The largest protest in human history
'Dilli Chalo' explainer | What farmers' protest is all about?
Hey there,
Winter is here. I hope you’re safe and cozy in the warm-furry blankets in the comfort of your homes.
However, unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the farmers of India.
At 11 degrees, about 3 lakh farmers are camped on the highways of the state of Delhi. They are cooking out in the open, sleeping in the back of their trucks and tractors, bathing in the public toilets on the Petrol pump or in the open fields, and more importantly, most of them are in their 60s and 70s.
They are asking the center to roll-back the Farm Bills which were passed in September 2020.
This makes one wonder - What is going on? What could possibly make them commit to a protest that is so physically strenuous?
Without further ado, let’s dive into understanding the law -
So what do India’s new farm laws do?
They allow farmers to sell directly to the private sector outside of the government-controlled Mandis (called the APMCs - Agricultural Produce Market Committee). Now, the farmers have a choice to sell their produce to Mandis or the private sector.
They allow the private sectors to come into contracts with the farmers. The companies can order farmers to grow the exact crop which they want to buy later. (Contract-farming).
They removed all the restrictions on Hoarding (up till now hoarding was illegal).
The government says this will “liberate” the farmers from the existing corruption of the APMCs and the middlemen and they can enter into open markets.
It sounds great. But then…
Why is any of this a problem?
For this, let’s just take a step back and understand what the system was before these rules.
APMCs are state government regulated markets or ‘Mandis’ which offer MSP to the farmers. The MSP system is essentially a safety net offered to the farmers in the form of a minimum price at which the government itself will buy from them if they couldn’t sell it anywhere else.
On paper, the APMCs offer protection to small farmers because it is a regulated space but over time the APMCs have become a den of monopoly, corruption, and middlemen.
Now, the government argues that the APMC system is flawed and the only way to fix it is to allow the farmers direct access to the private sector.
i.e To allow the private sector to set up similar mandis across the country.
BUT the farmers say that if the private sector starts to set up mandis which don’t have to pay the tax and dues to the state government, over a period of time, the private sector mandis, because of completion, will wipe out the APMCs.
And if the APMCs get wiped out, the farmers will essentially be left only at the mercy of the private sector and the farmers will have nowhere to go.
But Isn’t there a minimum price at which farmers are guaranteed to be able to sell their produce?
Yup, the MSP. But, it is not guaranteed under this law.
The farmers argue that when the private sector takes over, the APMSs will be weakened and eventually shut down and thus the MSP will also go with them. Because technically, private sector Mandi is under no obligation to offer the MSP.
Thus, no written guarantee of the MSP in the new law worries the farmers.
But you said farmers can enter into contracts with buyers. Surely this will give them legal protection?
On Paper - Yes
In practice - Not-so-much
These laws do not mandate a written contract. Please understand, more than 80% of our farmers are small farmers (with less than 5 acres of land). With their existing financial and social constructs, they feel that they will not have any bargaining power against corporates on the legal front. So if there is a problem later, the farmer will have trouble going up against a big corporate.
So who else is affected by the rule changes?
“No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against the Central Government or the State Government, or any officer of the Central Government or the State Government or any other person in respect of anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done under this Act or of any rules or orders made thereunder.”
Welcome to Section 13 of The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 (the one aimed at gutting the APMCs).
Every Indian is affected.
“No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie….” It’s not just farmers who cannot sue. Nobody else can, either. It applies to public interest litigation too. Nor can non-profit groups, or farm unions, or any citizen (driven by faith good or bad) intervene.
Translated into English, the legal lingo of these laws also convert the (low-level) executive into a judiciary. Into, in fact, judge, jury, and executioner.
So, if there is a problem later, this law specifies that you cannot go to court, you have to go to a government official (district-level administrative officers or an appellate authority) and their decision will be final.
The farmers say that this essentially takes away their fundamental right to approach the court.
Why are so many of these farmers from Punjab?
You would be told that it is because of Congress-government in Punjab.
Nopes. Do not believe this.
The real reason is that Punjab farmers grow mostly Wheat and Rice and these are MSP crops. They benefit the most from the APMS and the MSP system.
Thus, they stand to lose the most if these systems were to be challenged to weaken in the future.
The laws were passed in September. Why are the farmers protesting now?
Because no one bothered to check with them before they were passed!
The farmers had been protesting for over two months in their respective states before the #Dillichalo movement.
So what farmers are arguing effectively is that these laws altogether are throwing them to the wolves, which is the private sector. Now, the point to be noted here is that the private sector has no obligation to look after the farmers, their obligation fundamentally is to their shareholders and to its profits, which is exactly what they’ll be looking out for.
Ah, now it all makes sense!
That’s great to hear. I really hope it does.
As the headline state, this is now that largest organized strike in history anywhere in the world. More than 250,000,000 (250 million)* people are now involved in the protest.
This is actually 10 times the population of Australia.
Yes, there are leakages in the current system like the middlemen exploitation and it does need to be reformed but replacing one failed model with another is not the solution. We simply cannot leave the fate of our farmers to the hands of the market.
Social Media is often a major player in a public demonstration, use it to show your support. We need to make our representatives work for us. We do not need to give into mediocre legislations and bad implementations, we deserve better.
Our farmers deserve better.
Remember: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
In the next issue, we will discuss how your in-hand salary might be less from the next years according to the new law proposed by the government.
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*Source - Democracynow.org
References - Bare acts, aljazeera.com, Faye D’souza, thewire.in
Image Credit - Vibhugroverr and Amneetbali
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