For farmers’ future india’s big ticket dreams all hinge on reforms government must stay the course

For farmers’ future india’s big ticket dreams all hinge on reforms government must stay the course

In most states yesterday’s Bharat Bandh did not manifest memorably, suggesting that the Punjab protesters’ demand for rolling back the agricultural reforms is not as widespread as it looks to a capital under siege. States which have either not seen MSP munificence in the first place or where crop patterns have tended towards greater diversification and market linkages, are simply not in the same boat. As for the state that once boasted the highest per capita income, Punjab’s overdependence on public procurement of wheat and paddy has gradually made it uncompetitive and this is reflected in its decline in prosperity rankings.

Fearful of further decline, the protesters want to stop change. They are suspicious of the agribusinesses which the new farm laws envisage will begin sourcing directly from farmers. The irony is that if their demands are met it will only diminish their future further, as also of the entire country.

The Modi government did not do well to push these farm bills through Parliament autocratically. Since then, aside from repeated assurances that rumours about the imminent demise of MSP and the APMC mandis are false, it hasn’t done a sound job of communicating the freedoms that are in the offing. This is reflective of a political culture that cannot embrace freedoms, markets and reforms without hypocrisies, ambiguity and doublespeak. All parties are much more comfortable accusing opponents of threatening farmers’ livelihoods, than collaborating to actually uplift farm incomes.

Out of India’s 146.45 million farm families 1.09 million are in Punjab. If the government compromises on MSP or the farm laws under pressure from the protesters, it would signal that any reform effort in India can be sabotaged by some interest group’s opposition and laying siege to the national capital. Many countries support their farmers with direct subsidies, and India needs to move in that direction with greater momentum. But the private commerce that has opened up new vistas from education to telecom must no longer be harshly restricted in agriculture. Repressive export policies must also be liberalised – this is something that government can offer to farmers. The 1991 lesson must not be forgotten. Closed systems do not mitigate risk, that’s a dangerous deception. As opposed to the terribly misguided demonetisation on which government wasted precious political capital, the reforms project has a model track record of delivering growth and opportunities. On it hinge all the big ticket dreams, from becoming a $5 trillion economy to doubling farmers’ incomes.