Angst against farm laws proves a great unifier even a year since stir began

Series of events on November 26, tractor march to Parliament to commemorate protest anniversary. Agitation being planned in other parts of the country as well

Rampal Singh and his brother have seldom agreed on anything. Sitting in the large courtyard of their predominantly rural household in Sakrod village of the district, the two siblings disagree on most issues of the day.

While one sides with a visitor from a nearby hamlet on how law and order and security issues will determine voters’ preference in the coming state assembly elections to the politically crucial state of UP, the other feels that inflation and rising prices of almost essential items will play a decisive factor.

But one thing which unites both the brothers is their common dislike for the manner in which agriculture issues have been handled by both the Central and state governments the past few years. Almost all talk about agriculture ends with how rising input costs, particularly of seeds and fertilisers along with diesel and labour, are eating into their earnings.

As one of the longest protests by farmers against the three Acts passed by Parliament to ostensibly reform the decades-old structure completes one full year with thousands still staying put on the capital’s borders, people like Rampal Singh who might not have actively participated all this while definitely feel that protests have brought focus back on issues related to agriculture and its welfare.

The agitation, which started as stray protests in some villages of Punjab against the three farm marketing Acts passed by Parliament in June 2020, gathered steam over time and spread to other parts of the country, including neighbouring Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The chief demand of the agitating farmers has been repeal of the three Acts along with a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP).

The protests reached a crescendo when thousands of farmers from Punjab and elsewhere marched towards the capital Delhi late last year and decided to block the main entry points once they were denied entry.

The Centre, on its part, held 11 rounds of discussions with the protesting farmers and even offered to amend some of provisions without much success, as the protestors struck to their main demand of repeal of the acts.

The violent events of January 26 2021, when scores of agitating farmers deviated from a fixed tractor rally route and forced entry into the main thoroughfares, leading to pitched battles with the police, was seen as a big setback for the stir but the forced eviction of Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait and his emotional outburst revived the sagging morale of the agitators.

And within days, western Uttar Pradesh became the new epicentre of the protests, which shifted from Punjab and Haryana.

In between, the Supreme Court intervened and decided to constitute a high-powered panel of experts to study the three laws and suggest a way forward.

The panel was rejected by the protesting farmers as it consisted of people known to have favoured the laws in some forum or the other.

The panel submitted its report to the apex court in due course but little has been heard about the same since, so much so that one of the panel members wrote a letter to the Chief Justice requesting him to make the report public.

The Centre has repeatedly said that their doors are open for talks but has not shown much keenness in taking the process forward since last one year.

In between, the protest sites have been rocked by incidents of violence and also elsewhere there has been violent protests by farmers.

Lately, to commemorate one year of the agitation, the farmers have planned a series of events on November 26 and are planning to march to Parliament with their tractors to commemorate the event. Protests are being planned in other parts of the country as well for which preparations are being made in full swing.

At several flash points, the crowds have thinned considerably from the heydays of protests--something the leaders blame on the peak paddy harvesting and wheat sowing season in several parts.

Few months back while talking to Business Standard, Dr S Mahendra Dev, Director and Vice Chancellor of Mumbai-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), had said that the long-standing farmers protest are a clear lesson for everyone that issues of agriculture marketing reforms should be best left to the states to undertake.

“Even now in the case of the three acts passed by the Parliament, I feel that Centre should leave it to the states to decide whether they want to implement it or not,” Dev had said.

P K Joshi, former Director South-Asia of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) had said that henceforth, it should be ensured that the big changes are accepted by majority of people particularly the main stakeholders and the benefits clearly conveyed to them.

Joshi, who was part of the three-member committee set up by the Supreme Court, felt that the only way to break the deadlock between the agitating farmers and the government is to come to the negotiating table and sort all issues out.

“Both sides have to show some flexibility to re-start the stalled dialogue process so that the impasse ends and things move forward,” Joshi had then said.

But, for farmers like Satpal and his brother, the ultimate test of the protestors and with it their long standing problems will be whether it leads to any material change in their condition in the years to come.

“We principally aren’t opposed to the protestors and sympathise with them, but whether it will influence our electoral choices is still unclear,” Singh said as he winds up the short discussion with his ilk.