Congress may reap benefit from apple farmers' anger in Himachal Pradesh

For the top leadership of the Congress, all roads lead to Himachal Pradesh, where the polls are due on May 19. The party is working at breakneck speed to roust workers and get them on to the streets; party President Rahul Gandhi was in Una last week and will also hold a meeting at Solan on May 17. On May 14, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will hold a campaign meeting at Theog and Mandi. Before that, Ghulam Nabi Azad is paying flying visits to ensure the meetings get a resounding reception.

The reason? Of the four seats in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress got zero in 2014 and is expecting to win at least one, if not two this time. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to maintain its hold on this hill state where its leader, Jairam Thakur, is chief minister. But it may be forced to yield ground to the Congress.

The most promising seat for the Congress is Shimla. This is a reserved constituency and observers say the Congress has put up a ‘reasonable’ candidate. Dhani Ram Shandil, a former armyman and MP elected twice from here, is facing the BJP’s Suresh Kashyap. The BJP has sacked its previous MP from the seat, Virendra Kashyap. Suresh Kashyap is a candidate from the same caste. 

Shimla is the citadel of old Congress warhorse Virbhadra Singh. The somewhat strained relations between Singh and Gandhi are a thing of the past. When Gandhi held a public meeting at Una, he said: “Virbhadra Singh is my teacher and guru in politics. I respect him. I am not like Narendra Modi who rewarded his coach in politics L K Advani with a slap on the face.” There are some in the Congress who might contest this. But in the broader political discourse, this is rhetoric, nothing more.

The region has more germane problems. Shimla, especially its rural parts, namely Upper Shimla, is apple country. It is dominated by apple farmers who have a litany of grievances against the BJP. The BJP state government, for reasons known best to it, has no minister to represent the region, which means apple farmers have no one to go to when they have a problem.

And the problems are many. A few months ago, a massive agitation (massive by Himachal Pradesh standards) was launched under the aegis of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (KSS), cadres of which have been moving from village to village in the apple belt trying to identify and coordinate with apple growers who have been cheated by commission agents.

The state government has accepted some responsibility and recognised the problem as it had instituted a special investigating team to look into the problem. What happened was this: For more than two years, apple farmers have not been paid by commission agents (arhatiya) who have either dilly-dallied on making payments or have vanished and cannot be found.

KSS Secretary Sanjay Chauhan, who has been organising apple growers for the fight for their dues, is quoted by local newspapers as saying: “At the core of the issue is the non-implementation of the provisions of the Himachal Pradesh Agricultural and Horticultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2005. The Act, commonly known as the APMC Act, is supposed to protect the interests of the farmer and horticulturist but it is not being implemented properly.”

He alleges that licences for working as commission agents are issued to unscrupulous elements without required verification. These agents then buy the produce, promising farmers to pay them later and then simply vanish. Rather worryingly for the state government, the extent of the problem lies in the reply given by the government to a question asked in the Legislative Assembly by lone CPM legislator Rakesh Singha: A total of 99 complaints had been registered by January 15, 2019, of which, 81 had been made to the police. The total amount involved was Rs 26,691,426 of which Rs 8,848,809 had been settled. These are just the registered complaints.

Little wonder then that there is extensive and deep resentment against the BJP government among apple farmers. There are other gripes: Upper Shimla has no major road project, nor is anything planned. 

The area is the ‘karmabhoomi’ of Congress stalwarts such as Vidya Stokes and Kuldeep Singh Rathore, who is the Congress' state president. Virbhadra Singh’s son Vikramaditya has done extensive political work here. The constituency touches parts of Rampur Bushair, which is Virbhadra Singh’s area of influence.

Locals here say they want to teach the BJP a lesson. Will the party manage to retain the seat?