Lok Sabha elections in Punjab fail to even touch state’s socio-economic contradictions, what to talk of solutions

 

Lok Sabha elections in Punjab fail to even touch state’s socio-economic contradictions

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

Chandigarh: Move over traditional dhabas.

KFCs, Macdonalds, Subways, Café Coffee Day, Tim Horton and the like now dot Punjab’s countryside along the highways.

Modern integrated food complexes have come up and more are coming up that maintain what can be called as international standard, including that of cleanliness.

A family of three, including one man and two women with one wearing a symbolic Gatra, entered one such complex as it was opening in the morning near Jagraon in the Malwa hinterland. The confident rural women had their choice of filling of the Subway burger. Apparently, they were used to the new food habits. Not a case in isolation.

Havelis still serve traditional food.

This write-up is not about the changing consumption pattern.

This is one side of Punjab, especially  of the countryside  and semi-urban variety that has adopted to the latest.

Then one can’t ignore the fact that the Amritsar-Delhi main rail track has remained block for weeks and none seems to be complaining.

Farmers have blocked the track at Shambhu that borders Punjab and Haryana as part of the agitation that is not anymore for their existence and survival, as was the earlier one on the borders of Delhi and supported by almost every section of society. That struggle was also to protect the interests of the consumers from the corporates and not just the farmers.

The women mentioned above who confidently expressed their choice of fillings might have also been participating these struggles.

Punjab is a land of paradoxes.

But then Punjab is not just rural and its urban face has been equally important. However, it is the rural socio-political dynamics that dictates various discourses of this sensitive border state.

The planners and the ruling elite move along periphery of these paradoxes but lack the insight.

Punjab is witnessing both out and in migrations. Punjabis are moving out. Ever since the advent of green revolution, Punjab has virtually been Canada for the labourers coming from mainly the Hindi heartland. Demographic profile of industrial hubs like Ludhiana has changed. Punjab continues to absorb this workforce from these regions.

Still, there is talk of staggering unemployment.

This again is paradox.

The issue is of quality and type of employment.

Punjab failed to keep pace with the introduction of digital technology.

Interestingly, this is the first state that was the fastest to adopt modern farming technologies coinciding with the advent of the Green Revolution.

Punjab is over-mechanised due to ill-planning.

And incident of debt in the farm sector is the highest in this state that continues to be the granary of India.

It is not just the rural areas that benefitted from the Green Revolution.

According to one calculation, about Rs. 80,000 crore is injected into its economy every year by way of procurement of crops and the like. Every grain of wheat and paddy coming to the market is procured on behalf of the Government of India at the minimum support price. Many of the states don’t have such arrangement. This is just one dimension.

This dimension provides sustenance to various types of industry.

Still, the farmer organisations press for legalized MSP although it should have been the demand of the farmers in the states where even wheat and paddy are not procured at this rate. The Centre announces MSP for 23 crops annually but procurement is selective and hence MSP has little meaning.

Even if MSP is legalized for 23 crops, it would mean nothing in the absence of assured procurement. The issue is not just legal MSP but also procurement.

In developed countries, it is the farm income that is subsidized by the government.

At one time, it used to be said that the highest sale of Mercedes luxury cars was in Ludhiana.

Punjab now might be a vast market for middle-end SUVs like Furtuner and Innova, especially the rural areas.

And this region continues to be at times rocked by the after-shocks of the tremor that hit Punjab in eighties.

At one level, Punjab dynamics continue to dictate even India’s geo-politics.

This is the summing up of Punjab on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections.

The problem is that despite strong agrarian base with assured injection of money, the economy is stagnating.

Punjab failed to channelize its agrarian income over the years. Punjab has a very strong base for agro-industry. The irony is that even the two units set up by the state government to process fruits like kinnow failed to yield the desired results, mainly due to official apathy and lack of insight.

It may be mentioned here that the state government planned setting up of some sugarmills in the cooperate sector at one time. One of the mills was planned for Budhladha, now in Mansa district, where cultivation of sugarcane was not even possible! The sites were finalized by the bureaucracy.

Why should Amul set up units in Punjab and not state’s otherwise brand name Verka? Verka failed to professionalise.

It continues to be said that Punjab is confronted with deepening crisis and the three dimensions that are often quoted in the modern context are staggering unemployment, outmigration and drugs.

Then there are issues that are known as the legacy issues.

There is yet another way to look at the issue.

Chandigarh is capital of Punjab, and also of Haryana. However, at the organic level, this modern city is linked to Punjab for which it was built. This city had just two restaurants in its commercial centre of Sector of 17 in seventies. Now the number can’t be counted.

The problem is that the political parties continue to function in the traditional framework rather than evolving long-term comprehensive plans  to address various issues.

One of the approaches is to evolve a minimum politico-economic consensus.

However, the initiative for such approach has to come from the ruling dispensation, even at the cost of taking political risk.

The frog in the well approach has to go.

The paradox is that despite the modern symbols replacing the traditional, Punjab seems to have frozen in the time warp.