INDIAN farmers have been braving police violence and incurring abusive outbursts from pro-government media to stridently reject recent laws passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. The laws passed in September are perceived as favouring India’s big businesses in an unequal bargain. Among the sticking points is an official aversion to a minimum support price the farmers want the government to commit to, a subsidy that most capitalist systems accord their agriculture but which has been frowned on in India since the advent of the 1990s’ free-market policies. The protesting farmers are mainly from the larger landholding regions of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. They say they have been dealing with village moneylenders with whom they had acquired a comfort level. The big corporates posed a threat. They are seeking to harness Indian agriculture to their supply chain that dovetails with the interests of larger MNCs. Some evidence here worries the farmers. Indian businesses have taken over large swathes of arable land in developing countries, principally in Africa, triggering protests from peasant groups there against exploitative practices they liken to the colonial period.

The farmers say they have come prepared for six months to choke Delhi’s arterial roads. It could be extended to ensure a repeal of the controversial laws. Already, the stand-off is being seen as a political liability Mr Modi had not anticipated. The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, which is affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has termed the three farm bills cleared by both houses of parliament amid much protest by the opposition. Bulldozing of bills in parliament has become a feature of the Modi government, which had used similar ambush tactics to dismantle the special status of India-held Kashmir. At stake is the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020. The government’s response so far has swung between cordially meeting farmers’ leaders and describing them as anti-nationals. TV channels loyal to Mr Modi have called the peaceful protest as the work of Khalistanis and Maoists. About an allegation that the opposition Congress party was instigating the farmers to destabilise Mr Modi, a Punjab farmer said: “If the Congress had the means to mobilise hundreds of thousands of farmers, their women and children included, the party would have won the general election.”

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2020