If farmers continue to burn stubble in their fields, they will make enemies and lose friends

Agitating farmers in north India might find a lot of fault with the recently passed legislation that dismantled the old system of agricultural commerce even if the Central Government continues to believe in the necessity of these Bills as major reforms. Richer farmers are aghast at the Bills as they hurt their well-connected eco-system as well as harm State Government revenues. That’s why politicians in Punjab are protesting so loudly whereas marginal farmers in other States are less unhappy with the Bills, considering their exploitation won’t end at the end of the day, big corporations just replacing middlemen. But if the farmers are hoping to sway opinion against the Bills, then they would have to act upon their brethren burning stubble in their fields and not use it as a pressure tactic to get the Centre’s attention.

There is no doubt that the Punjab Government has callously thrown its hands up in the air and said it cannot do anything as the overburdened farmers need subsidised equipment and shredders that can help them dispose stubble in an environmentally-friendly way. Possibly this is in order to put pressure upon the Narendra Modi Government. And it is true that the Centre has to use funds at its disposal to subsidise this equipment. However, rules and regulations are in place and the courts have spoken in the past. There needs to be a crackdown on farmers, who willingly and callously burn their fields and are murdering the citizens of their own country as a result. Far from winning sympathy in their fight against corporates, this might even drive popular opinion against farmers to the extent that policy-influencing citizens might want increased corporatisation of the agricultural industry. As it is, the habit of farmers in the north, growing water-intensive crops in a water-stressed region, is quite alarming. Even if the Government can take proactive measures to control the pollution from burning fields this year, we should not forget that this is not the only reason for the poor air quality. Rampant and unmanaged construction activity has also led to severe dust pollution and it would be prudent for civic authorities to better manage that as well. Transport activity is still a bit down due to the Coronavirus, although, without full public transport working, many people are crowding our streets with personal vehicles. 2020 has been a rough year already, let us not make it much worse.