Rural India cries for succour… and the FM as usual turns a blind eye

Is the ruling BJP at the Centre really able to fathom the overwhelming sentiment in rural India, despite having the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) headed by Jayant Chaudhary, grandson of the very pro-farmer PM, Charan Singh as its ally?

Such nagging thoughts are bound to arise after seeing the shabby treatment meted out to agriculture related sectors in the Union Budget presented on Tuesday.

Farmers have reacted angrily and rightly so despite the allocation for agriculture and allied sectors going up to 1.52 lakh crore. The fertilizer subsidy has for instance, been cut by Rs 24,894 crore and the food subsidy by Rs 7,082 crore.

What has particularly annoyed the farming community is the finance minister conveniently ignoring the demand for a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP).

This was a demand which had triggered a nationwide agitation with farmers from grain producing states like Punjab and Haryana camping on the outskirts of Delhi braving tear gas, to up the pressure for their demand. And as expected, Ms Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget makes no mention of this demand.

Soon after the Budget, voices of protest are ringing out loud; in Punjab, farmers fumed that there was no mention of the demand for a legal MSP. In Himachal Pradesh, apple farmers have been demanding 100% duty on apple imports to safeguard their interests and that has also been ignored.

In Maharashtra which goes to Assembly polls later this year, farmers have expressed displeasure over the Budget announcements and suggested that Ms Sitharaman should have focused on basic issues at a time when many in the rural heart of the country are committing suicide because of crop loss.

Across the country, the agrarian community has expressed disappointment over the absence of announcements on key demands such as GST exemption for agricultural produce and an increase in assistance under the PM Kisan Scheme.

All those Budget proposals for climate resilient crops, digital farming, new varieties of crops and a shift to natural farming sound fine but what the Modi government seems to have completely missed is the pulse of rural India which is reeling under the impact of price fluctuations, crop spoilage and the vagaries of the weather.

So it is no surprise that farmer leader Rakesh Tikait has disappointingly reacted that the budget has left farmers 'empty handed.'

Another setback for the rural community is the insufficient allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (MGNREGS), which is reportedly just 1.78 per cent of the total budget allocation - a 10 year low.

This is a rural job scheme which is the lifeline of the rural poor and keeps starvation at bay as they work on building roads and irrigation projects and earn a few hundred rupees in the process. Ever since the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power 10 years ago, this is a scheme which has received a raw deal in every successive Budget.

Is it all because the scheme was conceived in 2006 when the Congress-led UPA government led by Dr Manmohan Singh was in power?

Any blueprint for India’s progress and its emergence as a developed nation by 2047, should have the sunburnt farmer at its core - for it is he who feeds the nation braving the heat and the many challenges of rural life.

The nation’s planners know very well that 40 per cent of the population earn a livelihood from agriculture. And so it is from the lush green fields that the push for a better India has to begin.

And yet, Budget after Budget since 2014, have given the Indian farmer a miss and the impact was finally felt in the recent Lok Sabha polls when the BJP took a big hit in UP, Maharashtra and many other states.

How long will the Modi 3.0 dispensation continue to turn a blind eye to the travails of rural India?