It is going to be another Mahabharta, this time between farmers and the Modi government with Punjab in command

Farmers’ struggle could dictate political discourse in forthcoming assembly polls, including Punjab

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

Punjab and Haryana is now going to the  battle ground of the Mahabharta with farmers on the one side and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the centre on the other and  this confrontation is also likely to dictate the political as well as the electoral discourse in the forthcoming Assembly elections in several states in the ensuing months and later Punjab in February 2022.

The fact can’t also be ignored that the problems that might arise out of the opening up the farm sector completely to the ruthless market forces could be different from state to state. The region that is directly impacted includes Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh.

The agitation has been sparked in Punjab where the new legislation has impacted more than two decade old alliance between the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party dating back to 1996 that was operationalised for the first time in the 1997 Assembly elections. The Akali Dal has contested the 1996 Lok Sabha election in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party but opted to extend unconditional support to the BJP government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee laying the foundation of this alliance that remained rock solid all these years.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the lone Akali minister in the Narendra Modi government has resigned from the cabinet after she and other members of her family including her husband Sukhbir Singh Badal who heads the Akali Dal and her father-in-law and five time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal  defended the ordinances vociferously for about two and a half months. Badal Senior was the last to be fielded by the husband-wife team in defence of the ordinances.

The family was forced to take a U-turn under pressure from the farmers.

“I am not calling it anti-farmers. It is the farmers who are calling it that. Is that clear”? This comment by Harsimrat in an interview to India Today after her resignation provides insight into the thinking of the Badal family. The issue here is not that of the thinking of the Shiromani Akali Dal as such as several senior leaders have been holding the view contrary to that of the Badal family members.

It was repeatedly said that the farmers were being misled by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.

The senior Akali leaders now favour end to the alliance as the farmers are not mollified just with the resignation. The decision makers are learnt to be in two minds fearing it might spell electoral ruine. But then there is little choice as the farmers are mainly the Sikhs. The Badals, however, have not even once explained their outright support to the ordinances earlier.

The issue now is the future political discourse.

The Congress Party that has failed to exhibit any sign of revival at the national level could use Punjab as a spring board to bounce back but that depends upon one person and he is Capt Amarinder Singh. The Congress would have to do more than fighting this battle of the farmers. His government would have to perform too and provide comparatively corruption free governance. That has been lacking so far.

Even at the cost of repetition, it has to be reiterated that Punjab fought country’s battle for food sovereignty from the front. However, the same seems to have been forgotten.

Punjab has always been a victim of neglect in general. Punjabis made the maximum sacrifice for the freedom struggle of country and it is a matter of record. However, this was never duly recognised.

Punjab would now have to fight another battle as it is a matter of survival too for this region. It might be the basic law of development that the number of people dependent upon farm sector must decrease over the years but there has to be a natural process, not by throttling this sector.

The unleashing of unbridled market forces might lead to exploitation of the small farmers as used to happen during pre-Green Revolution days.

The issue is not continuation of minimum support price regime but assured market. One should take out the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Punjab Agro-Industries Corporation and Pepsico to get at the roots of the fears and apprehensions of the farmers. The agriculture minister at that time was Capt Amarinder Singh. That experiment failed miserably, due to Pepsi.

The issue is not just the politics of Akali Dal but that of the political discourse that is going to be shaped by this struggle in Punjab and Haryana.

The lead, as usual, has to come from Punjab.