Farmers' Agitation in India
The current demands through the ongoing farmers' agitation include ensuring a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, loan waivers, withdrawal of cases against the farmers, and amendments to the Essential Commodities Act.
However, farmer leaders have also put forth various other demands, such as cancelling the WTO agreement related to the farmers, repealing the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020, keeping farmers exempted from pollution laws, and opposing the installation of electronic meters for electricity.
Prominent farm leaders who led the farmers' protest in 2020-21 have distanced themselves from the stir this year. The big guns from Punjab and Haryana, who dominated the Kisan Andolan in 2020-21, believe this protest lacks intensity as it is only being spearheaded by a few farmers' unions. Of the 40 Punjab farmer unions participating in Kisan Andolan, only two prominent unions are behind the 'Delhi Chalo' march. Negotiations failed because of the IRRATIONAL & REGRESSIVE demands of these Anti-nationals.
1. Complete waiver of all agriculture loans, which will amount to a loss of approx ?24 Lakhs Crores to Bharat's Banking System.
2. Assurance from Govt on not going ahead with Electricity Reforms.
3. No restriction on Stubble Burning, which pollutes the Environment, even though the Govt in UP has shown how Stubble can be used to monetise farmers without affecting the Environment.
4. Demand to pull out of WTO when The Govt has already made WTO bend & accept Bharat's Proposals to fetch maximum benefits for Bharat's Farmers & Fishermen. The WTO's overriding objective is to ensure trade flows as smoothly and predictably as possible and help its members use trade to raise people's living standards. It does this by administering trade agreements. Thus, the WTO is a forum for trade negotiations. India's trade has increased significantly after joining the WTO. It has enabled India to access global markets for its goods and services. If India pulls out of WTO, it would affect businesses of thousands of products and services, crashing India's economy.
5. Pension of ?10000 for farmers above 60 years of age, despite the Govt already giving ?6000 funds to ALL farmers.
6. They demand that the government pay crop insurance premiums when the central government already runs such a scheme. But now they demand insurance per field and NOT based on crops.
7. Make the changes in all land acquisitions with retrospective effect as per the 2013 law, which will affect all infrastructure projects Nationwide.
8. Diversion of funds of ?86000 Crores under MGNREGA to farmers to reduce their cost of production.
It is clear that the intention is to disrupt law and order and create an environment against the government in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Solution: The government has done a lot over the last ten years in the interest of farmers. The highest input cost for farmers is the one that goes into purchasing and sourcing fertilisers. Across the world, today, a bag of urea is priced at Rs 3,000, but in our country, it is available at Rs 300 per bag. The agricultural sector's budgetary allocation was Rs 25,000 crore before 2014. However, it has since been increased to Rs 1,25,000 crore. Nearly Rs 18 lakh crore has been received by farmers in the form of MSP in the last ten years. Also, till now, farmers have received Rs 2,80,000 crore under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. Under PM Safal Bima Yojna, Insurance premiums amounting to Rs 30 crore were paid, and the farmers successfully claimed Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Such schemes should continue.
The report of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on farm laws has been released in the public domain. The report was released by Anil Jaysingh Ghanwat, president of the Swatantra Bharat Party and the Shetkari Sanghatana, a member of the committee appointed by the Chief Justice's bench of the Supreme Court in January 2021. The report states that an overwhelming 85.7% of the farmer organisations the committee directly interacted with lent support to the three farm laws. Therefore, the government must implement farm laws as soon as possible.
Conclusion: The farmers' stir is politically motivated, causing a daily loss of ?400 crores to the nation.