Farmers return for unfinished business with Union government

To have thousands of disgruntled farmers at its doorstep when it is ready to go into the general elections does not augur well for the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

With the inauguration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, the abrogation of Article 370, and a white paper on the health of the economy under its belt, the NDA was all set to face the polls — until a rally of tractors carrying protesting farmers predominantly from the three agriculture states of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, crossed its path on February 13.

Unfulfilled promises

‘We will be back’ was the message by the dissatisfied farmers under the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) while calling off their year-long strike at the national capital in December 2021. The Union government withdrew the three farm reforms-oriented laws it had introduced, and agreed to look into other demands, such as: guaranteed payment of minimum support price (MSP) for 23 notified farm produce, withdrawal of cases against the protesting farmers, compensation for those injured in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, implementation of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act for farmland acquired, and waiver of farm loans, among others.

Now, facing police blockades and carrying rations for six months, protesting farmers are back to complete unfinished business.

Political hues

The current protest is headed mainly by farmers from Punjab who say they are answerable to farmers across India as to the fate of their 2020-2021 protest. The organisers are part of the earlier SKM, which was a conglomerate of 36 organisations from all over the country. The breakaway SKM (non-political) led by Jagjit Singh Dallewal was born in opposition to a few SKM leaders standing for the 2022 assembly polls in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

While the Rakesh Tikait-headed Bhartiya Kisan Union (Tikait) kept out of the election fray, leaders of at least six organisations contested and fared poorly in the polls.

Yudhvir Singh, a member of the SKM’s core group and general secretary of BKU (Tikait), claims that farmers are non-political and there is an unspoken understanding that those engaged in the farmers’ movement will not participate in elections. This is after Tikait contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on a Rashtriya Lok Dal ticket from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, and lost.

Hope is alive

Two rounds of talks in Chandigarh between farmer leaders and two Union ministers, Arjun Munda and Piyush Goyal did not yield results. Yet, if the government has come to the negotiation table after a hiatus of two years, hope is alive.

While for the government conceding the demand for mandatory payment of MSP may be difficult, resisted as it is by the private sector that has become a big player in procurement of farmers’ produce, there should be no issue in withdrawal of cases against the farmers or payment of compensation to those injured at Lakhimpur Kheri. But it should be mandatory that farmers produce is indeed procured in all mandis across the country, and the MSP fixed is given, not denied by traders and middlemen on the pretext of quality, etc.

There are also expectations that as a last resort to mollify farmers the Centre may take a leaf out of Rajasthan government’s Budget proposals for 2024-2025, and announce a hike in the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan) from Rs 6,000 per annum. The Rajasthan government raised it to Rs 8,000 per annum.

Notwithstanding reports that over 50 per cent of the farmers have unpaid debts averaging about Rs 75,000 in 2018, a loan waiver has been an anathema to the Union government. Still, on the eve of assembly polls in 2017, political expediency made it announce a loan waiver for Uttar Pradesh, while BJP-ruled Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh also made similar declarations for indebted farmers.

Why the current protests

About 61 per cent of India’s farmers depend on rain-fed farming. This crop season has been bad for farmers with erratic monsoon, Climate Change playing havoc with crops, tardy procurement, and the EXIM policy. Added to that, inflation has hit farmers grappling with high costs of inputs, including diesel and labour. Prices of pulses and edible oils, both commodities lower in supply than demand, have skyrocketed. Farmers rue the non-remunerative prices for their crops which further embroils them into the cycle of unpaid debts. Even though the sector provides employment to about 65 per cent of population engaged in farming and allied activities, it remains a loss-making activity which is turning away youth.

If farmers are repeatedly turning towards the government it is because they seek a life of dignity commensurate with government salaries and pension.

This farmers’ movement is neither fragmented nor are the protesters divided. The demands are common and long pending. Some farm leaders did admit that there has been lack of communication with farmers from Punjab who have taken the lead this time.

This author spoke to Tikait who said he fully endorses the current agitation, but felt that a little more preparation was required before coming to Delhi, because if governments manage to push back tractors from the national capital’s borders, it will be a big setback for the overall movement. In case the sit-in stretches, the BKU (Tikait) will join in.

They have given a call for Bharat Bandh on February 16.

Political play

The question is whether the unrest by a valued constituency will influence the general elections, especially in Punjab where the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to go it alone, or in the sugarcane belt of western Uttar Pradesh where RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary is being wooed by the BJP? One will have to observe how much ground the government is willing to yield. Its offer of forming a panel to consider the demands has been rejected by the farm leaders. A committee set up in 2021 to study the guaranteed MSP demand is yet to submit its report.

At the polls the BJP will make the most of its government conferring the Bharat Ratna on farmers’ leader and late Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh and M S Swaminathan, the Father of the Green Revolution. But will the dissatisfied farmers see through these overtures?

(Gargi Parsai is a senior journalist based in New Delhi.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.