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Can Farmers Become a Political Class?

Kisan Sansad: Can Farmers Become a Political Class? | Yogendra Yadav https://youtu.be/carytlWOjuw?t=217   Aug 17, 2021 

Devendra Sharma, Darshan Pal, , when a tractor user becomes PM, the approach and Narrative of development will change 

Yudhvir Singh: Those who have come to power have done so, because Kisan has also supported them,  Now the call from Farmers from all over will 

Jiginder Singh Ugraha: We have been able to people aware that these deicision have been made in favour of Corporate. Thus if not this government  the next govt will have to listen to the movement of people. this will bring about impact on politics of the country. 

Joginder Yadav: What did the movement achieve?  13 days of Kisaan Sansad had people from  arpound 3700 farmers from 20 states took part. 56 hours of discussions, and spoke about 6 laws in depth.  Bodes well for Democracy. 

Can this be apolitical?  If you consider politics as elections politics then the Sayukh Kiasn Morcha is not in politics. We have told people like in West Bangal that they should not to vote for people who are working against farmers.  If by politics we are talking about engaging with politics issues and not caring about how we are being ruled, or the decisions that you are taking, in this sens not just the Kasan Andolan but every other movement is an integral part of politics. To be apolitical in this sense means that you distance yourself from the nations future.  The Yug dharma in the current Yug is Politics. 

Will the farmers issue affect the Politics of the country? The andolan should change the arena of politics..  Will we go back to our identities of caste or religion or divisive politics at the time of voting? - This andolan has for the fist time raised the hope of Kisaan is not falling into the trap of divisive identity politics. 

A Question of Strategy – Farmers Stir and Its Foes

A Question of Strategy – Farmers Stir and Its Foes in India https://countercurrents.org/2021/07/a-question-of-strategy-farmers-stir-and-its-foes/  — by Hiren Gohain — 25/07/2021

Farmers believe since their movement has solid support of farmers and workers in the states other than those directly involved... But.. the support is not as organised, watchful and militant . Hence.. a flurry of policy measures that take them by surprise .

In Assam..a new directive from the centre many farmers here who had received Rs.6000 in three instalments  will have to return the amount as they do not hold secure land Pattas...On retrospect (this move) may well have been a cold, calculating stratagem to find out the amount of land to be ultimately given away to corporates.For dispossessing farmers of their land is one of the priority aims of the disputed laws.

Reportedly, the state government has been asked not to buy foodgrains from farmers any more.  the state government has been asked not to buy foodgrains from farmers any more. 

Given these attacks, front farmers' leaders have got to find solutions in time to such problems behind the lines

Sukla Sen Comments: 

.. the aim of the three farm laws, taken together, is to corporatise (with Adani/Ambani very much in the lead) food/agricultural trade/sector and, on the way, dismantle the system of procurement, and also distribution (at discounted rates) to targeted groups, by the state.

..The ongoing fight is, no doubt, a historic one; in order to overwhelm the regime. However, it has to generate strong waves of support from amongst the wider public. That's not yet happening.
Maybe the way the common consumers are going to be hit remains to be adequately highlighted.

The regime has, as it appears, opted to tire out the agitation - avoiding spectacular use of coercive measures.  In fact the stir has already significantly receded from public discourse.

So, it's admittedly, a tough situation. Nevertheless, the agitation is still on. Just had a big event at the Jantar Mantar. When and how a spark turns into a prairie fire or a flame gets simply doused - leaving only ashes behind, is not too easy to predict. It has, apparently, its own mysterious dynamics.

Other Views: Unless, State government moves quickly to sort out the existing problems with the APMC and Agricultural System, the Centre needs to only bide its time, and allow the agricultural crisis to deepen.   The issues include exploitation by CAs, lower price realisation, lack of transparency in the trading process, collusion among traders, price cartelisation, delay in payments and low quality of mandi infrastructure.  If the farmers are to have a fighting chance against the juggernaut of Corporatism, they would have to install a modern a system of transparent real time comparative information on  price, production, commodity.. and innovative local systems of finance freed from the clutches of trader manipulation.

