as-support-declines-farm-unions-resort-to-desperate-ways

Jagjit Singh Dallewal, a farm union leader from Punjab has been sitting on a “fast unto death” for the last 21 days. Doctors monitoring his health maintain that his condition is deteriorating. He is believed to be suffering from cancer also. 

 

Dallewal has several demands for farmers. The main one is the “legal guarantee” for Minimum Support Price for all the crops that farmers may or will grow.

 

The main reason for such an extreme step, where he has put his life at stake, is that there is declining, rather vanishing support for the “cause” the “farm leaders” claim to pursue. Most of the prominent farmers’ organisations have already distanced themselves from the protest. 

 

Interestingly it is only a group of farm leaders from Punjab who have been raising this demand.  While during the “anti-farm law” stir, farmers from Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan also joined the protest, this time the ‘farm-union’ agitation has not been drawing any support, not even from Punjab, the epicentre of the agitation.

 

All the political parties and their prominent leaders have maintained a distance from the protestors, who many doubt are dragging it too far. Leaders of various political parties have been marking a token presence to “enquire” about Dallewal’s health. The public support has completely vanished as the people of Punjab have been repeatedly subjected to a lot of harassment on account of frequent road and rail blockades.

 

The protestors have now again called for a “rail blockade” on December 18 for three hours. The protestors have asked every farmer in every village to stop the trains passing through their villages or the nearest railway station. This is not the first time that the trains have been stopped. 

 

It has become a regular feature of life in Punjab, affecting not only the Punjabis but lakhs of people travelling every day in and through Punjab.

 

There is a growing feeling of frustration and helplessness among hundreds and thousands of people who are being made to suffer for none of their faults. It is ten months now since the national highway has been blocked at Shambhu near Ambala. None of the governments, neither the central government nor the Punjab government has taken any initiative to remove the barrier there. 

 

The protestors have set up semi-permanent “settlements” on the road with all the basic facilities like drinking water, round-the-clock electricity, air coolers for summer, refrigerators and even washing machines. Food is always available in abundance since the protestors themselves happen to be the ‘annadatas’ (givers of food).

 

Two main cities, which have suffered the worst on account of business due to the blockades are Ambala in Haryana and Ludhiana in Punjab. The hosiery trade in Ludhiana has suffered immensely as the traders who would buy in bulk avoid travelling to Punjab because of the road blockades. Besides, hundreds of taxi operators have been jobless as travelling to Delhi by road has turned into a harrowing experience with such blockades. 

 

The governments at the centre and in the state have left the people to their fate. While the government is bothered about the “deteriorating” health of Dallewal, it seems to have no concern for the general public who are being routinely held to ransom on the roads and railway tracks. 

 

Whether Dallewal’s demand is justified or not, is not the question. The issue is how can one single person hold to ransom a country of 1.42 billion. This is sheer blackmail that someone is bent on harming himself if the government does not agree to his demands. And in case anything untoward happens with the “fasting” leader, the situation may prove to be very difficult to handle. 

 

Both the governments at the centre and in the state must take all political parties into confidence to decide the matter once and for all. The protestors are gradually pushing Punjab towards anarchy. The worst impact of such protests is on business and investments.

 

Punjab industry leaders fear a West Bengal-like situation, where various trade unions with the support and patronage of the Communist government brought the industry to a complete halt that it eventually had to leave. 

 

Both the central and state governments will need to work together and find a solution to the recurring problem of farmers’ protests. At the same time, they must involve the opposition parties also. The opposition will do better by not trying to make political capital out of it. 

 

Congress had made it one of the main poll promises that there would be a “legal guarantee” of MSP for all the crops. The party had not elaborated on how it could have been possible. Since it did not win the elections, it has been saved from all the hassle. 

 

A legal guarantee for all the crops is not financially feasible and viable. Rough estimates put the annual cost of legal guarantee on MSP at Rs 10 lakh crores. That means the government will need to spare an extra Rs 10 lakh crores every year to buy the crops from farmers. The total agricultural production in the financial year 2020-21 was to the tune of Rs 40 lakh crores. 

 

This is also a myth that Indian agriculture was completely dependent on the MSP. In FY 2020-21, the total MSP purchase was Rs 2.5 lakh crores only, which is mere 6.5 per cent of the total agricultural produce in the country. 

 

Even now, it is mainly the farmers from Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh who manage to sell their main crops including wheat, paddy and sugarcane on the government-assured MSP. In the rest of the country, the farmers do not get any MSP, leaving aside any legal guarantee that protesting farmers are demanding. 

 

This is high time that the governments at the centre and the state coordinate with each other to save and protect a precious life even if it means forcible eviction and admission to a hospital, which doctors have recommended.