Day 261

Toll 565

Spain

No doubt the farmers protest is one of the largest non-violent, constant resistance to neo-liberalism and crony capitalism. However, the Indian farmers are not alone in their woes and resistance.

Earlier this year, in the face of immense protests by farmers, Spain promised a new law which guarantees that retailers cannot sell food below the below the cost of production. This is somewhat like the Minimum Support Price (C2 + 50%) the Indian farmers are demanding.

However, that law alone did not end the protests. The farmers continue to protest for reduction in electricity rates, against trade barriers such as Russian veto, Brexit, Trump’s tariff olives, unfair commercial practices, for better regulation for control of wildfire and so on. They are also raising the issues of aid cut from Europe.

While popular opinion is expenditure on arms and ammunition run economies and strengthen nations, the biggest hit the United States has faced in 2018-19 is, owing to US policies, China refusing to buy its agricultural produce – a loss of $1.3 billion in just that year. This has led to increased farmer suicide and insolvencies in the United States of America.

Saving pennies to lose pounds? Does that sound familiar? Or are we still not paying attention?

Kisan Sansad – Day 13th

Today, on the 79th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, the Kisan Sansad will be run by women. Befittingly, the women will today discuss and vote on a No Confidence motion against the government. Quit India ye government of people, by brokers, for the corporates!

Today will also be the final day of the Kisan Sansad. In the last two weeks, the farmers have displayed immense discipline and despite all odds carried out the Sansad with decorum and dignity. In these times of erosion of democratic values, they have presented a model of how parliaments must function. Now it is up to the country to emulate the model, pressure the political parties.

File Picture by Randeep S Mdk: Mahinder Kaur ji, popularly known as the grandmother of the farmers protest.

Day 256

Toll 563+

Wall

Last evening, farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni, publicly expressed his dismay towards Samyukt Kisan Morcha and pointed at ‘selective discrimination against him and no action against other leaders who were making similar comments (as him)’. However, he has also stated that he will abide by decisions taken at SKM meetings and that he doesn’t intend to ‘weaken the movement’.

Earlier SKM had suspended Chaduni for a fortnight for expressing his thoughts that farmers should pro-actively participate in elections and desire to start a ‘Mission Panjab’ platform. Chaduni’s recent statement has led to speculation on what could come next. Would SKM split, what would be the repercussions?

Frankly, no one knows. What we know is Chaduni’s union was instrumental in farmers reaching Delhi’s borders, Chaduni keeps bringing more and more farmers to the protests (recently the eighth convoy of farmers led by him reached Singhu), farmers have held on for over eight months, right now the Kisan Sansad is going very well, farmers have had major wins in Haryana against police and administration including a hunger strike through which they managed to free wrongly imprisoned farmers, given upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, west UP and even Lucknow have become active and most of all the government is worried.

The farmers movement is a great rush of energy, a huge river with multiple tributaries, dammed on Delhi’s borders. A dam that hasn’t opened in last six months – no talks with the government. I feel it is natural that the energies of the many unions and groups will clash with each other, just like water finds its ways to move around.

However, given the various unions and groups non-hierarchical arrangements with each other but alignment on the core issues, the resistance to the government will carry on. Whatever lapdog media says, it would be premature to speculate any waning of energies or costly splits in the protest. Let us stay focussed but also urge SKM to introspect and avoid disenchantment within the ranks.

The government is so worried about the farmers protest that in view of the coming August 15, the Prime Minister’s address, it has blockaded the Red Fort – which is now just a public memorial building in private hands – with a wall of shipping containers. The image is intensely ironic for the farmers are actually protesting for self-reliance – atam nirbharta – in food for the country and the government, beholden to corporates, wants to use these shipping containers to import and export food and impoverish the country.

Day 254

Toll 563+

Kisan Sansad – Day 12

The Kisan Sansad will continue to discuss Minimum Support Price today. Here are a two questions farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal raised this morning on MSP. If you can answer them, good on you. I can’t. I am struggling to answer.

1. All goods in the country are marked Maximum Retail Price. Why is very limited farmers’ produce offered Minimum Support Price? Why is one Maximum and another Minimum, that too grossly violated?

2. The cost of genuinely implementing MSP on all 23 crops, according to the C2 + 50% formula (see August 4th post) is Rs 1.28 lakh crore. The current cost of importing oil seeds, lentils, other foods is Rs 1.70 lakh crore. Which figure is smaller?

