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SAGE/SEZ
The politics of farm packages
Amarinder Singh pleaded, Shamsher Singh Dullo reiterated, the
farmers begged and hoped. But a package was not to be. Such
sage-like advice may become Manmohan Singh but
Punjab’s
arm problems are for real
 Unelected Prime Ministers, with little fear of facing the electorate
directly or having to lug the party’s populist brigade on their
shoulders, can play statesman more easily. Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, during his recent visit to
Punjab,
displayed exactly this virtue. In
India,
it has become customary for any state to expect a windfall of
packages from a visiting PM. For our non-Indian readers, a ‘package’
is a bundle of goodies worth a few hundred crores which the Centre
presents to any province caught up in a real jam, as
Punjab’s
farmers are currently facing, or in a soup of their own making.
For
Maharashtra’s
Vidarbha region, the PM had announced a package. With
Punjab’s
farms reporting suicides by farmers with an unfailing regularity,
and CM Amarinder Singh under pressure from the farmers’ unions,
there was a strong move to extract a package. Assembly elections
loom large over the horizon and the Congress government is the
target of ire of
Punjab farmers for its persistent strong-arm attempts at making
farmers give up their lands for ridiculous
prices to industrial houses.
As
the PM sat on stage in Ludhiana, Capt Amarinder Singh pleaded for a
package. State Congress president Shamsher Singh Dullo also added
his might. Both should have known there was no bonanza in the
pipeline. The PM had plenty of sage advice, but no package. He did
say that an expert group is studying farmers’ problems and will come
to their aid. While Capt Amarinder Singh may not have reasons to be
too pleased with the turn of events, one thing is clear. Manmohan
Singh is living up to his reputation of being a cold blooded
rational economist who looks at data more than the vote bank.
Economic statistics prod him more than electoral maths. At the Chief
Ministers’ conclave, the PM had to explicitly tell the states to
stop signing “headlinegrabbing MoUs” by making populist compromises
and “offering fiscal and financial incentives which their finances
cannot sustain.” Hopefully, it will slow down the speed at which
Punjab
had been signing MoUs offering land at subsidised rates to big money
bags.
 The PM of course laid the foundation stone of the Eastern Freight
Corridor Project, inaugurated the Morinda-Chandigarh railway line
and flagged off the Amritsar-Hardwar Janshatabdi Express. He even
talked about a second Green Revolution. referred to Rs 100 crore
grant to
PAU,
Ludhiana. Low interest farm credits too. But sorry, no package! And
for a state dishing out fertile land to set up SEZs, expecting
packages does not behove. Punjab must set its own house in order.
Yes, our farmers are in need. They are in distress. So what is the
state doing for them?
Acquiring farmlands at low rates? Setting up shopping malls all over
Punjab
and telling its people that this will generate jobs? Under what kind
of a regime will the property dealers be the happiest lot? Under a
farmer friendly regime? Come on, get real. It finally took Congress
president Sonia Gandhi to put a halt to the SEZ march. Did farmer
Amarinder Singh did not know the wisdom of not letting out farmlands
for SEZs? Call her Italy-born and what not, but Gandhi seems to have
her ear closer to farmlands. Amarinder is talking about bringing
fields closer to consumers.
That brings industrialists into the picture. And profits for them.
Whether the average farmer will gain is still to be seen. It is
often said that farming is a loss making vocation. But has anyone
ever noticed that everyone connected with the agriculture other than
the farmer has become stinking rich — the aarhtiya, the big
landlord, the Amarinders, the Badals, the farm processing
industrialists, the sugar mill wallah, the Jat in politics whose
income invariably falls in the agriculture income category. And the
farmer?
He
is either committing suicide, or participating in the dharna. Every
second week, someone in the country’s top bureaucracy threatens to
scrap MSP. The FCI and the farmers are forever at loggerheads over
paddy procurement norms. The arhtiya lobby, which is no reason to
even exist, calls the shots in decision making.
 Farm debts is a problem like poverty; the governments think they are
expected only to discuss it, not resolve it. And Capt Amarinder
Singh’s own track record? He promised through published
advertisements that his government will give Rs 30 per quintal bonus
to paddy farmers due to the crop damaged in 2002. In four years, he
is still to live up to that. Demanding a package from the Prime
Minister is a political activity, not economic wisdom. And politics
is strengthened by one’s own track record. Amarinder should have
improved his own record in caring for the farm domain.
The CM talks about bringing fields closer to consumers. That brings
industry into the picture. And profits for it. But will it benefit
the farmers?
4 October 2006
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