Farmers Protest becomes Bigger! | Untold Voices

Monday 14 December 2020

It has been more than 10 days since the farmer’s protest has been going on in Delhi. There have been more than 5 rounds of talks between the government and the farmers but this protest doesn’t seem to be getting over. In fact farmers have said that they will further intensify the protest.

This protest is only getting bigger.

People from all over the country and other states are now joining the protest. Why is this happening?

Let’s get to know the updates regarding the farmers protest in this Article.

What dialogue has taken place between the farmers and the government and why this protest is only getting bigger?

On the night of 8th December, many farmer leaders met Home Minister Amit Shah to talk to him. The Home Minister had said that the government is ready to address all the concerns of the farmers. They released a 20-page proposal on behalf of the government saying that they are ready to amend these farm laws. The entire document of this proposal is linked in the description below if you want to refer to it. But in my opinion, there are many issues that the government has tried addressing which were arising out of these farm laws, many problems and the fear of the farmers. If you recall, I had discussed in this video the problems in these three farm laws, the issues and concerns for the farmers. One of the issues was that under the new laws, the farmers had no way of approaching the civil court in case of a dispute. In case of a dispute, they had to resolve it at the level of SDM. The government has said in its new proposal that they will come up with such an amendment that the farmers have the provision to approach a civil court.

The second biggest issue was that farmers feared APMC Mandis would be quashed because there are no taxes outside of the Mandi while there are taxes inside the Mandi.

So to resolve this issue, the government has said in its proposal that they will bring in such an amendment that the state government will have the option to tax the private mandis as well. This will create a level playing field for both the APMC Mandi and outside it because similar taxes will be charged. But this will be up to the state governments.

Thirdly, farmers fear higher possibilities of cheating because according to the new laws anyone can buy crops from the farmers simply on the basis of a PAN Card.

To resolve this issue, the government has proposed that such an amendment will be brought that will give power to the state governments to register the traders and to make their own rules keeping in mind the local situation.

The next biggest issue was that farmers fear that the MSP system will be quashed because MSP is applicable inside the APMC Mandi. Outside the Mandi, there is no MSP.

The government has said in its proposal that it is ready to give written assurance that the existing MSP system will continue. So these were some of main points of the government’s proposal elaborating the amendments that the government has agreed to bring in the existing farm laws. But despite this, the farmers have rejected the government’s proposal. Why so?

When I read the main points of the proposal for the first time, I thought that almost all the problems are being addressed here. Whatever problems that may have arisen due to these farm laws, the danger that farmers were under due to these farm laws, all of that have been addressed in these amendments.

But the farmers say, No! The phase of dialogue and the phase of amendments are well over

Had the government talked to the farmers prior to making these laws, asked about their concerns, talked about their issue, then the laws would have been made with these amendments, maybe the farmers would have listened. But now that time is over. Due to this very reason, their main demand is that all three of these laws be rolled back. Many farmer leaders have used a metaphor to describe the situation. Say the government gives you a box as a gift and you say that you don’t want this gift. But the government keeps insisting you for weeks and months to take the gift because it is good for you, it will change your life. Everything is happening for good. But you keep saying no. Then the government says that we are giving you back the gift after making some changes here and there. But your demand has always been that you do not want this gift.

These are superficial things but if we talk specifically then what are the problems in the government’s new proposal?

Firstly, the farmers are not happy with just a written assurance on MSP. They want MSP to be made a universally applied legal right. They say that even if the government is giving written assurance of MSP but in reality only 6% farmers get MSP.

What about the rest of the farmers? To know more about this in detail, I talked to Devinder Sharma.

They have said that MSP will exist as it is. This, then is status quo.

The Shanta Kumar Committee report says that MSP is only given to 6% farmers and if only those 6% will receive MSP then what really has changed?

I believe and farmers too believe what should happen is that...MSP is announced on 23 crops every year but the sale is on wheat and paddy. We also know that because of this sale only, the income of farmers of Punjab is higher than the farmers of rest of the country comparatively. If the income of farmers in Punjab is higher, the farmers want higher income for the farmers of the rest of the country as well. There is nothing wrong in that. So why not make it uniform such that MSP becomes a legal instrument or legal right for the farmers? There will be no sale below it. There are 23 crops where the government allows MSP but it remains on paper only because of non-delivery and non procurement.

What will happen if we make it uniform and legal on 23 crops is that there will be no sale below MSP then it will cover 80% of gross cropped area in the country. This is why farmers want MSP to be made a legal right which benefits every farmer in the country.

Secondly, if you had noticed the government in many points of its proposal has very cleverly written “..state governments can...”

This is to say that if state governments want this then they can do it. If the state government wants to tax the private mandis then they can tax them. So the state governments that do not do so then it will be the same scenario due to which the farmers are protesting so much. The level playing field will not be in play in states where the states do not tax the private mandis.

They have now said that the states will now have the power that they can tax the private mandis as well.

This is all they have said. They can restrict the trade as well. What I fail to understand is that when you brought in the laws, the central laws, you took away the rights of the states.

Then why not bring in the central laws itself similar to what was brought in earlier as to what will happen outside of APMC mandis...they can still bring in the correction.

