Open Forum

New Delhi, 21 February 2024

Farmers’ Fresh Stir

ARE THEIR DEMANDS JUSTFIED?

By Dhurjati Mukherjee 

The conferment of Bharat Ratna to the late M.S. Swaminathan brings to the forefront the subject of farmers and their conditions of life and living for which the agricultural scientists had a definite contribution. But just after that, there has been a fresh agitation by farmers with various demands which include legally binding minimum support price (MSP) of 23 crops. 

It is well known that MSP is fixed at a level of at least 1.5 times of the all paid-out costs incurred by farmers.Experts have opined that this should receive a statutory legal backing and the MSP should be fixed at 50% above the comprehensive cost of production which includes actual cost incurred to grow crops and assumed values for other items such as family labour, fertilisers and chemicals etc. 

With no legal backing, it is a fact that over 80% of the country’s farmers have been unable to sell their crops at the MSPs fixed by the government. Most analysts believe that the ruling dispensation has little concern for the farming community and is not serious in ensuring how their income increases. 

However, it is quite benevolent towards the rich and reports indicate that the ruling party has allowed tax concessions of around Rs 1 lakh crore every year to Indian domestic corporate houses but most of them were not increasing their investments. According to Prof. Atul Sood of the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, JNU, multinational companies were involved in tax abuse to the tune of Rs 75,000 crore per annum. 

Meanwhile, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi recently at Chhattisgarh maintained that the party’s government would accept all the demands of the farmers, apart from a law guaranteeing MSP. In fact, Kharge unequivocally stated that the Congress has decided to implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations, which are accepted to change the lives of 15 crore farming families. Recalling the unfulfilled promises made since 2014, the party president recalled Modi’s had said that “farmers’ incomes will be doubled” and promised “Rs 15 lakh in every account and two crore jobs every year”. Now other guarantees are being given, which they contend are also false.   

The Congress recalled that consistently Modi, since his days as Gujarat chief minister, had advocated MSP and went back on his words after becoming Prime Minister. It is a known fact that he endeared himself to the farmers in North India only through his public pledge for 50% profit over input cost and doubling their income to 2022. Congress spokesperson, Pawan Khera, showed videos of Modi’s affirmations on MSP and Swaminathan recommendations and also referred to the Report of the Working Group on Consumer Affairs in March 2011 which, under his chairmanship, had said that “higher prices would motivate farmers to increase production”. However, the government took a U-turn and in an affidavit in the Supreme Court pointed out that giving 50% profit plus input cost was impossible. 

According to government sources, farmers from both Punjab and Haryana benefited immensely from increased procurement of paddy and wheat at MSP as well as from multiple farm schemes during the last 10 years under NDA compared to the previous 10-year period when UPA was in office. In the case of Punjab, total procurement of paddy in 10 years of UPA (2004-05 to 2013-14) was 1263 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) which went up to 1686 LMT during the NDA government (2014-15 to 2023-24). Similar has been the case of Haryana. 

Meanwhile, an analysis by the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) showed that farmers in Punjab are already getting MSP that is 50% higher than the comprehensive cost (C2). Applying C2+50% formula in Punjab results in a cost of Rs 1503 a quintal while the current MSP is Rs 2275 a quintal, which is 51% higher than the comprehensive cost (C2) or Swaminathan Committee formula. However, the comprehensive cost for a farmer growing the same commodity in Bihar and Bengal works out to Rs 1745 a quintal and Rs 2003 respectively. This means that they are getting less than 50% over the comprehensive costs under the C2+50% formula.  

Apart from MSP procurement, experts have suggested the need for a more decentralised and dynamic framework that might play a role in supporting sustainable, agro-ecological and economic transitions across different regions. The government needs to look into this aspect to ensure that small farmers at the grass-root level get the right price for their produce.   

