Farmer's Market

 

Let us face the fact that "no farmer ,no food " is as true as "no mason, no home" or "no driver, no transport" or "no doctor, no healthcare"; or several other similar combinations. We need them all but more importantly we need all of them to work seamlessly together.  Idealism apart real life works out rather differently. So there are different interest groups looking after the interests of their own. Often times one group's interests run counter to another group. Mill owner's  association has a different perspective compared to mill workers association. Obviously! 

 

It is the reason we have laws. Laws govern the relationship between different constituents of the society. It is a system that strives to ensure that the big picture that emerges is congenial and takes every one's rights,plans and aspirations on board. Ideally! Let us now circle back to the farmer's again. 

 According to National Crime Records Bureau of India 10,281 farmer's committed suicide in 2019. Mental health is certainly is not a major factor. Greatest reason for world's  highest rate of farmer suicide is socioeconomic. Something we can and should take head on. According to the Journal of Epidemiology and Global health,"This has multiple manifestations, including a lack of agricultural investment and irrigation improvement, use of cash crops, the increased use of non institutional credit sources, and the reduction of trade barriers".

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210600615300277

 

It is self evident that the Indian farming sector is in serious trouble. The question is what are we going to do about it?  Now here comes the old competing interest group factor in play. Who is this farmer we are talking about? Someone with a small piece of land in an arid remote area or someone with large canal fed farms with easy access to markets? Clearly their immediate needs and interests are not going to be same.

 

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2012/05/17/india-agriculture-issues-priorities

 

A frame work is required to be implemented on an urgent basis. Are the much maligned Farm bills an answer? On the face of it the laws are trying to provide an answer to the most dogged challenges to the farming sector. It addresses farm credit, technical inputs, storage and access to bigger markets. Everything that study after study has underlined as areas of immediate concern.

Why is there such violent opposition to these laws then? I have formed my own opinion after some due diligence and there is this feature from usually inimical and biased BBC which I think is well rounded. 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54233080

 

I believe the main issues here is the  fear of change! Change is hard and to top it off the laws are an unknown quantity. No knowing how they will fare in actual implementation. Secondly there is a lack of trust in the government. As  a number of previous aggressive reform and restructuring initiatives of the very same government has shown, there will be some collateral damage. Probably collateral costs can not be entirely avoided during a reform process. Thirdly there is the political reason. 100 million reasons actually! That is the estimated number of farmers in India. A massive voting block by any reckoning. If the opposition manages to turn it away from the ruling party .... it can realize instant nirvana!

 

There is a fourth reason and here I am on a sticky wicket ! I will go out on a limb and say it because it needs to be said! Three words,"Farming Interest Groups". Over the past decades some farming areas of the country have gotten used to free / cheap electricity; subsidized fertilizers; unfettered exploitation of water resources; mindless cash crop rotation; fearless burning of stubble closing eyes to the unfolding environmental disaster and  unkindest cut of all is that they have been handsomely rewarded  for it  ! Government after government has blindly bought their crop at a pre-determined floor price usually higher than the world price for the same commodity. It eats up 50% of India's annual expenditure. Per capita income in India is $1,640 US/ year; but  this group can afford to buy tractors costing around $10,000 US, they can afford to send their children to college in Canada and Australia and they move around in a luxury SUV. They are worried sick about upsetting their "bank rolled by the exchequer" life style. This group and wannabes form the backbone of the most violent opposition to farm reform laws.

 

So the government grain storage's are full to the rafters that forces massive tonnage to be left open to the elements; rotting and feeding rats. It can not be even exported because prices are lower in the world market and the quality of the procured crops vary dramatically.  No body has the guts to bell this cat. There are only 23 crops on this privileged list. Wheat, rice and sugar cane prominent among them. It benefits few farming communities but excludes millions and millions of other farmers.

