Prime Minister Modi’s regime would never have dreamt that the farmers’ protest across the country could get so intense. Now this entire movement is pressing this regime’s sore point, and they are pressing it hard. Also, I think that this protest is the first of its kind in the history of independent India.
The Prime Minister of the country is being held by its collar for his ‘cumbersome’ role in the country’s crony capitalism. Farmers are openly accusing the Prime Minister of selling the country’s agribusiness to the government’s industrialist allies, the Ambani brothers and Gautam Adani. The gravitas of the farmer’s protest could be fathomed by witnessing the government’s actions, who are supposedly shielding its corporate allies. Even when the GDP was degraded and the economy was being derailed, the net worth of Adani and Ambani’s companies’ have only been shooting up. One can only wonder how the country’s unemployment rate be at a peak and GDP deteriorate yet the two mighty names continue to flourish regardless.
The farmers are now threatening to boycott their services, and Mukesh Ambani’s telecommunications company Jio has been ‘red-flagged’. If one can recall this company was launched on September 5th, 2016, where almost every newspaper’s front cover was filled with its advertisements. Interestingly the image of the PM was used for some advertisements.
The bonhomie between the business magnates and the then-Gujarat CM was very perceptible. Back in 2014, when Narendra Modi was campaigning for the Prime Ministership, he allegedly flew to Delhi on Gautam Adani’s chartered flight and not Indian governments Air India. Later in October 2014, he happened to attend the first private function, the inauguration of Reliance Foundation Hospital. The government wouldn’t have dreamt that the framer’s protest would take such a hit on their cronyism, where they’re (farmers) calling for the boycott of Adani and Ambani’s services and goods.
The concept that is being tried to push down this regime’s throat by the farmers is that the country is not run by corporates but by the citizens of the country. When a country’s 60% population is dependent on farmers and agribusiness, even though it contributes only 14% to the GDP, how can the government use the 60% of the population as a ‘mortgage’ in the hands of corporates?
Only 6% of farmers get the advantage of MSP, which comes to hardly 50 lakh farmers. Then the government says that the MSP will not be eradicated. The government also came up with the objective of making a tribunal for the farmers. Easier said than done, because a tribunal which was made in 2013 with respect to rape cases, along with fast track courts, could not curb or solve such sensitive cases. So help me understand, how is this going get any better for the farmers? Even if a farmer wishes to approach the civil court, that civil court where about 3.19 crore cases are pending, it just might pile on. The ghastly plight of the sub-divisional magistrates is also apparent.
Now, in India, if farmers happen to boycott the products produced and distributed by those two supposed ‘allies’, and if eventually this boycott is further led by the upper and lower middle class of the country, then their plight will be appalling. Because Adani manufactures edible oil (fortune oil, king soya bean oil etc) and reliance have a robust retail market such as Reliance Fresh, Reliance Digital, Reliance Jewels, Reliance Trends, etc.
This protest led by farmers puts the government in a very tough position. Because the farmers are pressing the sore point of this regime, where they derailed the economy saying they would make it a 5 trillion economy, and that by giving the upper hand to the corporates quoting there would be hefty returns. Or perhaps this is going to lead to a head-on collision between the farmers and corporates, where the general public will side with farmers for obvious reasons.
With the current predicament, the analysis shows the government’s expense of the Prime Minister’s lifestyle is something beyond comprehension. On average, the Prime Minister’s daily expense is 1.62 crore rupees. The farmer’s daily income is around 214 INR, and Punjab’s farmers earn 604INR/Day. And international trips that the Prime Minister makes with his entourage, the government happens to spend approximately around 2,021 crore rupees. In a county like India, where the farmer is fighting for MSP, the unemployment level is at its peak, GDP is on the negative scale, how is this opulent lifestyle even possible?
The answer is simple, there is a serious nodus in the economic reforms. When the CEO of NITI AAYOG, Amitabh Kant, says “Reforms are difficult as India has too much of democracy,” then I feel we need to roll back to the years when the planning commission was set up (even though the Modi government ended the planning commission and formed NITI AAYOG). When Ram Manohar Lohia argued on the floor of the house, along with his Socialist parliamentarians, against the Nehru government on per capita income being 16 aana, the Nehru government admitted Ram Manohar Lohia’s claim that the per capita income is not more than 11 aana. The then-planning commission had to correct its file. Today, we are in a situation where the NITI AAYOG questions the degree of democracy that the citizen should savour?!
Well, we have witnessed the history when the Rajiv Gandhi government had 400-plus parliamentarians until the BOFORS ‘Jinn’ came out of the bottle. Likewise, today’s NDA government has 300-plus parliamentarians, but when today’s farmers’ struggle has said that this government is a puppet in the hands of the corporates and that the government is holding the farmers as a ‘mortgage’, this fight is going to be long and far-reaching.
The media, today, is a lap dog of the ruling party, but later the media will also have to re-gather itself. If people can boycott the rudimentary products of Ambani-Adani, then the media won’t be much of a problem to tackle. Better fall in line or fall by the wayside, right?