While Europe’s farmers are protesting the EU’s drive to fight climate change, among other issues, Indian growers are more focused on state-set assured prices for their crops. They also want the government to honour a promise to double their incomes, complaining that costs of cultivation have jumped over the past few years while incomes have stagnated, making farming a loss-making enterprise. 

With a stagnant rural sector and a huge population dependent on agriculture, there is an imperative need to make agriculture more profitable. It goes without saying that the path shown by Swaminathan is evolving an integrated approach can help solve the challenges facing Indian agriculture. The objectives of government policy should be to develop an effective system, based on research and modern technological inputs to facilitate high productivity and ensure crop diversification for value addition and increasing incomes of farmers for which training programmes for small farmers are needed. 

In this connection, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research should provide inputs about crop diversification suited in specific areas and set up experimental farms in this regard, preferably at the block level. Unless this is done at the grass-root level, it would be difficult for farm incomes to increase. The approach should be to target over 80% of farming households having a holding size of less than a hectare. 

Additionally, there have been suggestions to set up farm management cooperatives that would manage for a fee, i.e., increase productivity without any rights to the land. These farms would benefit from economies of scale and their owners would have the option of seeking non-farm work. But even the allocation for the flagship scheme MGNREGA cannot guarantee employment for more than 40 days. 

The point that needs to be stressed is that if industry can be given so many incentives, why not agriculture, which employs a huge section of the population. Moreover, agriculture contributes 17% to India’s economy. But corporate houses are powerful enough to extract benefits from the government while agriculture, though providing food to livelihood to a substantial section, cannot get the attention it needs. Even food and fertiliser subsidy is being criticised though nobody talks about the incentives given to industry for their new projects or expansion plans. 

If the country has to develop in a balanced manner, the ruling dispensation has to give sufficient attention to the rural and farm sectors as they cannot be allowed to languish. Some economists have stated that if the farmers’ demands for MSP are met, there may be food inflation. It can only be said that there is no justification of the rural poor subsidising the rich and middle- income sections through cheap food when prices of all other items have escalated.---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Political Diary

New Delhi, 20 February 2024

Farmers Protest 2.0

WILL GRIPE REAP DIVIDEND?

By Poonam I Kaushish 

In this silly political season when Parties are gearing up for general elections, protests are the current flavor. On one end, Government is busy grappling with Punjab-Haryana-UP farmers’ demanding Government's guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crop production in a repeat of their 2020–2021 protest, for over a week. 

Camping in Capital Delhi’s 200 kms radius fortified with concrete blocks, metal barricades, barbed wire and nail strips, Samyukt Kisan Morcha has rejected Government’s offer of five-year contract to buy pulses, maize and cotton at old MSP. 

West Bengal too is witness to protests over Sandeshkhali violence with women alleging sexual assault by TMC strongman Shahjahan Shiekh and his cahoots. What to speak of  AAP’s remonstration against BJP over inflated water bills in Delhi, down pro-Kannada gripe on English signboards in Bengaluru or Maharashtra’s  Maratha leader’s recent hunger strike demanding reservation for his community and Tamil Naidu’s complaint against Karnataka over Cauvery water sharing. 

Curse all you want but India thrives on protests aka bandh-hartal, chakka jams.  The voice of resistance. The voice that says, enough is enough, which has perfected the saying “jiski laathi uski bhains”! The cause is immaterial. It is all about registering ones dissent, the louder the better. Success is measured in terms of causing maximum dislocation and discomfiture to people bringing work to a standstill. Wherein a person’s freedom ends at the tip of the others nose! 

Over the last 10 years India has witnessed number of protests cutting across cities, classes and communities, from farmers, students, Dalits, Muslims to women. From the Anna Hazare protest 2007, Nirbhaya 2012, Shaheen Bagh and Citizenship Amendment Act December 2019 to 2021 farmers’ Bharat Bandh and its encore today. 

