Farmers from Punjab, in their thousands, have assembled at three points along the border with Haryana, where they have been stopped from marching to Delhi. The protesters are demanding legally guaranteed MSP for crops, debt waiver, cancellation of international agreements impacting the agriculture sector, and a minimum pension of ₹5,000 for farmers and agriculture labour. Some of these demands were raised during their earlier protest in 2021-22, which was called off after the BJP-led central government withdrew three controversial laws that had sought to reform the agriculture sector. The protest now is spearheaded by the SKM (non-political), a splinter group of the body that had led the earlier protest. The split signifies fissures in the interest groups across Haryana, Punjab and western U.P. and Rajasthan. There are at least three other strands of protests gathering strength. Farmers in western U.P. affected by the Jewar airport project and Yamuna Expressway are up in arms. In Haryana’s Sonipat, farmers are protesting land acquisition for power cables. The original SKM and several trade unions have called for a national rural and industrial strike on February 16, with overlapping and additional demands that include the repeal of four labour codes.
The government has opened talks with the Punjab farmers, but a legal guarantee of MSP appears unlikely. The police in Haryana and Delhi have stopped the farmers more than 200 km away from Delhi as they are resolute that the farmers will not be allowed near the border of the national capital where they had laid siege in 2021-22. The MSP-based procurement by the FCI has been the bedrock of food security, but the case for its reform is strong. Surplus producers of grain have benefited from the MSP scheme, but the scheme bypasses subsistence farmers in poorer regions. This uneven geographical spread of procurement has also led to unsustainable farm practices in some areas, while farmers in other regions of the country are always on the edge of penury. All this calls for a revamping of the public support for farming, which is essential for reasons that include national food security. This can be achieved better through wide political consultation and by encouraging the beneficiaries of the current system to diversify production and increase productivity. The political undertones of the protest on the eve of the Lok Sabha election also cannot be overlooked. The farm sector needs a new model of public support. It cannot be left to the mercy of the market. The government should lead the efforts to create a national consensus on this question.