How can government – that strangely claims to be broke in spite of earning Rs 2.13 lakh crore in 2019-20 on petroleum taxes alone – save money?

Meanwhile, a 1000 farmers from Tamil Nadu reached Singhu yesterday and some of them will participate in the Kisan Sansad. In Telangana, 500 adivasis undertook a 70-kilometre and 5-day-long protest from Aswaraopeta to Kothagudem, asking for stopping of eviction of adivasi farmers from podu land, for granting rights over forest produce and for the legal right of MSP.

Day 253

Toll 563

Kisan Sansad – Day 11

The Kisan Sansad continued discussing Minimum Support Price today. Expert agriculture economists joined the Kisan Sansad.

Prof. RS Ghuman
Dr. Sucha Singh Gill
Mr. Devinder Sharma

How often does that happen in the main Parliament? All that the government, in a minority in Rajya Sabha, does these days is tear apart democratic conventions by using voice votes to turn Bills into Laws.

Day 252

Toll 556+

Kisan Sansad – Day 10

Today the Kisan Sansad will discuss the demand they have presented to the government: legalise Minimum Support Price for 23 crops all over the country. The demand for MSP is old, the demand for fair price for produce and labour, is as old as civilisation. The matter of MSP is the difference between what farmers demand and what the government offers.

National Commission for Farmers headed by agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan in 2007 had recommended MSP to be based on total input costs + 50 percent income. In 2014, the BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha election manifesto had promised that to farmers. But BJP is a party of treacherous brokers.

In 2018, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, dealt a sleight of hand. He announced MSPs would henceforth be fixed at 1½ times of the production costs for crops as a “pre-determined principle” without assessment of real field-based costs but on estimates.

Government says, ‘A2’ covers all paid-out costs directly incurred by the farmer — in cash and kind — on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, hired labour, leased-in land, fuel, irrigation, etc. ‘A2+FL’ includes A2 plus an imputed value of unpaid family labour. Farmers say, ‘C2’ factors in rentals and interest forgone on owned land and fixed capital assets, on top of A2+FL.

The reason for C2 is 85 per cent farmers are small and marginal. Many among them take land on rent to farm. Since A2+FL does not consider rent, after rent deduction, these farmers are making loses on crops. Even otherwise, for farmers who own land, A2+FL is based on estimates and averages, not really ground realities, so they too make losses.

Farmers demand C2 + 50 per cent on 23 crops, government offers A2+FL + 50 per cent on limited crops.

See picture below, genteel society, obedient to government society, can come to the Bangalore-Chennai national highway to pick up tomatoes that Kolar farmers have thrown next to the road. The farmers aren’t getting prices that even cover transportation of vegetables and leave some profit for them. They have just dumped the produce.

Meanwhile, as the government uses brute majority in Lok Sabha, continues passing Bills with zero discussion, amid Opposition voices to probe Pegasus spyware, something is changing on the ground: we all know about the Kawad yatra undertaken by hundreds of thousands every year. In 2019, 3 crore youth participated and brought Ganga Jal from Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Sultanganj in Bihar to offer at local temples. This year, owing to COVID19 fears while Uttarakhand government has prohibited the yatra, facing elections Uttar Pradesh has allowed it. Talk of votes at the cost of lives.

However, this year, several thousands of Haryanvi youth did not participate in Kawad. Instead they carried their ‘gaon ki mitti – soil from their villages’ to the protest sites.

Dear Friends,

a few days back, Gagandeep Lohian from Parvasi Television, Canada, interviewed me on the ongoing Kisan Sansad.

Here are my views. Panjabi, 18.06 minutes.

Day 251

Toll 556

Kisan Sansad – Day 9

Today, the Kisan Sansad will discuss the Air Pollution issue. To be noted there is already an Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 which has had almost zero cases filed in the last 40 years. Last Friday, the government sneaked in the Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Law into the Parliament. (see post dated July 31).

The core issue is paddy straw burning by Panjab, Haryana, some west Uttar Pradesh farmers. To be noted, there is enough anecdotal evidence that early years Panjab Agricultural University encouraged straw burning. Now when scale of production of paddy has increased so much, Delhi claims it is only paddy smoke that pollutes it. Diwali does not happen, there is no vehicular pollution (25 per cent per reports), there is no industrial pollution because of use of petroleum coke (51 per per reports), just the agrarian sector (8 per cent per reports) pollutes our sweet national capital.

