Farmers' protest being crushed by Modi govt

Hundreds of farmers are demanding a legal minimum price for their crops as they attempt to march to New Delhi and demand that the BJP- led government fulfill its promises.

The MSP, which is the cost at which the government purchases crops from farmers, provides farmers with an assured income for their produce amid market uncertainties.

The demand is for the MSP to be fixed at least 50 percent higher than the cost of production of any crop.

Farmers are agitating against the planned privatisation of the electricity sector. State governments currently provide subsidised electricity to farmers, which helps bring input costs down.

The Modi government has almost gone on a war footing to tackle farmers, not terrorists. Multiple entry points to the capital have been sealed by erecting barriers of barbed wire; spikes and cement blocks.

Large gatherings have been banned in Delhi and suspended internet services in several Haryana districts ahead of the march to Delhi, called by farmers from Punjab and Haryana along with several other northern states.

Aside from organisations from Punjab and Haryana, unions from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are also participating in the march as they demand government intervention to help the ailing agriculture sector, which is central to the country’s food security.

The march comes months before a general election, which the BJP is expected to win. Farmers comprise two-thirds of India’s 1.4 billion people, accounting for nearly a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product, according to government figures.

Hence, farmers form an influential voting bloc, and parties try to gain their support.

As it seeks the farmers’ votes, the Modi government last week conferred the nation’s highest civilian honour on former Prime Minister and farmer leader Chaudhury Charan Singh and MS Swaminathan, a pioneer of the agricultural revolution in the 1960s and ’70s.

At every stage of the previous agitations, the BJP-led government attempted to crush the farmers’ movement, the most ghastly episode being the way agitating farmers were mowed down in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, by a convoy of cars allegedly involving junior home minister Ajay Mishra’s son.

Following the Republic Day march by farmers early this year, the police came down heavily on some of the farmers’ leaders. Yet, the farmers remained steadfast in their resolve to continue with the protests.

Such was their determination that the crackdown on Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait after the Republic Day march at Ghazipur border of Delhi gave a fresh lease of life to protests, taking the demonstrations across pollbound Uttar Pradesh.

On the other hand, the farmers’ movement evolved dynamically ever since it began. From a protest that took roots only in Punjab, it grew into a country-wide movement in which farmers’ groups set aside their differences and collaborated to take on the powerful government.

Slowly and gradually, different leaders from various states came together and mounted a united front, in the process blurring multiple caste and community contradictions.

Each time the movement had to suffer a setback, it came out stronger. The BJP machinery attempted to brand the farmers’ agitation as one led by Khalistani separatists and funded by terrorist groups.

In the last few months, the farmers’ agitation progressed into becoming a political movement against BJP’s polarising tactics. It helped heal the tensions between Jats and Muslims in the aftermath of 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots in western UP.

The victory of the farmers’ movement also marks the Modi government’s first real defeat in the last several years. In that sense, it is a momentous occasion in India’s political history.

As a proof of empty promises, the Modi government formed a committee to address farming issues, but it failed to include representatives from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, all major grain producers.

The government will have to do much more to address their problems and make sure the farmers' wrath does not cross all bounds.