Instead of fulfilling its “zimmedari” towards farmers, the BJP-led central government is hurtling India back to a “zamindari” regime; leaving farmers at the mercy of corporate giants. In the long run, the aatmanirbhar kisan will be forced to become a contract farmer because of these legislations that government is now passing off as ‘historical reforms’. Farmers will lose their productive autonomy to agri-corporations and become piece-workers on their own land.
The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, all three now converted into Acts of Parliament, will hit the backbone of Indian agriculture and condemn the community that feeds India to a proletariat.
Agriculture is a State subject. It was erroneous on part of the Centre not to consult respective state governments before issuing the three Ordinances as the scope of these does not fall under the direct jurisdiction of the central government. This unilateral decision has disrupted, once again, our federal polity; and at a time when the Centre should have actually extended a helping hand to the States which, despite heavily truncated financial resources, are taking measures to help farmers fight distress.
The Ordinance route to legislation shows the desperation of the government to corporatise agriculture. Statistics speak for themselves. The BJP has always shown a proclivity for short circuiting democracy and bypassing Parliament through Executive Orders. The UPA government, between 2004 and 2009, issued an average of 7.2 ordinances annually. This was further reduced to five per year during UPA-II. In contrast, the Modi government issued an average of 10 ordinances per year during its first tenure. The BJP regime has now turned Parliament into nothing more than an ordinance ratification factory; endangering parliamentary democracy.
Over the past six years, the government has been systematically marginalizing farmers from the mainstream economy. Soon after Modi came to power, his government’s attempts to virtually annul the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 had stood out for political malevolence. The trend continued with the high rates of GST on fertilizers, tractors and other agricultural machinery which collectively increased input cost for agriculture.
That the policies of the Modi government have relentlessly run counter to farmers’ welfare is borne out through official data. In 2019, 28 people dependent on farming committed suicide in India everyday. As per the National Crime Records Bureau, 10,281 persons involved in the farm sector ended their lives in 2019; accounting for 7.4 per cent of the total number of suicides in India. According to a reply given by the Union agriculture minister in Lok Sabha on September 15, 4260 farmers committed suicide in 2014-2015 because of indebtedness and bankruptcy. For the following years, the government claimed there was no data available on farmers’ suicide due to indebtedness and bankruptcy!
In agriculture, you have both production and price risks. Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a tool that guarantees farmers, prior to the sowing season, a fair fixed price for their crop to encourage higher investment and production. None of the three anti-farmer legislations contain any clause that would make procurement below the MSP impossible. Further, by doing away with the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act that facilitated procurement of a farmer’s produce, the government has given a free hand to private corporate houses to exploit farmers.
With the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, farmers will lose the MSP and other protections they hitherto received from successive governments. Exclusion of existing mandis established under the APMC Act from the definition of trade area will confine APMC mandis to their physical boundaries and give a free hand to big corporate buyers. Once commission agents are removed from the picture, the Act will hasten the creation of a monopoly of the corporates. Section 8 of the Act has divested the right of the farmer to approach civil courts in case of any dispute arising out of a transaction between the farmer and a trader. The conciliation mechanism provided in the Section tilts towards the traders, allowing them to ‘legally’ exploit farmers in the future. The combined effects of the legislations will weaken the purchasing power in rural areas and will further aggravate the distress.