Raising a moot point: What role do protests/ bandhs play in our functioning representative democracy? Are strikes actually expression of freedom or are they means of suppressing fundamental rights in a democracy? Why do protestors resort to this measure?  Is the cause valid? Is the State being unjust or unreasonable? 

Importantly, will sit-ins on roads be the new grammar of Naya Bharat’s protests? Is it the new political paradigm of dissent? To keep its flock together? Ignominy of becoming irrelevant?  Or political considerations? Why are they allowed, despite innumerable court rulings banning them? 

Undoubtedly, protest is an exciting word, sustenance of democracy, a fundamental right to bring to Government’s notice what is not acceptable or odious and a catchphrase for free speech. But sweeping and uncompromising politics of heads-I- win-tails-you-lose on laws is unjustifiable. 

Each protest sows hope that the gripe would reap dividend as people take to streets to defend their rights and Constitutional integrity against attacks, even from Government. Sure, some laws are changed, some repealed, some guilty punished, some systems established and on some Government refuses to budge. 

Scandalously, India lost 36.94 lakh man-days in 210 strikes and lockouts in public and private sectors in the past four years with Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka topping the list, according to Labour and Employment Ministry data. The public sector lost highest number of man-days 19.91 lakh in 89 strikes 2018-20. 

Part of the current paradox is explained by the changed notion of protest. The original concept was centred on the logic the only way for a disempowered people group to shake the system was agitate, from gherao for more wages to voluntary hartal against policy decisions. But slowly perversion set in. A strike could be effective only if stoppage of work could not be overcome easily by the system. Consequently, strikers use their power base, including violence, to stall anything that spells change from routine. 

Gone are the days when it took months or days to plan a protest. In today’s digital-AI world it is easy to organize dissent. Remember Nirbhaya outpourings started with a SMS or Hazare’s dharna reflection of “people power" who came out in droves against endemic corruption during UPA II. 

Besides, it is easy to identify classic protestors who believe in the cause, others join as they have nothing better to do, few as it is ‘fashionable’. Some are interested in “épater la bourgeoisie" (shock the bourgeoisie) than in coming up with viable solution for the cause they are protesting against. 

Many simply shrug off protests as “sab chalta hai, this is Mera Bharat Mahan at its rudest and crassest best.”  Some assert “ki pharak painda hai.” Indeed, India has travelled a long way from Lokmanya Tilak’s “Swaraj is my birthright” to “protest is my birthright.” Today, some section of society plans strike as a matter of routine to stall anything that spells change from routine. 

As India marches ahead, are protests the right recourse? Certainly, Constitution guarantees right to protest, but it does not guarantee right to infringe upon others rights. Unfortunately, our strikers fail to realize that strikes negate the basic concept of democracy. These are just a camouflage for non-performance, self-glorification, to flex their might and muscle, gain sympathy or wriggle out of working hard. 

Remember, democracy is neither mobocracy nor license to create bedlam. It’s a fine balance between rights and duties, liberties and responsibilities. One’s freedom pre-supposes another’s responsibilities and liberty. Importantly, protests cannot set things right but only create psychological pressure on Government. 

Yet unending dissent just to muscle the Government to bend only threatens to undermine the legitimacy of Indian democracy. Unless protesters have a viable alternative to offer, continuing a strike could lead to chilling chaos and mob tyranny. Alongside, human casualties and damage to economy and businesses.   

Paralysing the State, black-mailing corporates, industries to get attention and policy reversals,  xasperates and inconveniences the public, cuts off money flow, shoos off investors and endangers their own jobs. 

Time has come to take a leaf from US law, wherein there is no Constitutional right to make a speech on a highway or near about, so as to cause a crowd to gather and obstruct the highway. The right to assembly is to be so exercised as not to conflict with other lawful rights, interests and comfort of individual or public and public order. 

