New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday hardened his government’s stance on the farm laws. In the Rajya Sabha, during his reply to the President’s address, the PM asserted that the farm laws wouldn’t be repealed, although the government was open to negotiations.
In episode 678 of ThePrint’s ‘Cut The Clutter’, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta analysed how PM Modi made his case for reforms by invoking former PMs Lal Bahadur Shastri, Chaudhary Charan Singh and Dr Manmohan Singh.
Modi’s speech was an hour and seven minutes long, out of which he spent 25 minutes speaking about the farm reforms. “It was quite clear, by implication, by tone and by his statements that there is going to be no repeal of these acts,” explained Gupta.
Modi asserted that his government remained open to negotiations. He said that he didn’t believe there was any unpleasantness between the farm leaders and the minister of agriculture.
However, the ‘mistake’ made by this government had been to register serious cases against many farm leaders, said Gupta. “There is an awkwardness to have people who you’ve charged under UAPA to come in for negotiations, but I suppose something will have to be done about that,” he added.
Modi likens farm reforms to Green Revolution
Modi compared these farm reforms to the Green Revolution that started in the mid 1960s. That decade was a ‘bad time’ for India because it had massive food shortages, monsoon failures, etc. At the time, India depended on the PL 480 scheme, which was an American law specially enacted for India wherein the US would send India food grains so Indians wouldn’t starve.
For the money that India notionally paid America, America spent by way of aid and assistance in India. Gupta summarised this as a “humiliating” decade.
Former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri tried to find a way out by bringing in new varieties (of crops), hybrids, plant breeding, fertilisers and modern irrigation — which led to the Green Revolution.
Modi recalled that when Shastri attempted to bring in these reforms, nobody in his party wanted to become the agriculture minister. “At the time, everybody said, this is an old tree, you shake it, it will fall on top of you — who wants to mess with India’s agriculture because you might fail and also burn your own fingers,” Gupta said.
In his speech, Modi revealed that this Green Revolution was met with the same kind of resistance and opposition that these reforms are experiencing.
“Modi said that Left is using the same language to attack the Green Revolution as they are doing now,” Gupta said.
The PM also took the example of dairy to justify his farm reforms. He said milk was freed from state control and procurement. The cooperatives and private sector have set up a great system.
“Modi said that the total value of meat produced in India in a year now is 8 lakh cores, which is more than the total value of wheat, rice, food grains produced,” Gupta explained.
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Modi recalls 1971 census report
Modi also recalled a 1971 census report on Indian farmers and how former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh had talked about the pitiable condition of the small farmers. Singh had said that in 1971, 33 per cent of India’s farmers had less than two bighas of land or half a hectare of land.
Eighteen per cent of farmers had between two to four bighas, which is between half to one hectare of land. This meant that 51 per cent farmers in 1971 had less than one hectare of land.
Today, 68 per cent farmers have less than one hectare of land. “Modi said that Singh had said that with such small land holdings no matter how hard a farmer works, the farming household cannot make a living because land holdings are very small — now, they have become even smaller,” Gupta revealed.
Modi also said that loan waivers couldn’t be brought into reforms since small farmers don’t get the benefit of loan waivers.
Bringing in Manmohan Singh
During his Rajya Sabha speech, Modi brought in former PM Dr Manmohan Singh too. Modi explained that Manmohan Singh had said that every party has talked about farm reforms, many have brought in their versions in states.
Modi quoted Manmohan Singh, “He said to realise the potential of vast Indian agriculture, you have to marry it or bring it closer to large open markets, which is what I am trying to do now.” Modi asked why, then, was the Congress party opposing him.
Modi also spoke about the ongoing protests. Gupta said that Modi was giving too much importance to activists and people who tweet and explained that governments mustn’t get ‘irritated’ so easily.
Modi said there are some people who live by their labour and hard work, some who live by intellect and some people live off of agitations. He called these ‘professional agitators’ (andolanjeevi) ‘parasites’.
“I think this attack on activists, those he likened to professional agitationists and parasites … was much too vicious,” Gupta said.
He explained that political leaders must have a ‘thicker skin’. “This cannot become Almighty government of India versus just a bunch of activists. It’s best to stick to the key issues at hand,” Gupta concluded.
Watch the full episode here:
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Modi himself became a leader from Navnirman Andolan and while sitting on the other BJP was always with Andolanwadis. We all known how they hijacked Anna Hazare movement. BJP has come long way from Andolan Jeevi it has now become Yatra Jeevi as wherever they want to get Yatra has become norm whether it’s West Bengal now or Tamil Nadu where they went to organise Vetrivel Yatra in Tamil Nadu which did not get expected response.