 

I am not  a votary of the free market without social check and balances. However I do see its benefits too.I do not believe in making the rich poor but I also believe that poor should not remain poor. Is it too much of an ask? Why can't we provide easy credit, scientific guidance and easy market access to our farmers? Why can't we tell them what crops will keep their land's productivity at optimum and still sell well in the market? Why can't we allow them to choose how and who they will sell to? Why can't we place a fool proof system to protect their land rights and commercial interests? 

 

Having a law is only the beginning. Laws need other implementing and oversight system to be operating in tandem. It needs a sensitive and responsive administration that is quick to do a course correction if needed. I do not understand why we can not climb down from our rigid my way or the highway stand.I do not know if these bills will do the trick.  What I know is that doing nothing is not an option.10,281 dead farmers are shouting this my ear!  Let us shape the bill around poorest of the poor farmer's interests. As someone once told me ," do not tell me how this will not work; tell me how can we  make it work"!

"New Farm Laws Have the Potential to Raise the Income of Farmers" says Gita Gopinath. As  the Chief economist of IMF she should know a thing or two !

https://www.indiatoday.in/business/story/india-s-agriculture-laws-have-potential-to-increase-farm-income-says-gita-gopinath-1763291-2021-01-27

What we must do is to stop marketing farmers for our petty interest and start cultivating the market in the interest of the farmer. Let us make a "farmer's Market"! Our job is cut out for us!

 

 

 

 

How to lose an election!

 

Politics is a complex beast. Specially in democracies where the fickle minded public can and often does vote in and vote out political parties and individuals in a mystical ritual that is yet not fully understood. Even by the subject experts; whose job it is in the first place.

Of course these are the professional organizations and maverick individuals that manage the whole process of an election campaign. They control what is said to the voting public; when it is said and who  says it. They decide what spots run on TV, radio and social media. They make herculean efforts to chart plans for billboards across the nation. They weaponize twitter and Facebook effectively. An army is deployed to run campaigns on telephone. All sorts of interviews, write ups and sympathetic stories are innocuously placed in media. Voting blocs are created and nurtured by these experts and they decide what statement or policy of the opponent is to be attacked so as to garner the maximum impact. 

Massive campaign funds are generated by fund raisers. Election rallies and meetings with influencers are organized meticulously. Debating points are extensively researched and drummed into the candidates.  Favours of all kind are sought and are called in. It is all part science, part psyops , part financial sledge hammering and a large dollop of voodoo! Rumour has it that candidate's policies and  election manifesto has something to do with it too! Although I am not quite so sure of that !

Whichever way you look at it the fact is that even for candidates with high winning probability an extensive  and well developed support system is deployed to coach and mentor. Their hand is held every step of the way to the finish line. Which of course is to win the optimum prize. Elections!

What happens if the election is lost!

Sadly there is no script for it currently. As is the ways of the world all the previous support system crumbles overnight for  a loser. They are naked under a spotlight and on their own. There is no one backing, no one providing help or guidance and they can not hide. There is a business opportunity going abegging for those  very same election experts; if you know what I mean.

Individuals and political parties in general mostly behave with acumen, foresight and introspection after the first shock waves have passed. Although the loser is not in a frame of mind to heed any advise but mostly saner heads prevail. Not so at other times. We have witnessed the losing party accuse the election authorities of bias; declare voting machines to be hacked and reprogrammed; blame police forces of threatening the voters; missing votes for self and fake votes for the opponent. They even lament the naivety of the voters. Everything but themselves is pointed fingers at in their frustration.  Mostly  society treats  these claims with the disdain they deserve, since the voters know who they actually voted for.

Democracies can deal with more serious charges  with aplomb and relative ease.   Courts exist and aggrieved parties are encouraged to approach them to redress their grievances. They are heard on the basis of evidence and in accordance with the constitution and laws of the land. There is a reason why the three branches of the government ; legislative, executive and judiciary are independent of each other and are meant to counter balance each other. 