In UK, Public Order Act, 1935 makes it an offence for any person in uniform to attend any public meeting, signifying his association with any political organization.  The Prevention of Crime Act, 1953, makes it an offence to carry any weapon in any ‘public place’ without lawful authority.  The Seditious Meetings Act, 1817 prohibits meetings of more than 50 persons within a mile of Westminster Hall during Parliament sittings. 

We need to remember India is a civilized democracy, whereby, a citizen’s right is paramount. The question we all need to ask is: Can we afford protests at all, leave aside for what purpose it may have been called? At some point we have to stand up and bellow, “Bandh karo ye bandh!

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Round The States

New Delhi, 19 February 2024

Delhi Vote Trust

AAP SURPRISES BJP!

By Insaf 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal undeniably has a knack for springing surprises. This time he would have stumped rival BJP with his decision to seek vote of confidence when it wasn’t called for. On Saturday last, his AAP won the trust vote in the 70-member Assembly allowing him to assert his party has emerged as the biggest challenger to BJP, which “wants to crush it by any means”. He got the support of 54 MLAs present of his 64 flock (some in jail, unwell, attending wedding etc) and claimed no legislator had defected, though BJP was consistently ‘trying to poach’. The BJP said there was no need for the confidence motion as AAP government enjoys a majority, ‘but Kejriwal has lost people’s confidence’, as he was involved in corruption cases, including the liquor scam and wasn’t cooperating with the police probe on its complaint over MLA poaching allegations, etc. In his usual style, Kejriwal hit back saying BJP wants to dissolve the Assembly after Lok Sabha polls and the city will be governed as a UT, adding if the BJP faces any threat, it’s from AAP. Clearly, he is making solid grounds for his campaign to retain Delhi, in same way as he is skirting the ED. He will not be appearing in person for its next summons as he’s busy with the Budget session. All eyes would be on what’s next on his sleeve.

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Determined Farmers

Stopped from marching to national capital Delhi, protesting farmers have decided to stay put at the Shambhu and Khanauri points of Punjab-Haryana border. In addition, they are holding tractor marches at several places and dharnas at BJP leaders’ residences as 3 rounds of talks with Modi government have made no headway. Interestingly, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has become their mediator as he too is fighting with Centre. Other than the ‘Bharat bandh” on Friday, plans to intensify the stir have been spelt out: BharatiyaKisan Union will stage dharnas in UP and Uttarakhand on Wednesday, and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha is to launch a tractor march to Delhi end-February; in Tamil Nadu, farmers from various farm associations tried to stage a ‘rail roko’ protest at Thanjavur station. The big question is whether the government will yield and to what extent. The list of demands is long -- a legal guarantee for MSP, implementation of Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, farm debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, withdrawal of police cases during 2020-21 agitation, etc. Remember, Prime Minister Modi had the ‘Kisan’ on his list of the four pillars of Viksit Bharat! Convincing?

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Regional Parties Affected?

Opposition parties and civil society groups are upbeat with Supreme Court’s Thursday order annulling the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, giving the right to the people to know who gives money to parties. While it’s being seen as a big blow to the BJP, which got 55% (Rs 6,565 crore) of the lion’s share of bonds accounting for Rs 12,000 crore funds last fiscal, regional parties too shall be affected and moresothose which are in power. As per data of the ADR, while Congress came second to BJP, the BRS then in power in Telangana got Rs 529 crore, the TMC in West Bengal received Rs 325 crore, DMK in Tamil Nadu Rs 185 crore, BJD in Odisha Rs 152 crore and opposition TDP in Andhra Pradesh Rs 34 crore. Interestingly, the SPin Uttar Pradesh saw nil contribution to its electoral bonds and SAD in Punjab too drew a big zero. Importantly, nearly half of funds in these bonds have come from corporates and it needs to be seen how these parties will scramble for funds to fight the big electoral battle of 2024. Jubilation over the top court’s verdict may be subdued at the end of the day.  

