December 2, 2021
Devinder Dhingra
Satyam (The Truth)
It has been a year now since a section of farmers had begun their agitation by blocking roads against the three farm laws, which are at the moment repealed in the parliament, but the deadlock is still lingering. Strange but true. By deadlock here, I mean the roads that bear the same status as before and there is denial to commuters who are obviously concerned about their right as a citizen to use the national highways.
People can protest perpetually but not block the roads and cause inconvenience to others: The Honourable Supreme Court has clarified it twice, whether direct or indirect. However, nobody seemed to adhere to it. If a citizen has a fundamental right to protest, the other citizen has a fundamental right to travel on a public road, run its business and save money and time by taking the shortest possible route. Such blockages cannot be allowed without permission and never for that long. Even a month’s time is big in that sense.
The government acted in late November and it was required. When they had invited the protestors for talks and talks were not happening, it was the duty of the government to take a final call on it. There was no point in sitting on the fences and letting the commuters suffer. They needed to act as it was already delayed. Whether they would have used the force to clear the roads or conceded to the demands of the farmers, it was their decision but they were supposed to act. And good that they have acted, irrespective of if it was a spontaneous reaction or inspired by some election-calculation. Better late than never.
Now, when the three laws have been repealed, the agitating farmers should ask themselves whether they were a winner in real sense. Even if they manage to get some legal guarantee on MSP they are demanding, will it sustain forever? No government can provide such a thing permanently. I or you may wish they should get MSP forever, but the game of economics doesn’t guarantee it to each and every farmer of the country. Sooner or later, pricing and sale shall be determined by demand. A government can certainly be the largest procurer of a particular crop or crops and try its best to provide fixed income in the hands of farmers, but cannot stock more than the demand everlastingly. The bubble shall burst in the long run.
Any change has its flaws and benefits. If there were disadvantages of the three farm laws, there were advantages as well. We shouldn’t be surprised if sometime in future we see these agitating farmer unions pushing for and demanding a free market themselves.
Shivam (The Solution)
Since there is no evidence that all the farmers were against the three laws and the fact is the laws have been repealed just because of a section of farmers who were against it from the day one and had grit to hang on for so long on the roads, we cannot say whether the reforms were right or wrong. Therefore, the government should repackage and reframe the agriculture reforms afresh in consultation with all the stakeholders and implement it in some states as a pilot project to begin with. In any scenario, the government can still be a major player in the agriculture market by entering into the agriculture business itself in partnership with the private players.
The present proposed committee on MSP can work parallelly.
And of course, if the roads still remain blocked, hopefully it wouldn’t, the government shouldn’t shy away from using the force. Enough is enough.
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Criss Cross, the Satyam Shivam Sundaram section, has three goals. Satyam is for truth - highlighting various issues and identifying problems. Shivam aims for the solution since identifying problems is a job quarterly done. Sundaram is for guidance and everything else.If you have a solution to a specified problem in this blog or any feedbacks, you may contact us at author@ddplanet.in.
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