The Hindu Business Line : Wheat Turmoil 2008 — Resurrection of the farmers’ movement

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Wheat Turmoil 2008 — Resurrection of the farmers’ movement

If the ban on futures trading in wheat and paddy is lifted, farmers can get a price higher than what private traders are offering for their produce and it would help them get out of the debt trap.

Sharad Joshi

April 2, 2008 was an important date in the history of the farmers’ movement in India. On that day, the farmers near Sisauli village in the western Uttar Pradesh got together to fight a pitched battle with the State police, which had come to arrest Jat leader Mr Mahendra Singh Tikait for an offence under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

It was alleged that Mr Tikait had used abusive language against Ms Mayawati, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, in a public meeting at Bijnaur.

Mr Tikait had emerged as a major leader of the western Uttar Pradesh Jat farmers in 1980s. That region has a long history of strife between the landed Jat community and the landless Jatav caste. Mr Tikait had no pretensions to either knowledge or understanding of the farmers’ problems. He inherited the mantle of the Pradhan of 84 villages in Muzzafarpur district and could gather thousands of farmers at the drop of a hat.

While Mr Narayanaswamy Naidu in Tamil Nadu and the Shetkari Sanghatana in Maharashtra were articulating the farmers’ cause in sophisticated economic idiom to highlight their poverty and the indebtedness, Mr Tikait was capitalising on his rustic appeal and Jat sagacity to make his political manoeuvres.

Before the day ended, Mr Tikait was arrested, presented in a Bijnaur court and released on bail. He understood, before it was too late, the possible consequences of inciting a caste conflagration.

From the evening of April 1 till the evening of April 2, the scene at Sisauli brought to mind the barricading of Sant Bhindranwale during the infamous Operation Bluestar of 1984. Fortunately, this time, no blood was spilt.

Other options

One could not help feeling sorry for Mr Tikait for getting embroiled in such a controversy. There were a number of ways in which he could have made a revival. Firstly, there was the moth-eaten loan waiver scheme announced by the Finance Minister in the Budget that conferred no benefit on the farmers of Uttar Pradesh.

Then there was the ordinance that prohibited private traders from entering the wheat mandis in the golden bowl of India. And, last but not the least, there was the ban on trading in wheat and paddy on the Futures Commodity Exchanges — the only platform that could give farmers the advantage of time and space dimensions without having to spend money for it.

Futures trade

Recently. at Chandigarh, a number of farmers gathered. They were peaceful but enraged at the idea that the private traders were prepared to offer their wheat as much as Rs 1,500 while the Government insisted that they deliver the entire wheat to the Food Corporation of India for a paltry Rs 1,000.

If the Government permits trade in wheat on the futures market, the farmers would probably get a higher price. The Punjab faction of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, which organised this event at Chandigarh, refused to allow itself to be diverted by the petty issues surrounding Mr Tikait. It has declared a total boycott of the wheat markets for the first 11 days of the Food Corporation of India procurement and plans to file a writ petition in the Supreme Court against restrictions on agricultural trade that are ultra vires the Constitution.

It plans to hold a large panchayat of farmers from all over India at Kurukshetra in Haryana to decide on the future course of action.

It has also called upon all the splinter groups including the Tikait BKU and the Lokhowal faction, now a part of the Akali Dal, to come together once again to defend the farmers’ cause and resurrect the old glory of the farmers’ movement.

(The author is Founder, Shetkari Sanghatana and Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha). E-mail: sharad.mah@nic.in)

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