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WB Village Trouble

Another episode of Governor-Chief Minister tussle surfaces in West Bengal. This time over the political storm brewing in Sandeshkhali village in North 24 Parganas district. On Saturday, Governor Ananda Bose said Raj Bhavan doors are open for victimised women who ‘can come and stay as shelter, food and security will be provided.’ This on the heels of National Commission for Scheduled Castes recommending President’s rule in the state after submitting its report to President Murmu. Past month has seen protests in the village after scores of women accused local TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh, absconding since January 5 after ED raids of he and his men forcibly grabbing their land for prawn cultivation, torturing and sexually harassing them for several years!Besides, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has sought a probe into the assault on a woman and ‘throwing away of her infant daughter’ by miscreants. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has reacted saying so far 17 persons have been arrested plus an all-woman police team isin the village to listen to the women’s grievances. Will it douse the fire?

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Bihar Vendetta Review

Bihar former Deputy Chief Minister TejashwiYadavand his RJD must be on tenterhooks. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ordered a review of all decisions taken by departments of Health, Road Construction, Urban Development and Housing and Rural Works, headed by him in the previous government. A review will also be done of Public Health Engineering Department and Mines and Geology Department, under two former RJD ministers, Lalit Yadav and Ramanand Yadav. Nitish, says the JD(U), has a ‘zero tolerance’ policy against corruption and he had said: “I gave them (RJD leaders) respect, but they indulged in corrupt practices. Will launch a probe against alleged corruption by RJD leaders in the previous government”. The RJD reacted saying ‘the party isn’t scared of any review, let them (NDA government) do whatever they want to’, adding ‘the CM and BJP are scared of our leader (Tejashwi); previous Mahagathbandhan government undertook lot of welfare initiatives such as employment and social security, benefitting lakhs of people.’Putting on a strong face may not work though!

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Jharkhand Cabinet Discontent

All is not well in the newly-formed Champai Soren-led government in Jharkhand. Trouble is brewing as the Chief Minister inducted 8 new ministers, including former Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s brother Basant Soren, on Friday last.While a JMM MLA is peeved over being ‘dropped’ from the list last minute under pressure from Congress and threatening to contest as an independent candidate in Assembly polls, dissidence is brewing in Congress. A letter signed by 12 MLAs has been handed over to state party chief and 8 MLAs have joined in him in Delhi to resolve the issue. Their grudge is ‘repetition of 4 ministers from the party’s quota’ in the 12-member Cabinet, whereas they ‘wanted an opportunity this time.’ Champai will need to act to keep the JMM-led alliance of 47 MLAs (JMM-29, Congress-17 and RJD one) intact and not allow the BJP to take advantage of the heartburn. Sooner the better. ---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Economic Highlights

New Delhi, 16 February 2024

Farmers Protest

GLOBAL, GOVT MUST LISTEN    

By Shivaji Sarkar 

Farmers are protesting in an election year all over the world. The day the Indian farmers were made to face severe assault on February 13 and the roads to Delhi were blocked with concrete walls, barbed wire and spikes; farmers in Brussels clogged streets, with 1300 tractors, leading to Paris pressing for fairer deals almost akin to their Indian brethren. They did not face any hostility anywhere, though agriculture according to Bloomsberg, has become a key battleground in a wider culture war over money, food and climate change. 

The list of “grievances long - soaring costs, increasing bureaucracy, new European Union regulations in its Green Deal and imports diluting their markets”. A placard says: “He who sows misery reaps anger”. What an irony! These farmers are agitating as the European Union goes to the polls. The government listens to them without accusing them of politicking. A month back German farmers blocked highways. 

Indian farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh travelling to Delhi on tractors with supplies for a long sit-in, have demands that are similar to the French farmers. Their placard says, India must quit WTO along with their demands for a guaranteed minimum support price (MSP), implying that the market must ensure fair price, food and sustainable farming. While Indian farmers are labelled with being “supported by Pakistan, Khalistanis and other anti-country forces”, the farmers in Paris are patiently heard by their government, and they put off protests. 

