Economic
Highlights
New Delhi, 3 December 2018
Farmers Destitution
MARCH FOR SALVATION
By Shivaji Sarkar
Elections and competitive promises for loan
waivers for farmers are inseparable. Despite this, the farm distress doesn’t end.
Even if not on warpath, the farmers are marching to Delhi and Mumbai in lakhs for
some succour.
Loan waivers were given in Punjab, Karnataka,
Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Telangana and Puducherry
during over last three years. Now more promises are being made by almost all political
parties, including Congress and BJP. New waiver promises have led the farmers
to stop repayments in Madhya Pradesh and many go for more borrowings.
This April, the Government told Parliament
that between April 2014 and December 2017, public sector banks (PSB) wrote off
Rs 2,72,558 crore worth of loans. They recovered Rs 29,343 crores-- a mere 10.7
per cent -- of the loans that had been written off. This is also over 10 per cent
of the Central budget.
This then should put the farmers in a comfortable
situation. So why are they marching to Delhi demanding a special Parliament
session to press for discussion on the agrarian crisis. It also includes
enacting laws, some of which were presented in Parliament as Private Members Bills.
The two proposed legislations are: Farmers’ Freedom and Indebtedness Bill 2018
and the Farmers’ Right to Guaranteed Remunerative Minimum Support Prices for
Agricultural Commodities Bill 2018. Twenty-one political parties had extended
support.
In the backdrop of agitation, remember, Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley announced to implement MSP at 1.5 times the cost as per
MS Swaminathan committee report. However, it is different that the basic
Swaminathan premise was tweaked to keep the MSP lower than the actual expenses
made. What relief have the farmers got?
The Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, the
banner that is leading the farmers and farm workers, encompassing 207
organisations, to the Ramlila Maidan has ostensible support of the leftist
Kisan Sabha. Recall, the Bharatiya Kisan Union had also recently organised a similar
march from Haridwar on September 23 to culminate in Delhi border on October 2. But
the Delhi police fired shots, charged water cannons and restrained them from
entering Delhi.
The issues were identical. The Government and
some ministers tried to describe this as an Opposition show. But let us not
forget that last year too, the nation was surprised to see the farmers marching
in perfect order to the heart of Mumbai without disturbing the Mumbaikars, termed
as Kisan Long March and got support from ordinary citizens.
Evidently, suicides by farmers have not
abated. According to the National Crime Reports Bureau, 296,438 farmers have
committed suicide between 1995 and 2014. About 4,000 farmers took their lives
in Maharasthra between 2004 and 2013.
Worse, the distress is growing in rural areas
as share of agriculture in GDP has come down drastically to about 14 per cent
from over 50 per cent. Though a section of economists welcome the trend as it
suggests that industry and services are growing and contributing in a major way
to “improve” the national economy.
Looking back, the economic changes in the
country have led to increasing disparity. The 1991 “liberalisation” led to more
government controls. A US think tank, Heritage Institute annual index of
Economic Freedom ranked India at 130 of 180 countries. It has categorised India
as “mostly unfree” in five categories. India apparently, is nowhere near the
Western norms, often mocked at by many conservative experts.
The political system of the supposedly “despised”
Congress continues, including the failed ‘Manmohanomics’, often referred to as
1991 New Delhi consensus. Socialism had at least ushered in a green revolution
and helped the farmers to an extent. But industrialist-centric liberalism has
robbed the farmers of their land for roads, airports, industry, real estate and
a chaotic situation.
The farmers and rural destitution has been
growing. The urban and non-farm sector has not only
seen a corresponding expansion, but has also been growing at a much faster pace
than the agrarian economy. Nothing wrong. But it is at the cost of the rural
and farm economy.
There was a period when Socialist
or Gandhian economy was agro-based and the agriculture sustained the other
aspects of the economy, including the industry. The 1991 consensus crushed the
farm economy, exploited it, impoverished it and the corrections are still missing.
This has spread the bribes to unknown areas, including bank officers and then there
was demonetization, which gave unfettered powers to the tax officials. Many
farmers and rural entrepreneurs were forced to pay to save their skin.
The indebtedness among farmers is
high, said to be around 86 per cent. Almost half the farm creditors were harassed
to repay. It led to assets’ sale and a fall in economic position. This is a
vortex and leads to more debt burden.
The Supreme Court order for return of acquired
land in West Bengal’s Singur to farmers exposed that Punjab had also acquired
huge tracts of land in Barnala and even after 10 years these are unused. The
land for roads may be giving one-time bounty, but it is displacing farmers and
the mesh of roads is causing desertification in fertile areas. Tolls on roads
are making the farmers alien in their own villages.
The State has turned into virtual venture
capitalists. The big industrialists are making forays into the farmland further
impoverishing the farmer.
All of this is what the farmer is protesting
today. It is a battle for his survival. There is consensus on this among both the
leftist Kisan Sabha and rightists Bharatiya Kisan Sangh as also Swadeshi
Jagaran Manch. The character of the State, irrespective of political parties,
has not changed.
The cities would not be able to sustain for
long if the villages continue to collapse economically. It may severely affect
urban India. The government servants who feel secure with a pay packet may soon
feel the pinch. Urban India may fall under a new pressure, sooner than later,
which could lead to severe governance issues, if not chaos.
Innovative and equitable governance calls for
a churning in political thinking. The apathy is palpable howsoever political
parties couch it in jargons. If socialism had kept industrialists in shackles
of licences, the new “economy” puts many more controls. But liberal FDI has its
complexities too. Repatriation of profits is high and farm land is nothing but
an investment in real estate.
India has to chalk out its own way. A
national policy on land acquisition is a must along with a deep thought on
ending rural indebtedness and multiplying farm incomes. Else today’s Gandhian
agitation can turn into violent Maoist movement. Political parties need to
rethink for their own survival. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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