Political Response to Farm Exit Policy

Modern Agrarian Suicides in India - Politics and Economics

Often the names are forgotten amongst the figures. The team that conceived this task of putting Names to Figures, did so of its own initiative and finances.
This list was one of the results of a "Study on Indian Agrarian Suicides" led by Devinder Sharma during February-April 2005. The team comprised of the following members :

Bhaskar Goswami (Coordinator) Alok Prakash Putul (Chhatisgarh) Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) Datta Patil and Balasaheb Gaekwad (Maharashtra) Hemant (Bihar and Jharkhand) Jagdish Pradhan (Orissa) Kheti Virasat (Punjab) Nava Thakuria (Assam) Raj Kumar Bharadwaj (Haryana) Rajesh Sinha (Rajasthan) RK Misra (Gujarat) Sunil Kumar Gupta (Madhya Pradesh) Sunita Siddarth Shanker (Uttar Pradesh) Sushil Kumar Sharma (Himachal Pradesh) THANAL (Kerala) TN Prakash (Karnataka)

The Indian media is now regularly, but still cautiously, depending on the views of the editors, covering the stories of Indian farm suicides, while Shri Sharad Pawar cursorily reads out the figures in Parliament and defends wheat imports from Australia and the "acceptable levels of pesticides" in what Indians drink and what mothers milk contains. But apart from the cursory reading of the suicide figures, there is still no attempt to come to grips with the issue of undeclared farm exit policy of Congress. Suicide figures are just figures to be read out in the Parliament. They hide the faces and the stories, of the farmers and the families of the suicidal farmers. The US Secretary of Agriculture also, deems it fit and appropriate, to compare the suicides of Indian farmers with the much smaller number of farmer suicides in United States, in the Indian capital, amongst the friends of Indian commerce federations, while trying to drum up support for the re-energized WTO and supposedly, still a Doha Round. Though of course, Europe and America look at Doha Round only as an attempt to revive WTO, and in reality, have more significant and pressing issues they would like discussed under the umbrella of WTO. Ask the suicidal Indian farmers, if they are optimistic to the same degree, about the success of Doha Round, and you are greeted with blank stares. They are already facing Doha on a daily basis in their homes. That some people are getting ready to foist one more Doha, this time done better, hardly elates the Indian farmers. Labels: elections, farm, farmers, food, indian, movements, rural, security, urban, votes
Four Pillars of Indian Farm Exit Policy
Much fuss is being made in India, of the letter written by the UPA chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, to Shri Manmohan Singh regarding the major news of Walmart entering India in partnership with Indian industrialists without a footprint in retail. The "language of the open letter", billed of course as only the third major intevention of Mrs Gandhi in issues of governance, of course, shows that Mrs Gandhi has all along been in the dark, about this major reorganization of retail sector in India, being considered by the Agriculture and Commerce ministries, with the green signal from Prime Minister, under the garb of inviting investments into Indian agriculture and propelling the Second Green Revolution in India. Of course, the issue of on whose weak backs, the second Green Revolution will play itself out, is a moot question. One best answered - by a much delayed and avoided like the cow dung of villages - visit to farmer organizations in Vidarbha and Indian killing fields by the masters of Indian economic tiger. And why, not afterall, all serious economists are busy churning out the percentage figures of Indian GDP, and wondering if it will hit double figures. Of course, different people will have different perceptions about the knowledge or ignorance of Mrs Gandhi, about the entry, of American and European major retailers into India, either directly, or on the backs of a facilitating joint venture entity with Indian non retail players, in the absence of WTO globally binding agreements. Food Retail is the big sunrise sector in India, and promises major electoral battles, in the coming years, as masses of populations, in Indian cities and villages are displaced and forced into unplanned economic restructuring of epic proportions. Like the Roman Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned, or the Shatranj ke Khiladi of Awadh, even though the Communists are busy saving the navratnas, and prefer to ignore the issues of eviction of sharecroppers from Bengal farmlands, and make their routine "oh, this is not right", exclamations in New Delhi. Let us for the while, believe with all due innocence, that Mrs Gandhi has no role at all to play in the decisions regarding entry of single brand global majors into Indian food sector. What I wish to draw attention to, is the language of the letter from Mrs Gandhi. Mrs Gandhi writes "...I have received suggestions from many quarters, about the desirability to first study, the possible impact, of transnational, super markets on livelihood security, of those engaged in small scale operations. I thought I would convey this to you so that, you may consider having the relevant issues properly examined before further decisions are taken..." Although WalMart has entered the wholesale sector, which allows 100 per cent FDI, we all know from the Tesco strategy, of entering the Chinese food retail market, via a joint venture Ting Hsin, to understand and influence local agricultural practices, that this is the means of actually directly pegging its own brand in the Indian retail space. We all know that no global major, wants to enter the Chinese or Indian markets, only for the wholesale pie. It is the retail pie that all global majors and the Indian new entrants like Reliance are after, let us be under no illusions about this. It seems that with her European lineage, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, well understands, what the Europeans and Americans want from India and are drumming up pressure for. This is a major reversing of the national food security generated by the agriculture policies of her mother in law, Mrs Indira Gandhi. Major industrial economies, after years of low cost Chinese inputs, are now beginning to feel the impact of incipient inflation in their local economies and stagnating growth in the consumer markets. Mrs Gandhi is believed to have asked for the details of the Bharti WalMart contract and wants top ministries to gauge its impact on small-scale retailers. Top ministries ? Ah, have a guess, what are these "top ministries" ? Any guesses ? It is those of Shri Sharad Pawar, Mr Chidambaram and Shri Kamal Nath. These are the movers and shakers aka, top ministries. In this context, I also want to point out that Mrs Gandhi has raised this issue only in the context of the small traders. Are not the Indian farmers also to be included in the blessings that are about to be coming the way of small traders, after this intervention of Mrs Sonia Gandhi in this most important of Indian economic developments since the Green Revolution ? Watch this blog for more on what are the Four Pillars of the undeclared Indian Farm Exit Policy.