How farmers view the existing Mandi system https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2020/dec/12/how-farmers-view-the-existing-mandi-system-2235123.html 
12th December 2020 The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020. enabling the farmers to sell their produce directly to any traders outside the state government-controlled markets. Second, by facilitating the setting up of electronic agricultural trading platforms.
Kurnool and Kadapa regions in Andhra and Ammur and Denkanikottai in TN Study: Over half of the farmers we interacted with (57%) are unhappy with the mandi system of sale. While 43% are satisfied.

The reasons for unhappiness are exploitation by CAs, lower price realisation, lack of transparency in the trading process, collusion among traders, price cartelisation, delay in payments and low quality of mandi infrastructure.
Those satisfied with the mandi system are due to trust built over time with CAs and traders, reasonable price discovery and trust in government control.

This section of the farmers preferred to stay with the mandis due to difficulty in adjusting to a new system and fear of exploitation and low price realisation. Yet, they demanded an improvement in the efficiency of operation of mandis and prices offered there. These results suggest that farmers are somewhat divided on their choice of the mandi system of trade. So the government did the right thing by allowing the farmers to continue to sell their produce in mandis and providing alternative options to others.

Most farmers depend on CAs for credit, price information, transportation and storage. This suggests that farmers’ ability to take advantage of the new trading opportunities depends on the institutional conditions that control farm production. Therefore, the government needs to put complementary support mechanisms to empower the farmers and reduce their dependence on CAs for agricultural support services. Then, the goal of freeing up the farmers from the clutches of mandis would become easier to achieve.

For other articles on farmers agitation: http://emeets.lnwr.in/index.php/farmers-agitation-against-black-laws 

Critique of the Political Economy of Farmers Agitation

 “Gramsci at the Delhi Border: Indian Farmers and the Revolution against Inevitability”
  https://antipodeonline.org/2021/06/14/gramsci-at-the-delhi-border/  14th June 2021

Extracts: The ongoing farmer and worker protest in India presents a confounding moment in global history. .. For six months they have remained at a tense deadlock with the government. During that time, the protest has grown to encompass diverse strands of Indian society...cutting across caste, religious, gender and class lines.....this protest is not led by a single, secretive party, nor is it driven by the objective of seizing political power. Even in the face of severe repression, the protest has eschewed the use of violence. 

Indian farmers ..fear these laws will lead to their gradual impoverishment and eventual eviction from agriculture altogether. .. the government and its supporters repeatedly claim that cultivation has become stagnant, and that a greater proportion of people need to be moved into other occupations. Yet instead of addressing the technical problems in agricultural policy, or developing greater local industrial capacity, it is content to allow private corporations to leverage their immense purchasing power to manipulate prices and control the food supply-chain. Market imperatives will then completely dictate cultivation practices, setting off waves of uncertainty, indebtedness and consolidation in the countryside. Far from “reforms”, these laws are little more than a license for corporate monopolizing that will result in rural displacement.

In this sense, the Indian government is pursuing a derivative strategy of accumulation.. a warped attempt to follow the trajectory of 16th–18th century England, where peasants were forcibly expelled from the countryside to end up in cities as workers in factories, or as soldiers and settlers in various imperial ventures. 

..21st century India scarcely offers the same chimeric possibilities: remunerative manufacturing jobs are pitifully few; there is no scope for colonizing entire continents. A more likely prospect for ex-farmers will be to join the swelling ranks of the urban poor to find whatever haphazard work is available, while a fraction desperately seeks migration abroad.

The farmer’s protest is therefore a revolt against capitalist inevitability. It embodies a critique of the stale logics of deregulation, privatization and dispossession. 

Small-scale independent cultivation can be made viable.Public investment and localized regulation can become efficient. In Panjab several initiatives are underway for joint cultivation and resource-pooling which involve large numbers of farmers and even landless laborers. These techniques would be both equitable and sustainable, and scalable, if given the right support.

Private enterprise, will lead to  mono-cropping, chemical-dependence and factory-farming. The primary aim of a corporation is to endlessly pursue increasing profit every quarter and year, regardless of the rise in inequality or damage to ecology. ..

The fortunes of the struggle at the borders of Delhi thus have implications for the rest of the world. .. Indian farmers are battling to articulate new kinds of economic rights, to subvert current neoliberal orthodoxy in order to place collective wellbeing at the center of democratic politics.