Well, okay, if you insist that straw burning pollutes, then all paddy growing areas also produce oxygen when the crop is growing. Will the government pay the farmers for oxygen and subtract money for straw burning? Because, you know science …

For years the National Green Tribunal has instructed governments to pay Rs 200 per quintal of paddy so the farmers can dispose off the straw. That has never happened. In non-paddy months Panjab government sponsors press reports that so and so industry – carboard, ethanol, and others – are coming up to help farmers manage straw. When the paddy season comes, farmers do not find those industries. Use of Happy Seeder is encouraged. Prices of Happy Seeder are inflated and discount offers made, they still remain beyond the means of small and marginal farmers.

Farmers are acutely aware of air pollution. After all, it is their families which suffer much before Delhi does. Actually winds are easterly that time of year, Delhi does not get winds from Panjab and Haryana. So, farmers take to mulching but the Panjab Subsoil Water Act – delayed paddy sowing, dependent on monsoon arrival, hence delayed harvest and short window to sow wheat for next season – does not give them enough time.

All this for paddy which is not a crop of Panjab and Haryana. Which these states do not consume but produce for the nation. Which has drained out their water aquifers, is pushing them towards desertification.

The need is for crop diversification. The need is to aid small and marginal farmers transition from paddy which pollutes our so pretty Dilli to other crops. The need is for financial assistance. But making the law is the easiest way out. Using satellites to find farmers guilty of setting fire to straw and imposing Rs 1 crore fine is the easy way out.

Hence, the session in the Kisan Sansad today where more and more farmers are arriving from all states of the country.

Day 250

Toll 556

Kisan Sansad – Day 8

Electricity Amendment Bill 2020

Today, the Kisan Sansad will discuss the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 for the second day and vote at the end of it.

The people’s whip to Parliamentarians issued before the Monsoon Session – to stay in Parliament and just do their job, raise issues, not take breaks, not log absenteeism, not walk-out at the drop of the hat – seems to have worked. In spite of a brute majority in Lok Sabha, almost equal number of seats in Rajya Sabha, the BJP has been able to run the proceedings of the House for only 18 out of past 108 hours.
On Adani Logistics closing its park in Quila Raipur, while protesters have welcomed the move, there have been various opinions which have surprised me. Oh dear!

- The one port shutting down, supposed loss of Rs 7000 crore, 400 jobs, is a very small part of the great Adani operations. Adani is too well entrenched to be affected by it. But what this does is put the government beholden to Adani in a fix. After all, we all know Modi and Shah work for Adani. Now their master is gone and they are left holding the farmers protest.

- Loss to Panjab, to Panjab government is another response that cracks me up. For decades farmers have been paying with their lives because of bad policies. They didn’t made those policies. The state, including centre, made them without farmers’ consent. And now suddenly everyone wants protesters to be responsible for the state?

- Which state are we talking about? The Badals, Captains, Sidhus, Kejriwals? These politicians who have never focussed on people and always hunted for power. Why should farmers be responsible for their misgovernance? Look at how much is being looted in Panjab through gravel and sand smuggling, partisan transport policies, liquor licenses and so on. What is one logistics park in this context?

- The ‘job loss’ argument folks need to understand the difference between a job with respect and decent salary and corporate slavery. Remember, the farmer is sovereign in his/her land. The farmer is the primary producer. All trade and commerce is established on the basis of this produce. Unless the base is served well, one can’t just be beholden to the superstructure – the corporates.

This shutdown by Adani is a very small step. It shows that it is possible that unarmed ordinary people can push out the biggest and mightiest corporations. It is not an end in itself, but it is a beginning. There is much work to do but the decision is yours: whether to support a corrupt, termite eaten state structure or to ensure the corporates move out and then we build the structure again? This time without the Adanis and Ambanis or any other crony capitalist appropriating the labour of the people, the money in the market, and push farmers and labourers to suicide. After all, democracy is eternal vigilance.

If you get it: the farmers protest and its achievements is a quest for an equitable India. Stay on this side of the protest, please don’t go around displaying your dependence on corporates. Instead, find your agency to effect change in a rotten system.