Only a new crop of young farmer leaders can stand up to govt for their pound of flesh

‘Deceit’ (Dhoka in Hindi) is the perfect word to describe the way the Punjab government surreptitiously removed all protesting farmers to ‘reopen the blocked roads crucial for the economy’.

After detaining farmer leaders soon after they were returning from a high-level meeting with Union Ministers Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Prahlad Joshi and Piyush Goel, a late-night crackdown at the Shambhu and Khanauri dharna sites bordering Haryana, was carried out to clear the agitating farmers from the protest sites. With their leaders in detention, a swift police action came in handy to evict the small contingent of protesting farmers left behind. Bulldozers and earth-moving machines were used to remove barricades and demolish other temporary structures.

Thankfully there was no loss to life. Meanwhile, traffic has resumed between Punjab and Haryana via Shambhu-Ambala highway after more than a year.

The high-level dialogue between the Centre and the farmer leaders was happening at Chandigarh where three Punjab Ministers HarpalCheema, Lal Chand Khatachak and GurmeetKhudian too were in attendance. The farmers’ delegations were led by Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher.

The swift action by Punjab police not only came as a painful shocker. I didn’t expect the Punjab government to dismantle farmers protest in such a dissembling manner.

Later, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said that the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere, and that the next round of talks would be held on May 4 at Chandigarh. In a horrendous exercise, the farmer leaders who had participated in the talks were detained within hours of coming out. This craftiness borders on dupery, and in the years to come it will expose doublespeak of the political leadership, manoeuvring deceitfulness (irrespective of the party affiliation) thereby making protesting farmers (and other non-farm unions) always sceptical, wary and cautious of being apprehended even during the talks.

I remember when Baba Ramdev was leading the agitation against black money, a crucial dialogue was happening at Clarridges’ Hotel in New Delhi in which the UPA government was represented by Subodh Kant Sahay and KapilSibal. I was among the four-member team led by Baba Ramdev. Halfway through the talks, Baba Ramdev had warned us that we may be arrested soon after we step outside.

Anyway, by Wednesday, 572 farmers were picked up from various places and held in captivity. Notices have been pasted outside the houses of prominent farmer activists against whom investigations have been launched.

While farmers have slammed Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh for his anti-farmer stand to appease the traders lobby, the BJP is treading cautiously. Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakharsaid on Thursday, “It was Mann who forced farmers to sit on dharna when it suited AAP during Lok Sabha elections, and now it is the same person who is trying to take credit for vacating the border points to get votes ahead of the Ludhiana West by-polls.”

Akali leader Sukhbir Singh Badal has called it a deceitful act by the AAP government to humiliate farmers.

Nevertheless, what pains me is that even after 75 years of Independence there are no takers for issues concerning farmers. While the mudslinging will continue, and claims of how much each ruling party during its tenure has done for farmers, the reality is that farmers are at the bottom of the pyramid in India.

With the latest Situational Assessment Survey for Agricultural Households pointing to an average income for a farm household to be at Rs. 10,218 per month, the hapless farmers appear to be the children of a lesser god. Farmers are already out of the race for getting a decent income, which cannot called as a living income, while political parties are getting away from voicing farmers genuine concerns.

With academia already buckling to corporate investments, and the media turning a lapdog for the powers that be, farmers have been left to stand up for their own rights. Sometimes I wonder, with no guardian or custodian for their genuine demands, farmers can do nothing else but protest.

For instance, only last week, Parliament was informed that banks have written-off over Rs. 16lakh crore of toxic corporate dues in the past ten years, the country stands up to counter the demand for a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) that the farmers are asking for. Writing-off huge amount of corporate bad debts is seen as good economics, a debt waiver for farmers, which may not exceed a quarter of the corporate write-off, is decried as a moral hazard that may upset the national balance sheet.

I feel dismayed that farm movements over the decades hasn’t thrown up a tall leader who can lead the farming community to emerge free from continuing agrarian distress and severe crisis that afflicts farming. Looking inwards, I find that even the present lot of farmer leaders need to introspect. After all, instead of being swallowed by ideologies, a collective leadership that sheds aside personal egos should emerge; After all, united we stand, and divided we fall. Even behind the unsavoury events that unfolded in Punjab in the past few days, the failure to stand united is being seen as the reason behind the humiliation that farmers had to eventually suffer. And yet, I don’t see the possibility of a respected leader standing up and admitting his failure. Blaming each other is alright, but for how long will the present farmer leadership continue to survive without accepting and correcting the fault lines. We certainly need a new crop of farmer leaders, who should first put in resources to set up a strong think-tank. A team of four or five researchers is all that is needed to provide the right kind of intellectual support.

Farmer leaders too need to separate hay from the grains. For how long can farmers continue to look at the largesse that is being doled out from across quarters? When will farmers leaders dare to question why was a top industrialist given a ‘haircut’ of 98 per cent, while small farmers are routinely put behind bars for their inability to pay loan instalments?

Why should Punjab farmers be blamed for the rising debt while the employees walk away with 40 per cent higher salaries than the rest of the country and still not be held responsible for high external borrowings? I am hoping that the new breed of farm leadership will also start questioning exploitative arhtiya system that operates in the mandis. I am not asking for replacing it with corporates but reforming the existing mafia raj that operates.

These are issues that need farmer leaders to emerge free from. Just like agriculture is in transition, the new crop of relatively young farmer leaders too needs to unshackle the burden they have been unnecessarily carrying all along.

(The author is a noted food policy analyst and an expert

on issues related to the

agriculture sector. He writes on food, agriculture and hunger)