It is in our national interest to resolve this stand off between the farmers and the Centre in a graceful manner through the process of dialogue
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to a gurudwara in Delhi has political pundits deducing that the visit was aimed at sending a message to the Sikh community which has presented a united front against the recent farm legislations. Even though political compulsions are a reality and some gestures could be related to political messaging but it is a fact that Hindus and Sikhs are one. They may have their differences but they can never be separated. It is also a fact that our Constitution entitles everyone to protest peacefully and therefore, the farmers have every right to raise their concerns in a peaceful manner. Some of the issues flagged up by them are valid and the Government has agreed to listen to them. Even the highest executive office of this country has invited the growers for discussions and promised to address their grievances. Asking for outright withdrawal of these legislations is motivated by anything but farmers’ welfare.
Giving a legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price (MSP) is the core issue in this protest and somewhere I also agree that there should be a provision in law to ensure that private institutions or large corporations are not allowed to procure farm produce below the MSP declared by the Government. As far as the legality of the MSP is concerned, it is already in the statute under The National Food Security Act, 2013. The MSP is defined under Section 2(10) and obligations of the Centre/State governments and local authorities for procurement and distribution of food grains are specified under the said Act.
The fear of phasing out the MSP mechanism doesn’t hold any ground because the Government has to keep procuring food grains to distribute through the Public Distribution System (PDS) and to achieve other objectives like food security, inflation control and so on. If we keep the economics and legality aside for a moment, the truth of the matter is that the vote bank politics of our country will never allow any Government to abolish the PDS scheme and the Government will have to procure grains at the MSP as long as the PDS scheme is run.
Similar to the MSP, the laws should be amended to include a grievance redressal mechanism and farmers should not be left at the whims and fancies of bureaucrats. The Government can simulate the Consumer Forum mechanism in which there are different forums available based on the nature of the dispute. A separate body for redressal of the growers’ dispute will ensure speedy resolution as well as save the time of the courts which are already overburdened.
There is no doubt that the Indian agriculture laws needed reforms. This is evident from the fact that the Congress promised the abolition of the Agricultural Produce Market Committees Act (APMC) in point 11 and Essential Commodities Act, 1955 in point 21 of its 2019 poll promise, which was covered under Chapter 7 of the election manifesto. Similarly, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-ruled Delhi was among the first States to notify the farm laws. If the Opposition really wants to help farmers, then it should come out with suggested amendments and their proposals should be discussed in detail. However, none of the Opposition leaders are showing the courage to explain how these laws are going to take away any existing rights of farmers and they are shying away from a public debate on this topic.
If we see the larger issues around agriculture then the MSP is not a solution because this helps only those farmers who have surplus produce to sell. More than 90 per cent of farmers do sustenance farming and they produce just enough to meet their own requirements. Only a small section of farmers are beneficiaries of the MSP scheme and if someone believes that a higher MSP is a panacea for all the woes of the growers, then s/he has certainly not understood the issue.
The MSP scheme has been in place for decades and cheap farm credit along with farm loan waiver, tax-free income, various kind of subsidies like electricity, fertiliser and so on are already being given to farmers. An increasing population has reduced the landholding size and farmers must reduce their dependency on crops to lead a better life. The Government’s initiatives in the field of animal husbandry, horticulture, fisheries, poultry and so on, should be taken positively and such activities can increase the income of rural households.
India is a vast country and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problems of the farmers. The problems of Punjab’s farmers are different from those of the growers from States like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
Food “ann” and farmers who are our “annadatas” have a special place in our culture and no one should be allowed to defame them in furtherance of their political agenda. It is in our national interest to resolve this issue in a graceful manner through the process of dialogue. This should be done at the earliest because many lives are being lost in this protracted struggle. It is time to smoke the peace pipe.
(The writer is a Chartered Accountant and public policy analyst. The views expressed are personal)