before polls. Farmer leader Yogendra Yadav alleged during Friday’s farmer march in Delhi that the present government is claiming that MSP has been given to farmers in most states while the reality is that MSP is not actually being given at the ground level.

In Maharashtra, the opposition has been alleging that out of the Rs 34,000 crore which was to be distributed to farmers as loan waiver as announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, only about Rs 15,000 crore has been actually given to the farmers. If things continue the way they are going for farmers, the BJP led NDA government will really find it tough to face 2019 general elections. A lot needs to be done by the government and it has to be done now.

OPPOSITION ALLEGATIONS
- Farmer suicides continue in all states.  
- Farm loan waiver has not reached most farmers.
- Minimum Support Price is actually not being given.
- Corporate houses are being favoured over farmers