If united, farmers can make a difference in Punjab
Forming nearly half of the 1.92-cr voters, they focus on personal issues rather than govt policies
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, March 6
When Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal asserted, during the Agriculture Summit in Chandigarh recently, that subsidy to farmers would not be withdrawn as long as he was alive, he underlined the importance of this huge chunk of voters.
The subsidy to the farming community will continue despite objections from experts and the World Trade Organisation.
With the families of farmers and farm labourers constituting nearly half of the 1.92-crore voters in the state, the importance of this section cannot be underestimated. It is more significant for the Shiromani Akali Dal, who owes its several victories to the rural population, mainly the farming community.
No wonder the CM trashed all the talk and discussion at the summit by talking about subsidies, much to the chagrin of the experts. The next day, his daughter-in-law and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, seeking a re-election, released 7,200 tube well connections pending for over a decade. Experts and scientists have been calling for diversification of farming to reduce stress on underground water. A few days later, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal announced that all pending tube well connections, estimated in thousands, would be released in six months.
In between, the state government budged before the Ugraha group of farming community and agreed to pay pending compensation to the families of farm debt suicide victims. All three major announcements were aimed at pleasing the half of the voting population.
Ground reality
Farmers do not vote as a group. They prefer personal issues over policies and yet political parties vie to attract their votes by promising sops and relief. Though government policies in rhetoric are aimed at helping the marginal farmer, this part of the community remains neglected.
Political parties think that if they procure wheat and paddy in time and at good rates, farmers would be happy. This deviates the attention of policy makers from the real issues.
Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, president, Bharti Kisan Union, said: "Unfortunately the farming community remains divided."
"Most of the farmers vote on the basis of village-level politics or simply go against their rival groups. If they vote as a group or at least take up their issues together, they can play a decisive role.
The stats
Experts cite figures to highlight the importance of farmers. Sukhpal Singh, an agriculture expert of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), said farming was passing through a critical phase where the government policies could play a decisive role on the financial well-being of farmers and protection of environment. He said though the emphasis was on giving subsidies, providing minimum support price, free or subsidised power, tube well connections, the government needed to do more on diversification and food-processing units.
"There are 10.58 lakh farming families in the state. Add to it 15.90 lakh farm labourers. The total population related to farming turns out to be above 90 lakh, which is almost half of the voting population. The importance of framing policies for this part of society is further emphasised as from among the 98.97 lakh total workers in the state, 61 lakh are related to farming," Sukhpal said.
He said the sheer numbers caught the attention of political parties. "All parties offer sops to the community. The policies are short-sighted and aim at immediate gains, but eventually they lead to losses. Experts at the agriculture summit called for reforms and an end to subsidy, but after days of deliberations, the Chief Minister ruled out ending subsidy till he was alive,” he said.
What community representatives say
Bharti Kisan Union president and Punjab Board Chairman Ajmer Singh Lakhowal said though all political parties swore by farmers, behind the scenes they all adopted the divide-and-rule policy. "Farmers are many in number, but poor in unity. Their votes matter, but only in small number. I think their votes are not considered seriously as they vote more on the basis of local village politics rather than government policies," he said.
Lakhowal said political parties exploited the community's traditional mindset and deepened the fissures.
“The PAU struggles to pay its employees. Where is the fund for research? There is talk of diversification and contract farming, but both have their pitfalls," he said.
He said: "There is no income security in crops other than paddy and wheat. Contract farming has failed in China and unfortunately the mindset of farmers here, too, is not inclined towards sharing agriculture tools to reduce the input cost. The government needs to encourage co-operative agriculture."
key words : farmers issues, punjab, farmer suicides, farmer groups, election 2014, voters
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140307/vote.htm#3
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