THE FARMER’ STORY
By: Anvi Saini
Tags: Medium, Farmers, India, Protest, Trending

As I am writing this article, thousands of farmers are protesting at the major borders of Delhi on their 13th day, Imagine spending 13 days on roads in cold, the protests in India are not new, neither is the government’s attitude to these.

The change in this story is the food providers are not only speaking about being here but having a perfect arrangement for surviving. Quintals of milk are delivered almost every day from different parts of Punjab and Haryana, Local newspapers are being supplied, they refused to speak to ‘GODI’ labelled media. The system is so efficient that people are doing rotations so that they could easily go to their homes and the number of protesters remains constant.

The protest which is getting its peak exposure started 2–3 months ago, against the withstanding 3 major farm laws, called by some fancy names has a major focus on removing APMC mandi (market). The 3 laws focused on removing these and giving them so-called freedom to directly sell their stock to anyone. And this is why exactly it concerns with farmers of Punjab & Haryana. As these mandis don't exist in other states like Bihar.

And with these models, the results can be easily seen, The price they get for the same amount of crops is 10 times less than in Punjab. Secondly, so many farmers come to Punjab & Haryana to sell their crops, through these mandis.

This model of these states clearly backs up the statements which farmers are putting against the three bills.

What are the three major bills in simple words?

You can search the long names, but in layman terms, the laws are abolishing the middlemen of farmers who used to buy from APMC mandis and were restricted to buy the stock in a limited amount. And farmers can sell only through these APMC markets.

It may sound good on paper that the government is giving them more options, but the reality is much different, as seen in many states where mandis do not exist.

The big firms can buy the stock in a much larger amount at a good price. And could store them for years. So, the next year the farmers would have very few buyers to sell their stock, and also they wouldn’t be able to get a needful rate. Which would make their survival miserable. That’s why they want MSP in each crop as a legal right.

As of now, there are 23 crops on which MSP exists but in reality, 2–3 crops are bought at MSP by government. So, fear is very much justified.

The firms also would be able to buy the procurement at pre-decided rates but the newly built laws do not give the farmers the right to go to court if they don’t get the money.

Talking about the government, In the last 13 days, Mr Narender Modi didn’t write or said anything on this topic but he did say about reliance jio bringing 5G to India. BJP workers meanwhile are doing small protests at Arvind Kejriwal's house as he went to the borders to show his support for farmers. It’s easy for the government to ignore this all since 2024 elections are far away but the willpower of the people protesting is an all-time high since their livelihood in question & it’s seen in their bold statements.

The talks with the government have been done several times. The farmers know what they want and how many people are now joining their struggle. They are just asking the government to answer in yes or no. And some are demanding extra session of Rajya sabha to make the desired amendments.

Some of the statements of people protesting are —

We will continue to provide langer and seva, we aren’t running away, this will continue until government agrees to listen to us. We are here celebrating the spirit of unity. And we are here for long walk. The youth, old everybody is here.

The fight will be long since the government don’t want to make corporate industry unhappy. But the question we can ask ourselves right now.

Do we need to still have the attitude of ‘it happens and we can’t do anything about it’? The media got sold, the right information should be reached to the uninformed.

Article 19 of the biggest constitution was broken by our democratic government, no action was taken. Many farmers were beaten, in the country where elders are worshipped. A hole in the highway was made, whereas it takes 10 years to build one.

Six farmers have died due to cold weather, and health complications, many told their families to assume them dead. This is the cost, of making a dead government listen. And yesterday it was CAA-NRC, much back was nirbhaya.

If we cannot be a part of medium the least I could ask to have an informed opinion and be determined about it. Be vocal or consider yourself a little journalist. It’s better than putting a desh- bhakti status on 15th aug / 26th jan.

Picture credits — Altaf Qadri