Surgical Strike On Farmers By A Name-Changing, Not Game-Changing Government

When PM Modi took office, he promised to “double farmers’ incomes in six years”, which brought great cheer and hope amongst India’s annadatas. The bitter reality is that in the last three years, the NDA government has done everything in its power to strip farmers of their dignity and destroy the agricultural sector.

Firstly, PM Modi’s assurance to provide “cost+50% profit on Minimum Support Price (MSP)” was quietly assigned to the dustbin of history. After clandestinely conceding to the Supreme Court that it cannot give farmers ‘50% profit on cost of production’ (in February 2015), the NDA had the temerity to announce extremely meagre increases in MSPs. It went further and expressly disallowed BJP ruled states from giving bonuses over and above the central MSP rate.

Despite announcing meagre increases in MSPs, on the ground, the NDA had consistently refused to procure produce from farmers at the declared MSP (once again being driven by the motivation of being seen as doing good, rather than doing anything of substance). Consequently, procurement of wheat fell from 288.8 lakh tonnes in 2015-’16 to 229.6 lakh tonnes in 2016- ‘17 (registering a drop of nearly 60 lakh tonnes). Similarly, for rice the drop was nearly 38 lakh tonnes!

Apart from severely affecting farmer incomes and supply of essential commodities to urban areas, this policy myopia (of not procuring adequately) has also adversely affected India’s agricultural exports, which have dropped from USD 3,295 million in 2013-14 to USD 1,957 million in 2016-’17. It means that India now receives USD 1,338 million less from agricultural exports thanks only to the NDA’s mis-governance.

Secondly, since 2014 India suffered from two consecutive years of severe drought. In the third year, despite a good monsoon, India suffered from demonetisation, a BJP-made calamity which crippled rural India. Apart from drying up all cash reserves of farmers (with which they conduct a majority of farm activity), demonetisation also resulted in the prices of potato, tomato, and onion crashing at the same time. Similarly, soyabean, arhar, garlic, methi (fenugreek), grapes and several other commodities witnessed a dramatic fall in prices. See table below.

        Comparative prices of major crops in Rupees (per quintal)

Thirdly, far from rewarding farmers for the risks they take each day, the NDA has repeatedly tried to steal farmers’ land by introducing a rapacious land acquisition bill which made acquiring land a cakewalk (again benefiting only BJP cronies). Even though the opposition stopped the passage of this atrocious bill, all BJP ruled states have passed the same bill (since Land is a concurrent subject) undermining Parliamentary sovereignty and the interests of farmers.

Fourthly, in 2015- 16, the NDA permitted the import of pulses at Rs. 44 per kg and retailed it at Rs. 230 per kg! The maximum benefit of this did not go to the farmers or even India’s citizens. Shockingly, despite a bumper crop of pulses in 2016- ’17, the NDA once again permitted the import of pulses.

Similarly, even though the NDA ensured the collection of Rs. 21,500 crores from farmers under the PM’s Fasal Bima Yojana, and farmers asked for claims worth Rs. 4,270 crores (in 2016), the NDA paid the claims of less than 17% of farmers. PM Modi once said that “mai na khaata hoon, na khaane deta hoon”. The bitter reality is that PM Modi toh kaafi khila rahe hai!

It is no wonder that in the last three years, 16 states of India have been mired in farmers’ protests. Protesting farmers have dumped their produce in Maharashtra (milk, tomatoes and green chilli) Telangana (chilli), Chhattisgarh (tomatoes), Assam (potatoes) and Haryana (sunflower seeds and maize) after the NDA refused to provide them their due remuneration. Tamil Nadu farmers have even resorted to eating rats and their own faeces to draw the attention of the NDA towards their grave problems. Instead of listening sensitively to them, and addressing their problems, the NDA lathi-charged and manhandled them. In the same vein, the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh even resorted to firing upon peaceful farmers, killing six. The last time such naked force was (mis)used to quell peaceful protesters was when India was reeling under the yoke of imperialism (remember Jallianwala Bagh?).

Clearly India’s annadatas are under grave threat under the NDA, which does not have their needs or aspirations at heart. After all, even though under NDA’s watch, 35 farmers are driven to suicide every day (which accordingly to the union minister for agriculture is a result of drug abuse, love affairs and impotency), the ministry of Agriculture has been renamed as the ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare! Apart from the sheer hubris at display, the NDA is just a name-changing (and not a game-changing) government. When will we wake up?

Dr. Ashok Tanwar is the PCC President of Haryana and Pushparaj Deshpande is an Analyst with the All India Congress Committee.