Food policy pundits, are busy these days, telling everyone that the solution to Indian farmer
suicides, lies not in financial imprudence, a.k.a., farmer loans write off, but, in the farmers
being persuaded to embrace contract farming, as the essential basic producers, who will somehow,
fit into, the retail and corporate sector strategies, of food, "from the farm to the fork".
They say, the Indian government should continue on the strategy, of subsidizing corporate and
industrial infrastructure, and drop the policy of Indira Gandhi, that underlay the Green
Revolution and the motive of food self sufficiency, that underpinned it.
Commodities futures trading, crop diversifications, horticulture, cut flowers for European
markets, organic nomenclature, rural food processing units, you name it, they have enough
solutions to how the farmer can save his body, even if he has to sell off his soul to the
devil.
Of course, it is the same farm pundits, who can not tell the difference between one weed
growing on a plot of land from another, or will entertain the idea, of forced farm conscription
for their own children. Nor do they have any answers, why wheat is being imported from global
markets at much higher prices, while the dumb Indian farmer is told, that he must attend kisan
chaupals, to learn how to protect his crop from pests, and help in the dismantling of the food
storage godowns of FCI.
The same farm pundits, are hoping that somehow, the lack of options, that the Indian farmer has
from his own government, will effectively seal him and sandwich him, into accepting the role
of "contracted producer" in the new regime, of food super markets and convenience shopping
retail chains, for an urban, and maybe urbane, middle class.
A band of contract farming management experts, is taking shape, again, manned by the people,
who will scoff at the very idea, of their own children being forced to till the land, even if
only for purely academic purposes, and make a living from farming in the modern India.
Farming by conscription, is of course, unthinkable in democratic India for the children of the
urban and urbane, farm pundits. But somehow, farmers are essentially doing that. In return,
they get the sheer luxury of voting for either Ajit Singh, Mayawati or Mulayam Singh, once
every five years, and derogatory labels like kulaks and illiterate peasants.
Tikait and the tractors of the Jat kulaks crowding the spick and span RajPath is a detestable
sight of course for these concerned "friends of farmers".
Join the band wagon of sewing fantastic invisible clothes, for the naked emperor.
Mohan Dharia - Farm Debt Campaign
Farmer organizations of India need a two pronged strategy, to make the campaign on farm debt
successful. At one level, they have to seriously consider the strategy of leaving their fields
fallow for one year, growing only food grain crops for their family
consumption, rather than the domestic or export market.
If at all the Indian politicians, want them to remain chained to agriculture, the
Government should take over ownership of all their agricultural lands, reorganize it into
large profitable holdings, retrain farmers on how to adopt modern agricultural practices, and
employ farmers, on a fixed salary, that is enshrined in the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.
This will be the correct way, of ushering in the Second Green Revolution in India, rather than just
exhorting ignorant and bewildered farmers to stop taking their lives, and linking up with private
sector and contract farming.
Modern and industrialized modes of agricultural production on forcibly acquired land from backward
farmers, reorganized into massive land holdings, riding on the back of reorganized
agricultural land, American agricultural practices, B-school management and marketing talents,
snipping the farm dependant population of India to 10% of India's population, is the only way
forward. This will be the best that Indian politicians with their current mindset, can do for
Indian farmers.
The sheer logic of Indian democracy becomes evident, when the politician is forced to go back to the
electorate at least every five years. The electorate also knows very well, that next time, they will
see the politicians emerge, from the corridors of the various Sabhas - Lok, Vidhan, Rajya, etc, will
be about four and half years later, unless of course there is a court decision or some such toppling
of the cart.
There is no doubt that after the whirlwind tours of Shri Man Mohan Singh, and Maharashtra Chief
Minister to the Indian killing fields - farming lands - the politicians lower down in the pecking
order, would all feel they have been pardoned from making a beeline for the rural countryside and
spoiling their white linen kurtas and designer goggles.
The Indian Finance Minister, of course thinks that, when there exists an Agriculture Ministry, and a
Planning Commission, for super annuated politicians and retired farm leaders like Sharad Joshi, Ajit
Singh and Tikait, there is no need for him to even open his mouth, on Indian countryside and farm
issues. His remit is basically stock markets, and the tax system, pulling the strings of the IRS
bureaucracy.
The countryside, ah, the votes are still there. Of course, the politicians might do so a bit sooner,
if Sonia Ji decides to jolt them, bolt them, or scold them.
Some people are surely now playing a wait and watch game. Where this issue of Indian farmer suicides
will now go, and how much of an impact it will have on election prospects for Congress in the next
elections ? These calcualtions will soon begin in earnest.
As always, with the loyalties and royalties, well known inside Congress, people are wondering when
Mrs Sonia Gandhi, will take on the image and role of Mrs Indira Gandhi vis a vis the Indian farmers
and the Second Green Revolution. Mrs Indira Gandhi created an entire infrastructure of institutions
to solidly underpin the first Green Revolution.
This Mrs Gandhi is only talking of Second Green Revolution, lulled by the Leopold and Oxbridge
awards.
It is only when she decides to take note of the farmer suicides, that the scramble for farmer votes
will be activated by push button, within Indian Congress party. Till then, it is wait and watch, apart
from cursory suicide figures, being read out from a note prepared by an IAS bureaucrat, by Shri Sharad
Pawar in Lok Sabha. Till then, business as usual for Mr Chidambaram, RBI Governor and Congress
politicians.