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Farmers get what we think they should get, and no more.

It would be unethical to claim any originality in the context of the title. ‘Orphans of the Motherland’ is a blues track sung by Sonny Landreth. Blues music is both vocal and instrumental. It is African-American in origin and style. Blues refer to spirits that are down. Blues express hopelessness and sadness.

African-American communities of the US sang the blues before the Civil War (1861-65). They have sung the blues long after the Civil Rights Act in 1964. They have sung the blues to unburden their hearts. India does not have a blues tradition. If it did, its farmers too would have poured their hearts out to express their dejection and fears.

Farmers would have informed us that they are the orphans of this motherland. This land is theirs. But they are not its children in the fullest sense. Is their plight beyond any repair and reconstruction? Will there be reform and redemption? Will there be heartiness and earthiness in their lives?

Experts have thoroughly analysed the waiver of farm loans announced by the Finance Minister. They have scrutinised its motivation, merits and methodology. One major conclusion has emerged. The waiver in the current context is a pretentious panacea. It will do no real good to most farmers in the short term and in the long term. The causes of the woes that wreck farmers will remain.

The experts think the plight of India’s farmers is awful. There is an unusual congruence of views. Every expert has more or less the same views and explanations. But they offer no solution. They are unanimous in stating that the waiver will do nothing to raise farm incomes. The waiver is just another waste, is it?

Has India’s Finance Minister accomplished the impossible? He certainly has drawn attention to the sadness, the misery and the hopelessness of farmers by merely promising to bail out the banks that have lent to farmers. That one promise — even if airy — has jolted a whole nation into action. Is he a perceptive blues musician who is no vocalist but knows how to play some wind instruments? Is he the genius that can pull, pluck and twang the strings too?

Onions are pungently flavourful. They are breathtaking. It is tough to suppress the truth that they have been eaten. Some courage is required. If you have it, take the onion test. Do you feel happy and relieved when the government bans the export of onion in order to bring down its price? Consider what Delhi’s Chief Minister did in July 2007. Anticipating a rise in price, the Chief Minister met India’s Agriculture Minister with two demands. First, onion export from Maharashtra should be banned. Second, Maharashtra’s onions should be routed to Delhi to keep prices low.

The chairman of Delhi Agriculture Marketing Board (DAMB) did not protest. The DAMB is a statutory body that is supposed to help farmers get the best price possible. It did not matter that Maharashtra’s onion producers would have a lower price realisation and a much lower income or worse — a loss — as a result of the ban. Delhi consumes about 400 tonnes of onion per day. To secure this supply, it was considered perfectly right to ban the export of thousands of tonnes of onions.

Please put your hand to your hearts and ask what India’s farmers are to you. They are your suppliers, right? It is their duty to work the farms, toil under the merciless sun and move their harvest to your larder and table, right? Their freedom to sell what they produce at a price they choose to can be curtailed and crushed, right?

Many of us think that farmers are merely an inconvenient but unavoidable link between the soil and our tables. We think it is both necessary and defensible to treat them as our undeclared serfs. So, we do not hesitate to seek a ban on the export of rice and pulses. The export of basmati rice is acceptable because rich farmers grow basmati. But the export of ordinary rice should be and can be banned because the voiceless small farmer grows such rice. The export of wheat and sugar too can be and will be banned because farmers are our serfs.

Therefore, farmers will get what we think they should get, and no more. They cannot seek what they want. But we can seek what we want. We will get what we think we should get. Everyone else has all the rights, including the ‘right to strike’. But farmers are seldom given all these rights. They are not India’s first-class citizens, are they? They are merely a component of the framework of essential commodities. They are here to serve us. They are here to serve our interests.

Our interests would be jeopardised if farmers belonged fully to the markets for inputs, information, output and prices. So there is an elaborate system of subsidies. Subsidies are supposed to protect farmers. Some think subsidies mollycoddle farmers. But subsidies shackle them while protecting our interests at our option.

Some subsidies are put options. These allow others to sell inputs to farmers at the highest possible prices. All other subsidies are call options. These allow consumers to buy farm output at the lowest possible prices. Farmers buy inputs at the highest possible prices. Farmers sell output at the lowest possible prices. Surely, the waiver will do nothing to raise farm incomes, can it?

Farmers are the option sellers in India. The subsidies are the option prices we pay. All risks and all losses belong to farmers. All certainty and all profits will belong to us. Thus, farming incomes derived from rural enterprise and resourcefulness are suppressed and crushed. These incomes are also exposed to high risks. We are the cause of the sadness, misery and hopelessness of farmers, are we not?

Farmers produce to serve our interests. They own their lands too to serve our interests. Nothing is theirs. Consider the objectives of economic development, industrialisation, better infrastructure and global competitiveness. Towards pursuing one or more of these, it is perfectly right to forcibly acquire their lands.

Lands can be and will be forcibly acquired by the government. The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 makes such acquisition legal. Farmers have no choice but to acquiesce to the forcible acquisition. It is not ironical that Independent India has to use a pre-Independence Act to snatch farmers’ lands. It is not ironical too that Republic India has to use a monarchical Act to pack off farmers from their lands. Humane subtleties such as fertile and not fertile lands, and fair market prices and unfair low prices are presented and discussed to hide the iron fist.

To understand how hypocritical we are, we need to observe the bid-by-auction for cricket players that will play in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Cricketers had the volition to play in the IPL or to stay way. No one could be coerced. No one could be short-changed. The big-bang wicket-keepers, batters, bowlers and fielders got the better bids. The big bids reflected the future cash inflows to the bidding team’s owners. We cheered all of these. We called it an exciting innovation.

But farmers can be coerced. They can be short-changed. The price paid for their lands will not have to reflect the future cash inflows to the new owners. Farmers do not have the volition to offer their lands, if at all they wish to, to the highest bidders. Farmers do not have the right to hold on to their lands. They are the orphans of the motherland, aren’t they?

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