Bullets for farmers?

Six farmers were killed last week in a police firing that took place in India’s Madhya Pradesh, a BJP ruled state since 2004. Also every other day there are stories of farmers committing suicide in one region or the other.  What caused the police to open fire on farmers who were protesting peacefully? Yes, the protestors were demanding, and getting agitated too, but were they really violent to call for authorities to take such a drastic action?

Either of the governments whether the one led by Shiv Raj Singh Chouhan at the state or Narendra Modi led central government, were uncomfortable with the demands of the farmers. Their principle demand: loan waivers. Alternate demands included incorporate higher support price for their produce and the usage of the Swaminathan Committee proposals. The BJP had made the execution of the report, tabled a decade back, a campaign promise at the run up to the Lok Sabha elections. Farmers have likewise requested a cap on import of farm produce and an expansion in import duty to defend the interests of the farm section. A micro analysis of these demand would give an insight that the farmers were not only talking about their own interest, if their demands are met, the agriculture sector in India can get a boost and hence the other associated sectors too and this may lead to a better Gross Domestic Product. Police firing on protest under the constitution of India.

Farmers today in India are far for the real world, though nearest to reality. The farmer sells his crop at “Mandis”, where it is supposedly bought by government agencies, and other crops like vegetables etc are bought by middlemen. The produce changes hand multiple times before it reaches the end consumer, with each middle man making a good profit. The cost that is paid to the farmer hardly enables him to recover the cost. For each crop, the farmer is stuck at a situation where it has to seek loan to sow the crop. With each loan, comes the burden of interest and with each harvest comes the realization, that there is nothing left to fend for him and repaying the loan is far from reality. A study reveals that a small potato farmer is losing Rs 30,000 per acre.

The farmer faces a precarious situation, if he gets low output; he is not able to make enough for himself. In case of a bumper crop, the prices that are offered to them are so low that they are not able to sustain.  Today in India, farmers are protesting in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Haryana; and in other states too and instead of giving them a patient hearing, the ruling party has found an easy way-blame the opposition, and in this particular case in Madhya Pardesh let the bullets do the talking.

The protest by the farmers is a manifestation of their compounded problems. The one who toils hard to make enough food grains has to rely on false promises of various political parties who only reach out to them at the time of the elections. After having made a promise to the farmers in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi again promised loan waiver for farmers in Uttar Pradesh in Jan 2017. Little has been done for them- a mere loan waiver of Rs 1Lakh per farmer.  The same promise was made, by Congress Party in Punjab, and within three months of taking the office Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has announced loan waiver for 8.75 lakh farmers –Rs 2 Lakh each.  The waiver comes at a time when the exchequer of Punjab is in shambles. Future earnings of the next five years of the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB), Punjab Mandi Board and several other government undertakings, had been hypothecated by the previous government with various banks! The bill for this waiver would have to be borne by someone.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made another promise to the farmers in his Independence Day speech from Red Fort, that he would double the farmers’ income by 2020.  It appears that he and his government have forgotten this promise. Instead to initiating a talk it prefers to spend millions in issuing advertisements in newspaper just to make false claims on achievements in agriculture and cover up its failure. Another shocker came from the BJP president Amit Shah who said that the government is already paying 43% higher than the cost of the production. This statement is a mockery on millions of Indian farmers who are in deep distress and thousands of farmers who have committed suicide. Figures so quoted by Amit Shah appear to have been calculated by someone sitting in the air-conditioned offices without having seen the plight of the farmers.

Farmers in India have suffered a lot, and its seems that they now would want to judge the elected representatives by the promise they make and promises they keep. Forthcoming elections in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and West Bengal could well be decided by the farmers with a hope that his confidence in the ballot is not returned with a bullet.