Why were farmers’ protests triggered just before the Lok Sabha elections? Do the farmers’ protest demands pertain only to farmers or other interested lobbies? How economically viable are the demands of the select few states farmers protesting and why farmers from other states have not joined the protest?
The Sanatan Sanskriti
In Sanatan Sanskriti, Anna (Food) is treated with the highest respect so, much so, that it’s revered.No auspicious ritual or event is completed without Anna, and the one who produces the same is given the highest regard and is put on the highest pedestal.
In Matysa Purana, one of the 18 Maha Puranas mentions Anna as Brahm, (Brahm- the all-pervading, the one who is omnipresent in everything and every part of the cosmic world being part of it).
Verse from Matsya Purana (83.42)
“अन्नं ब्रह्म यतः प्रोक्तमन्ने प्राणाः प्रतिष्ठिताः”
Meaning: Annam is brahma, because upon the said Anna rests the Prana or the vital life force essential for living.
Unfortunately, Anna and Annadata (the producer or the giver of Anna) both have come under the vicious and wicked influence of commercialism, and hence food and farmer both are now playing in the hands of global forces of heightened self-centered capitalism, which are using them merely as a toolkit, whose only agenda is promoting and propagating Self-interest, with completely ignoring the interest of any other – be that of the country, humanity or the people around.
The Prelude, The Commencement, The Onset
Before we move ahead with the current Farmers’ protest, it’s important to screen the history and get a sense of what happened in 2020, that is, amid peak COVID when farmers’ protests first broke out.
On Sept 27, 2020, after the prior approval from the Lok Sabha, and then from the Rajya Sabha, the President of Bharat, Shri Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the three farm bills.
The three bills were:
- The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020.
- The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill 2020.
- The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
All three bills were targeted to enable farmers who form a large populace of Bharat, to have a wider reach for their agri-produce, have transparent dealings as well as have better realization for their hard work.
These three laws would have slowly and decisively eliminated the middlemen from the equation popularly known as Commission agents, who in many cases make more money than the farmers themselves and surely when the context is put forth in conjunction with small farmers.
The Framework
At present, the produce of the farmers is sold and distributed through APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee, that were formed under the APMC Act 1963 that empowered States to create and construct market areas for buying and selling Agri and Agri oriented output and empowered APMCs to license and regulate traders, commission agents, and other intermediaries involved in the agricultural trade).
These APMC created a segment popularly called Arthiyas or commission agents, arranging the auction and delivery of harvested crops to the buyers as well as acting as moneylenders in some cases.
As APMCs grew and for many their vested interest inflated, they started regulating the price benefitting the traders, more than the farmers, who in turn started who just were puppets operating in the hands of cartels of the commodity or the agri-output.
- If the new bills had come into force, businesses could have procured agri-output from any part of the country ensuring that farmers get a better value for their labour and effort.
- Three bills came to remove significant restrictions on the buying and selling of Agri produce, relaxing restrictions on Stocking under the Essential Commodities Act 1955 and introducing contract farming through legalized written agreements.
- This bill had it, not been repealed could have brought private players into the agriculture food Supply chain, reducing the vagaries of the middlemen and benefitting the farmers to have higher output prices with lower input costs.
- The bill would have enabled intra-state and inter-state trade of the agri produce.
- Scheduled farmer’s produce could then have been traded electronically.
- Farmers could have saved on the market fees, cess etc that are being levied by the state government.
Further, as the Government talks about fewer regulations and more welfare (Less government, more governance), the ESMA Act would have been diluted where certain agri items would have been only regulated and monitored under a special situation like
(i) War,
(ii) Famine,
(iii) Extraordinary price rise, and
(iv) Natural calamity of grave nature.
Unfortunately, the Middlemen won and the three Farm bills were repealed in November 2021.
The Farmers’ Protest 2.0
On February 13, 2024, farmers from three states predominantly led by Punjab started with multiple demands. The idea was to create chaos with a long list, such that the government, never agrees to all the demands and thus protests and upheaval to continue portraying the government as Anti Farmer and Anti- Agriculture.
Some of the demands of farmers’ protest 2.0 include
- Minimum Support Price (MSP) Guarantee through an enactment of Law.
- Debt Waiver – All debts of the farmers are to be waived.
- Land Acquisition Compensation – Heightened Compensation for land acquired by various authorities for developmental projects and reservation of 10% of residential plots on developed lands for the families affected by land acquisition.
- Withdrawal from World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreements, India’s withdrawal from the WTO and the imposition of a ban on all Free Trade Agreements (FTA).
- Justice for Lakhimpur Kheri violence
- Pension for Farmers and Farm Laborers. Guaranteed Income: Farmers above 60 years of age, are demanding a monthly pension of Rs 10,000.
- Scrapping the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020
- Compensation for Lives Lost During the 2020-2021 Agitation.
- MGNREGA Employment for 200 days of employment per year under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for farming with a daily wage of Rs 700 to support rural workers
- National Commission for Spices to be established.
- Protection of Indigenous People’s Rights. Improvement of Seed Quality and penalizing companies that produce fake seeds, pesticides, and fertilisers to safeguard agricultural productivity.
Before we proceed further, the interesting angle to the farmers’ protest is that no woke magazine or leftist publication even has a detailed list of demands from the farmers. Most have taken reference of one article and modified and created buzz pushing through SEO forcing people to believe through Information and simplicity bias.
