Promises, Power Play, and Politics; Who Will Deliver?
Originally published: February 23, 2024.
It has been found that a farm plot smaller than 0.63 hectare does not provide enough income to stay above the
poverty line. About 319 lakh agricultural households, average of five members each, have a land holding of
0.01-0.4 hectare, another 331 lakh have less than 1 hectare.
The national average monthly household income for farmers in India is Rs. 10,218. To put it in perspective, it
is perhaps less than what an average salaried urban citizen spends on wants, not even needs, every month.
According to a 2015 study by the eminent agricultural economist Ramesh Chand, Odisha and West Bengal are
worse at a farm income of Rs. 5000-6000 per household per month. And yet it’s only the farmers from Punjab
protesting for MSP. All the others—mere spectators—from the rest of the country sit and watch, but in the
event that MSP does come through, all will reap the reward without even as much as having lifted a little
finger.
Merely tweaking MSPs will not provide a sustainable solution—agreed. However, it’s a small reassurance to
inspire some hope and confidence among the farmer community, and it’s needed. We need to set out
somewhere to solve an issue, MSP can be that starting point.
CM Modi strived for MSP himself before 2014. And now he seems to have inferred that the cost will be to his
own pocket. Let’s be realistic. With the national elections only a few months away, NDA regime cannot grant
MSP at this point; it can only be the next government that can now implement it. UPA leadership is assuring
they will legalise MSP if they are put in power, but then the pocket will be theirs.
Punjab government is no better. Mann is happy to mediate discussions between the farmer leaders and the
Centre, enjoying the caricatures that project him as the bridge bearing the weight of the tractor trolleys heading
towards Delhi. He could implement MSP for his own state. We could set an example for the rest of the country.
But he has not proposed it because no one is demanding MSP from him—they are looking at Delhi, so it’s easy
to show solidarity.
India takes pride in being the largest democracy. It is celebrated because where a totalitarian government often
runs the risk of becoming self-serving, democracy is kept in check by dissenting voices, ensuring those in
power to be of service to its citizens. Sometimes, just sometimes, one might wonder: is an able, level-headed,
dutiful sovereign not just what India needs?
We strived for decades to become free, let us not go back a hundred years.
