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.