The contrast is sharp. The government of Haryana state blocked their roads at Punjab border, fired tear gas shells, lobbed shells from drones. In talks with Union ministers, Arjun Munda and Piyush Goyal, they have received no assurance on key issues though the government says agreement reached on ten other issues. They are alleged to be provoked by the opposition parties, AAP in Punjab and now with Rahul Gandhi’s announcement of a guaranteed MSP, if his party voted to power, also the Congress. But for the alleged intervention of Punjab government officials, situation at Ambala’ Shambhu border could have been worse. 

The farmers have a long history of indignation, particularly in France and the problems are not confined to Europe. Among the 70 countries going to polls, is the EU, India and the US. In France, the farmers complain that politicians only want to get elected, so they are latching onto the farmers movement. Most politicians and parties keep off them. Even Congress party’s Black Paper on economy only cursorily mentions them. 

The Manmohanomics of the Congress party is responsible for the beginning of corporatisation of farming, an aim of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Their successor government has been following the Manmohanomics and only aggravated the issues of marketing. In 2006, during the UPA government, Bihar abolished the mandis or APMs. It closed procurement. Punjab farmers rush to Bihar, buy food grains, ship it to Punjab, sell at MSP and earn profits. Bihar farmers suffer. 

During the past few years, many long marches have been held by farmers even during UPA government, as also long dharnas during the NDA, as along Delhi borders with Haryana and UP in 2022. The similarities are stark. In Europe, farmers have been holding protests in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Romania. Polish farmers have vociferously opposed food grain arriving from neighbouring Ukraine and forced the government to negotiate. In Delhi, government blocked roads to check farmers entry to the national Capital, in Germany farmers blocked highways in January for a week against cuts in subsidies on diesel. 

Indian farmers, so far, did not even protest petrol and diesel prices that are almost double that of international crude prices. They even did not protest against auto-lobby-NGT sponsored illegal seizures of their ten-year-new cars and tractors, for which they paid EMIs for seven years. They suffered takeover of their land for building of roads for irrationally high tolls. Climate issues for grain, horticulture or fish farmers are wrecking them. 

Climate change is a big issue for European and US farmers. Though the governments there may not be that intent on the issues, they are not hostile. A US retired diplomat Hegadorn is quoted as saying, “You can live without an electric car, you can live without a mobile phone, but you’re not going to live without farmers and the food they produce”. Sensible approach in a country that has only a miniscule percentage left as farmers. Corporatisation of agriculture has neither helped the farming community in Europe nor in the US. 

In contrast, India has over 54 per cent left in agriculture or over 75 crore people. Since the last farmers agitation two years back, withdrawal of three supposedly anti-farmer laws, the government has continued with the Manmohanomics and heaped miseries on the farmers. It should not be obsessed with the factor that they are agitating during election time. World over it is so. 

The farmers are being neglected and overlooked in policy framing from the richest US and European countries to the poorest India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In all these countries while corporate profits swell, farmers wages remain stagnant for decades. Their input costs on seed, fertilisers, machines or pesticides multiplied everywhere. 

Economic Survey of 2016 says farmers income was Rs 1700 a month. This as per National Statistical Office was Rs 10218 a year or about Rs 2000 a month as per Rajya Sabha statement in December 2022. Market-linking of agriculture or corporatisation in the prevailing circumstances has failed in the affluent countries. In the US, farmers complain they are being priced out by big companies. 

Those advising in India that it could be a success are apparently misleading policy planners. More sensitivity is required. Farmers the world over are agitating not because there are elections, they want patient hearing for solving the global crisis. 

Delhi belongs to all countrymen. The government should invite the farmers with open arms and not with spiked roads. If attended, it is easy to solve as promising guaranteed MSP would not burden the exchequer with more than Rs 2.5 lakh crore (trillion) of additional expenses, which the government agencies recover as they sell the food grains. Listening in any regime is an asset.---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)