Let’s evaluate ground reality
MSP: – At the moment, the Minimum Support Price is issued by the government on 23 crops, however, the maximum MSP pick-up happens in two crops – Wheat and Paddy.
Understanding what is MSP?
MSP stands for Minimum Support Price. It is the minimum rate at which farmers sell their crops to the government. This price protects farmers from market fluctuation and offers stability and income security. In 1965, the CACP or Commission for Agricultural Costs was formulated and thus CACP recommends the MSP based on various factors. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, headed by the Prime Minister, takes the final call on the MSP.
For simplicity sake, this price is generally 1.5 times Bharat’s weighted average of that crop’s cost of production.
MSP is generally a composite of A2+ FL
where FL stands for the value of family labour.
A2 Covers all paid-out costs directly incurred by the farmer in cash and kind on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, hired labour, leased-in land, fuel, irrigation, etc.
MSP is announced for two seasons the Kharif cropping season (July –October) during the southwest monsoon and the Rabi cropping season is from (October-March).
A past instance – During the 2022 kharif season, 41 per cent of paddy produced in the country was procured under MSP, while 24 per cent of wheat produced during the 2023 rabi season was procured.
Over 60 per cent of field crop production (excluding sugarcane) in Bharat comes from these two crops, paddy and wheat. The farmers get into the crops of Wheat and Paddy due to limited risk appetite for other crops.
Furthermore, the margins in both these Wheat and Paddy are the highest and thus for farmers, it’s easier to make higher guaranteed monies. There have been several instances, where the Market prices of other crops beyond Paddy and wheat have been higher than MSP, yet no significant shift of the farmers has been seen to other crop production. This is true across Punjab, where the largest number of Protesters have emerged.
Also if MSP becomes a legal enactment, irrespective of the class, economic status, stage or situation, the farmers can legally force the procurement of their produce at MSP irrespective of the state of the economy, regardless of the output that the country has, of the food grains, heedless to other macro or local factors that have bearing on the economics and social viability of procurement.
Farm Loan Waiver – Government data as of FY 21 states that, there is a total outstanding debt to the farmers amounting to ~ 18.4 lakh crores or over 220 billion USD. Waiving this off would mean catastrophe to the banking and financial system, with a ripple effect on behavioural disruption of Credit discipline, dampening the future access of farmers to credit, ruining the future of Agriculture and the conjoint financial system, that is presently supported by Micro-financing, micro-housing finance etc.
Land Acquisition Compensation – The compensation given by the Noida Authority, the Greater Noida Authority, and the Yamuna Authority has been generally higher than the market value and the acquiring authority grants farmers, 6-7 per cent of the total acquired land, for their usage post-acquisition and development, thus the demand from Protests seems unreasonable here.
Withdrawal from WTO- WTO enables access to its member nations’ markets. With the government’s focus on Make in India and Make for World, the export thrust is increasing and thus exiting WTO is not a possibility for Bharat.
Furthermore, Free Trade Agreements reduce trade barriers, and trade documentation and improve bilateral ties and trade opportunities between countries.
Past Farmers’ Agitation- Around 3077 cases out of 3300 cases have been withdrawn. While 98 cases are pending in court and 53 cases are pending withdrawal. In most places, compensation has already been given for the deaths that occurred during the protests. Only a few are left for the want of verification of the kin.
Pension – The government of India is already giving Rs 6000 per annum to all farmers and Rs 2000 to every senior citizen who is from a weak economic background. Further, this amount is enhanced to 2500 per month once the person crosses 70 years of age.
Economic Colonisation & the Khalistan Angle
Thus, the government has tried to accommodate all the demands of the farmers, however, they are unwilling to budge. The State of Punjab, which was once a prosperous state and used to be the breadbox for Bharat has seen ~ 20,000 farmers (~ 90% of the protesting participants) on account of fiscal mismanagement and lack of fiscal discipline.
To prop their insecurities, their handlers sitting in the West are financing them with money and plan to sabotage the country, so that economic colonisation of Bharat can be re-initiated that ended 77 years ago, as is going to happen in Ukraine very soon.
In addition to this, the very fact that the first and yet again second farmers’ protests have elements of the Khalistan Movement brings forth the perspective that powerful nations who are worried about the rise of Bharat are trying to destabilise the country.
Some instances can be
v Protesters at the Shambhu border were wearing T-shirts with pictures of Khalistan movement leader Bhindranwale.
v Many videos have surfaced that show farmers climbing the sign boards and putting up posters of terrorist Bhindranwale, Khalistani organization Waris Punjab leader Amritpal Singh and Khalistani supporter Deep Sidhu.
v One video shows the alleged Sikh farmers expressing their demands loudly and explicitly, stating, “We want a separate Khalistan and to join Pakistan.”
The Grand Old Party seems to be orchestrating this protest with its leaders planning this since Nov 2023. Multiple evidence of the plan and the execution are available on the Web.
One fact is clear and important, Farmers are an essential part of the Country’s ecosystem and their demands can’t be unnoticed but the Protest has to be watched in an all-encompassing manner with the various hidden motives behind it, as well.
Thus Siddhartha Rastogi says,
“Sometimes short-term pain is better to solve longer-term challenges else, appeasement policy can lead to larger and greater dissatisfaction, chaos and anarchy for the country, reducing the overall wellbeing of every citizen of the Nation.”
