Anti-farmer sarkar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his latest Mann ki Baat called for a movement to “save water”. He said, “To fight the drought and water scarcity, the governments will do their work. But I have seen people also make their own efforts”. Mr Modi needs to be reminded gently that the people of India are innovative and proactive; they do make their own effort even without a nudge from the Prime Minister. But it’s high time Mr Modi’s government made some serious, sincere efforts to address the plight of the poor in rural India.

Mr Modi’s words belie his government’s actions. In 2013-14, in the last Budget presented by Congress-led UPA-2, the allocation for rural water was Rs 9,700 crore. In 2016-17, when the country is facing the worst drought since 1986-87 and severe water crisis, the Modi government has reduced it to Rs 5,000 crore, a drastic cut of Rs 4,700 crore. Instead of chanting “Congress-mukt Bharat”,

Mr Modi should draw a lesson from the magnificent performance of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for managing, perhaps, one of the most severe droughts of the previous century. Efficient drought management not only mitigated the sufferings of millions of people, but also boosted the economy with a 10% plus GDP growth in the next year.

In a recent Supreme Court hearing, the Centre submitted that a staggering 33 crore people, about 25% of India’s total population, are facing drought, severe water crisis and agricultural distress. About 2.55 lakh villages in 254 districts are affected by drought. This figure could be higher as the Centre strangely remained quiet about Gujarat though the state has admitted that more than 637 villages are facing acute water shortage.

Farmers’ suicides have reached an all time high. In Maharashtra alone, 3,228 farmers committed suicide in 2015, of which the state government found only 1,841 cases eligible for government aid. This is not surprising considering the attitude of the BJP government whose senior leaders didn’t think twice before terming farmers’ suicides a “fashion” or saying that “farmers who commit suicide are cowards”. The Union minister for agriculture said farmers commit suicide due to “love affairs and impotence”.

The anti-farmer attitude of this “suit-boot ki sarkar” was evident from the very beginning. Within a few months of assuming office, the government tried to first bulldoze, then bypass Parliament by re-promulgating, thrice, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill 2015, as ordinance. While the government had to finally drop the bill due to vociferous protests of the Opposition led by the Congress both inside and outside Parliament, the proposed amendments clearly reflect the pro-corporate, anti-farmer mindset of the government. Dilution of the consent clause, removal of five-year time stipulation, dilution of social impact assessment and ease of acquiring multi-crop irrigated land are all indicative of an insensitive government’s indifference towards farmers.

The anti-farmer attitude of the present government is a legacy of the previous NDA government. A paper by Ashok Gulati, former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, points out that while real farm wages grew at an average annual rate of 3.7% in the ’90s, they fell at an annual average rate of 1.8% between 2001-02 and 2006-07. After UPA-1 assumed office in 2004 and took a couple of years to do damage control, the real wages grew at an average of 6.8% per annum between 2007-8 and 2011-12. This was possible primarily due to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

The flagship programme of UPA-1 not only guaranteed 100 days of employment to rural poor, but by fixing guaranteed minimum wage from the government it saved rural labour from the exploitative labour market and enhanced rural purchasing power, thus boosting the economy and checking distress migration from rural to urban areas. MGNREGA contributed towards rural sanitation, construction of irrigation channels, rural connectivity, creation of water harvesting and water conservation structures. It also acted as an impetus for women’s empowerment by providing them opportunity for paid work in the vicinity of their homes,  reservation of one-third employment for women and ensuring equal wage. MGNREGA is one of the most effective to-ols for socio-economic transformation in rural India.

Mr Modi’s repeated mockery of MGNREGA, by calling it a programme for “digging holes”, ridiculed the efforts of millions of Indians who contributed towards the task of nation-building through hard labour. Naturally, the axe came in the very first year of the Modi government when the payouts fell to Rs 22,000 crore in 2014-15, from Rs 34,000 crore in the previous years. Now, of course, having been in power for two years and realised its importance,

Mr Modi has changed his stance. From a “monument of failure”, MGNREGA is now hailed as “national pride”.

The BJP’s anti-farmer approach is even more evident in its policy towards fixing minimum support price (MSP). Its pre-poll promise of fixing MSP at cost plus 50% turned out to be just another jumla. UPA-2 had increased the MSP by 15%, whereas the Modi government raised it by a mere 3%. While  farmers are caught in a vicious circle of debt, crop failure and government insensitivity, the BJP government in Gujarat plans to bring in  new legislation that will hit them even harder. A new land acquisition bill awaits the governor’s signature in Gujarat that will make grabbing farmers’ land a cakewalk for corporates. If enacted, it will virtually take away farmers’ rights to refuse to sell or engage in disputes over the payment of compensation.

The BJP government at the Centre is taking credit for increaseing total Budget allocation for agriculture and farmers’ welfare from Rs 15,809 crore in 2015-16 (revised estimate) to '35, 984 crore (Budget estimate) in 2016-17. However, it’s nothing but statistical jugglery. As pointed out by P. Chidambaram, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley has shifted the allocation for interest subsidy for short-term credit to farmers from the department of financial services to the department of agriculture, cooperation and farmer welfare. Minus this shift, to quote Mr Chidambaram, “the allocation that was cut in 2015-16 has been restored to the level of 2014-15. Allowing for inflation over two years, in real terms, the allocation may be actually less”.

While industrial development is a must for economic growth, the government cannot sacrifice the interest of millions for the profit of a few. It is time Mr Modi realised that 70% of India’s population earns its livelihood from agriculture. Instead of chanting it as empty rhetoric, Mr Modi should follow  “Sabka saath, sabka vikas”  in letter and spirit.