While India is ‘mostly free’, it cannot progress without addressing the problems surrounding its farmers. Loan-waivers and subsidies are just short-term solutions. In the long-run a policy on land acquisition is a must
Elections and competitive promises for loan-waivers to farmers are inseparable. However, such promises have not ended in alleviating farm distress. Even if not on a warpath, lakhs of distressed farmers have been marching in Delhi, Mumbai and elsewhere for some succour. A number of States, like Punjab, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry have given loan-waivers to farmers in the past three years. Now more promises are being made by almost all political parties. But the fact is that such assurances have only forced the farmers to stop repaying their loans.
The Narendra Modi Government told the Parliament this year that between April 2014 and December 2017, Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have written off loans worth Rs 2,72,558 crore. In the same period, they managed to recover only Rs 29,343 crore — a mere 10.7 per cent — of the loans that had been written off in that three-year period. This should have put the farmers in a comfortable situation. Why then are they marching to the Parliament, demanding a special session to press for a discussion on agrarian crisis?
Their demands also include a 21-day special session of Parliament to enact two laws: The Farmers’ Freedom From Indebtedness Bill, 2018, and The Farmers’ Right to Guaranteed Remunerative Minimum Support Prices for Agricultural Commodities Bill, 2018.
Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, encompassing 207 organisations, the banner that is leading the farmers to the Ramlila Maidan, has ostensible support of the Leftist Kisan Sabha. Earlier too, the Bharatiya Kisan Union had organised a similar march from Haridwar to Delhi from September 23 to October 2. The Delhi police had to use tear gas shells and even charged water cannons to manage the crowd. Issues were identical. Last year, too, the nation was surprised to see farmers marching in perfect order from Nashik to Mumbai without disturbing the Mumbaikars.
Farmer suicides, too, have not abated. According to the National Crime Reports Bureau, 296,438 farmers have committed suicide since 1995. Distress is growing in rural areas as the percentage contribution of agriculture in GDP has come down to about 14 per cent from over 50 per cent. Though a section of economists has welcomed the trend, suggesting that industry and services are growing and contributing in a major way to “improve” the national economy, the economic changes have led to an increase in disparity.
The economic liberalisation of 1991 led to more Government controls. A US think-tank, Heritage Foundation, in its report, Index of Economic Freedom, ranked India at 130 among 180 countries. It categorised India as “mostly unfree”. But our country apparently is nowhere near the Western norms.
The political system of the supposedly “despised” Congress continues, including the failed Manmohanomics, often referred to as the New Delhi consensus. Socialism had at least ushered in green revolution and helped the farmers to a certain extent. But industrialist-centric liberalism robbed the farmers of their land for roads, industry, real estate, et al.
Farmer and rural destitution has been growing. The urban sector has not only seen a corresponding expansion but has been growing at a much faster pace than the agrarian economy. Nothing wrong with that but this development has come at the cost of the rural and farm economy. The 1991 consensus crushed the farm economy, exploited it, impoverished it and corrections have not been in order. Indebtedness among farmers is high — around 86 per cent. Almost half the farm creditors are harassed to repay. This forced them to sell their land and, thus, a fall in their economic position. It is a vortex which leads to more debt burden.
The Supreme Court’s order to the West Bengal Government to return acquired Singur land to the farmers lay fore the fact that Punjab too had acquired huge tracts of land in Barnala and even after 10 years they remained unused. Land for roads may give one-time bounty but they displace farmers. The mesh of roads causes desertification in fertile areas.
Tolls on roads are making the farmers alien in their own villages. Large industrialists are making forays into the farmland, thereby further impoverishing the farmer. And this is what the latter are protesting against. It is a battle for survival for them. There is a consensus on this among the Kisan Sabha and Rightist Bharatiya Kisan Sangh as also Swadeshi Jagaran Manch. The character of the State, irrespective of political parties, has not changed. The Mumbai long march showed that farmers and agricultural labourers enjoy wider support among Mumbaikars.
In the end, cities will no longer be able to sustain for long if villages continue to collapse. Government servants, who feel secured with a pay packet, may feel the pinch soon. Urban India may soon fall under new pressures. This can 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” has put many more controls. But liberal FDI has its complexities too. Repatriation of profits is high and farm land is nothing but an investment for the real estate.
A national policy on land acquisition is a must, along with a deep understanding on ending rural indebtedness and multiplying farm incomes. Else, today’s Gandhian agitation may turn into a violent Maoist movement.
(The writer is a senior journalist)