Then why shift the responsibilities to the state governments?

Similarly, it is up to the state governments that if they want they can put in place a system of registration for private markets.

Now which state would like to do this and which state would not like to do it, totally depends on the state governments.

Although, originally, the law brought in by the government was such that everything was controlled by the central government.

So what should be the wordings of the amendments? Rather than getting in this mess, the farmers have made a simple demand of rolling back all three laws.

And till the government doesn’t do it, they will keep making the protest bigger.

Farmers have said that on 14th December, they will hold a big protest in the entire country.

On 12th December, Delhi-Jaipur highway and Delhi-Agra highway will be blocked by them.

Simultaneously, they are not only criticizing the government but they are also criticizing big companies.

Specifically, they have raised their fingers on Adani and Ambani and have said they will boycott all JIO, Reliance and Adani products.

Because they believe that the government acts on the whims and fancies of Adani and Ambani.

I would like to ask you a solution oriented question.

Quite often, a criticism is raised that the MSP is so high that the market rates around the entire world is lesser than that.

There is not so much demand for wheat and rice in India in comparison to how much of it is cultivated so farmers will have to switch to diverse crops.

They should do it so that everyone benefits from it.

Why do you think that farmers do not know this?

Farmers know this. The farmers understand more than what our experts talk about.

But the experts do not want to know and understand the issues faced by the farmers.

I will tell you how. There is a great harvest of wheat and paddy in Punjab, we all know this.

All the pressure is that there should be diversification; we are overloaded with food stocks. These are the things that are talked about.

I have always said that you give an assured price of two crops only and then you say that the farmers should diversify. Why should they diversify?

I will give you an example.

In Punjab, there were two reports on diversification by Dr. S S Johar. Despite that the government advises to diversify and to switch from paddy to maize, sunflower. and two to three other crops were named in the same regard

Now, farmers cultivate maize in Punjab. The MSP for maize is Rs. 1850/quintal. You get the same in the Mandi for 600, 700 and 800 rupees per quintal.

Do you think farmers are fools that they will leave paddy and wheat? Maize is mainly a replacement for paddy...

So he will leave wheat for which he almost gets 1900 rupees per quintal and cultivate maize for which he will get only 600,700, 800 rupees per quintal?

Whose mistake is this? Everyone is at fault...it is the fault of policymakers.

What I say is that of the 23 crops on which MSP is announced, you should ban the sale of these crops below the MSP.

Then you will see the farmers will divert. Farmers will then have choices. As of now, there are no choices. There are only two choices of wheat and rice so he cultivates wheat and rice.

What's wrong in that? Now, say that reporters working in Hindustan Times earn more than say newspaper B.

Then do you think people working in the former newspapers will leave their jobs and join the latter?

This is not how it works even if you ask to diversify. Diversification will only happen when farmers get a steady income source.

This is the reason. You have not given it to them and you are saying that farmers should diversify. We take it as given that farmers are complete fools and they will do whatever we tell them to do.

This is the problem in this country.

So, this means that the government needs to make policies such that it promotes diversification?

Definitely! Farmers want to...farmers too are compelled not to.

When I talk to the farmers and ask them why they do not move away from paddy? They do want to Give them an option and when you do offer them one, check its economic viability as well.

This is something we do not look into. We want our salaries to rise every month, have all perks, emoluments, installments as well as bonus, but we are willing to leave the farmers in the hands of the market. What a great sinking economic thought, Sir!

As for the rest, when we first talked about APMC, you told us that it needs to be made stronger.

You agreed that there are shortfalls in it. So, how can that system be made better?

We all know that APMC has many shortfalls. At many places, it is nothing less than a mafia. Cartelization has taken place.

We consider small traders as exploiters. I agree that there are faults in trader trade. So, reform them!

Why don’t we evolve under the existing system such that it brings in transparency, professionalism and disconnects its role from politics?

We can do all this. It isn’t that we do not know how to do it. But we are thinking that when APMC is removed and when a bigger middleman comes into the picture....right now there is a Small middleman exploits in a small way, a bigger middleman exploits in a bigger way.

So exactly what steps would you suggest to reform?

They have decreased the area under every APMC and have put in under the APMC mandi. That decision is completely fine.

Secondly, mandis needs to be rationalized, they should do that as well. Apart from that, their political affiliations need to be disconnected and broken.

That is important because if you look at it, APMC chairman is quite often linked to the ruling party. We need to break this trend too. We need to strengthen the professionalism and the government system that operates under the APMC.

What happens today is the officers do not have the courage to take a decision on their own for their goodwill. This is how much critical power they yield.

In order to acknowledge the protest, many people from across the country are joining in.

Agricultural scientist Dr. Varinder Pal Singh refused to receive a prestigious award from a Union Minister as a form of protest.

In fact Anna Hazare too has stood up in support of the farmers. He has threatened that if farmer’s demands are not fulfilled then he will declare a Jan Andolan again.

Recall the 2011 anti-corruption movement. Anna Hazare has said that

He will start such a movement again if the government doesn’t heeds to the farmers.

I hope friends that you found this update to be informative.

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