Not Farmers but Middlemen are Fidgety with Farm laws

 Parmanand Pandey

There is no limit of perversion among Dalals and intermediaries, who have been misleading a section of farmers from Punjab to continue their siege of the Singhu border at Delhi-Haryana border in this biting cold despite the assurances from the government to discuss all issues of the farmers.  The problem is not with farmers as they have not joined the so-called agitation, it is being orchestrated by the forces, which have nothing to do with farmers but they want to keep the issue simmering for their own interests.  They have no sympathy for the farmers either otherwise; they would have educated them about the deleterious effects of paddy stubble burning, overuse of chemical fertilisers and pesticides and for changing patterns of crops to save the depleting water table.

  These three farm laws are revolutionary by any stretch of consideration. Only brokers and self-styled Kisan leaders are opposed to it because they have nothing to do with agriculture. They are the exploiters of farmers. As a matter fact, Mandis should have been dispensed with long back in the interests of farmers but they continued to remain as the tools of exploitation mainly due to rogue politicians.

  The government is also shirking its responsibility, otherwise, it should have swung into action by now to politely ask them to clear the roads by using the bare minimum force. No government worth its name could afford to allow the Shaheen Baugh model of protests in any part of the country causing huge inconveniences to a large section of society for days and weeks together. Selfish politicians and intermediaries claiming themselves as the Kisan leaders should have been sternly dealt with for the sake of real farmers and the general public.  

  These fork-tongued leaders have not been able to point out even one demerit in these farm laws, which should have been brought in half a century ago and then by now, the agriculture would have been free from the unbearable burden that it has on itself and it would be more remunerative as well.

  In fact, if the government wants the peasants and other farmers to make them strong and self-reliant it will have to do away also with MSP. Why should others be given the responsibility of deciding the prices of our (farmers) products? Nobody wants that the prices of the products of a detergent company, a biscuit company, a textile company or a furniture company should be decided by any outsiders, then why the prices of the farmers' products should be asked to fix them by any outside agency? The crux of MS Swaminathan’s Committee report is that the farmers must get the value of their products, at least one and half times more than their inputs but that is not possible without open competition.

  At present, the farmers do not have much retention capacity, they sell their products at throwaway prices when there is a glut of their products. This retention capacity can be increased only by making them strong by devising the crop insurance and freeing them from the trap of Mandis and MSPs. It is good that the Prime Minister himself has made it clear the Mandis and MSPs will be retained but they will have to be competitive because the farmers will then be free to sell their products to anyone, who offers more prices to their products. This is yet another reason for their being fidgety.