Union minister for food processing industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal has resigned in protest against the farm bills cleared by Parliament. However, her party, Shiromani Akali Dal, will remain in the National Democratic Alliance. I don’t have any doubt about her intentions, but such a move should have been made with a sincere mind and a clear sense of duty. But what she did is ‘political positioning’, exactly what the Shiv Sena and the Telugu Desam Party did earlier. While their top leaders criticized the ‘Delhi Durbar’, ministers from these parties continued to enjoy their cabinet portfolios. TDP’s Union ministers quit just a year before the Andhra Pradesh assembly polls. The voter rejected this ‘sacrifice’, and the TDP lost the election. In contrast, the Shiv Sena ministers remained in the cabinet till the end. They contested the assembly election with the BJP, but as soon as they got an opportunity, they overturned the whole equation.
If the Akali Dal is serious about the protest, it must stop keeping fingers in both pies. In power-hungry politics, few reject their privileges for the people at the bottom. Here, I would like to remember Ram Manohar Lohia respectfully. In 1954, the Praja Socialist Party formed a government in Travancore (now in Kerala), which was witnessing an agitation for a separate state for Tamil-speaking areas. On 11 August 1954, police opened fire on protesters, killing 15 including students and farmers. Lohia, who was general secretary of PSP then in Naini jail, telegrammed chief minister Pattom Thanu Pillai to resign. Pillai did not. The party split and the government collapsed in a few months.
Across centuries of misfortune for farmers, their leaders rarely addressed their concerns wholeheartedly. Despite being called an agrarian country, independent India still has only one model of success—the Green Revolution. There has been a lot of talk about a second Green Revolution, but in the absence of determination, there has been little progress.
I belong to Doab (land between two rivers) of Ganga-Yamuna, where many families have been devastated, with the most tragic example in the last few months. When millions returned to their villages following the lockdown, the land of their forefathers failed to give them shelter. They lost their jobs in cities and agriculture was not able to sustain them.
Let us come to the current controversy. The Centre has passed two agricultural reform bills. Under the Agricultural Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, farmers will be able to sell their produce anywhere in the country. On the Farmers Agreement Bill on Price, Assurance and Agricultural Services (Empowerment and Protection), the government claims that the income of farmers will increase, middlemen will be out and supply chains will be established. Earlier, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill had been passed, which provides that grains, pulses, edible oils, potatoes and onions will not remain essential commodities. They can be stored. The government believes that this will attract foreign investment in agriculture.
Critics say farmers will not get minimum support prices (MSP) with the abolition of the mandi structure, allowing private companies to exploit farmers, who will end up as labourers in their own farms. They fear traders will hoard and there will be volatility in food prices, ending food security and increasing black-marketing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has responded strongly that the MSP system and government procurement will continue, saying those who have done nothing for decades are misleading the farmers. Some state governments under his leadership have also done a great job in getting the farmers a fair price for their produce. The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh distributed ₹21,889 crore to farmers in the last two years.
Farmers have experienced a lot of dissatisfaction and insecurity for decades, and now they are easily agitated. This insecurity can be easily understood. About 86% of farmers have less than two hectares of land, and can barely feed their families. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 42,480 farmers and daily labourers committed suicide last year. However, the Union agriculture minister said in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that state-wise figures of farmers’ suicides have not been available since 2016.
Meanwhile, villagers in Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are agitating. Farmers have already protested in large numbers in Maharashtra. One thing is sure that the measures taken so far for the farmers are not proving to be enough. Governments at the Centre and in the states will have to focus on this immediately. We should not forget that the country is going through an unprecedented crisis. Tensions along the China border, the deadly sting of coronavirus and the woeful economic situation in the country have raised many apprehensions. At such critical times, such unrest within the country can prove fatal.
Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. His Twitter handle is @shekarkahin
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