Of all the people POTUS should comprehend the envelope democracies work within. To be absolutely transparent I personally trust his opponent  a lot less than him and had hoped for his win but I am not a voter in the US so he did not get my vote. Whatever knee jerk reactions and the verbal diarrhea his recent loss precipitated; he should have realized that  the final authority rests with the court of law. Once his petitions were found to be unsubstantiated, he should have bowed out gracefully. Alas!

He came totally unhinged instead. I honestly believe that due to the shock of the election loss he has suffered a sudden mental degradation not unlike a heart stroke where the heart is not fully functional. In this case his intellect is seriously impaired but I am not a doctor. I would certainly request  medical intervention and evaluation in this case. He may well be certifiable if he is lucky! He might escape the criminal proceedings being contemplated against him by entering an insanity plea.

At the very least send him immediately to the political boot camp to learn one thing and one thing only - how to lose an election! After all he is still the president for another ten days or so and you never know what other idiocy he is planning in his feverish mind .

चल रे भुक्खड़ ! Chal Re bhukkhad !

 

Le fils de l'homme ( The Son of Man) by Rene Magritte,

 1964. Oil on canvas. 116 X 89 cm. Private collection

 

चल रे भुक्खड़ !

बस मौसमी आम ख़ास होते  हैं,

मैं आदमी  आम हूँ , मामूली  हूँ। 

कुछ यूँ जाने कि आपके 

खेत में दबी मूली हूँ। 

 

ना पास हूँ न फेल हूँ,

मैं रात की बची भेल हूँ। 

जो फूल न पाई पूरी हूँ,

निहायत गैरज़रूरी हूँ। 

 

हारे की ठंडी आह  हूँ,

मुँह में ही रही  वो वाह हूँ। 

मैं बेपैंदी का लोटा हूँ,

जो ना सीखा वो तोता हूँ। 

 

नाकाम इश्क़ की आस हूँ ,

मरते की उखड़ी साँस हूँ। 

दूर कहीं अब जाऊँ क्यों ,

मैं कहाँ किसी के पास हूँ। 

पत्थर से लगी वो ठोकर हूँ,

मैं बन्द सर्कस का जोकर हूँ। 

उसने यकीं क्योंकर न किया ,

अभी उठा मैं रो कर हूँ। 

मौक़े मौक़े पे धोखे दिये जाएँ ,

आदत है मुझे , बाउम्मीद भी हूँ,

ज़ाहिर है वो अब पशेमां होंगे ,

सच जानता हूँ सब, नादाँ भी हूँ। 

उल जलूल बकता हूँ बहुत,

टर्र टर्र; बदसूरत ढढू हूँ,

बातों में मेरी अब बचा न सत,

चीनी बिन सख़्त सा लड्डू हूँ। 

  Roman script follows :-

 Chal Re Bhukkhad !

Bus mausami aam khas hote hain,

Mai aadmi aam hoon,mamooli hoon.

Kuch yoon jaane ki aapke

khet me dabi mooli hoon.

 

Na pass hoon na fail hoon,

Mai raat ki bachi bhel hoon.

Jo fool na payi poori hoon,

Nihayat gair jaroori hoon.

 

Haare ki thandi aah hoon,

Muh me hi rahi voh wah hoon.

Mai bay paindi ka lota hoon,

Jo na seekha vo tota hoon.

 

Nakam ishq ki aas hoon,

Marte ki ukhdi saans hoon.

Door kahin ab jaon kyon,

Mai kahan kisi ke paas hoon.

Pathar se lagi vo thoker hoon,

Mai band circus ka joker hoon.

Usne yakin kyon kar na kiya,

Abhi utha mai ro kar hoon.

Mauke mauke pe dhokhe diye jayen,

Aadat hai mujhe, Ba umeed bhi hoon,

Zahir hai vo ab pasheman honge,

Sach jaanta hoon sab, naadan bhi hoon.

Ul jalool bakta hoon bahut,

Tarr tarr; bdsurat dadoo hoon,

Baton me meri ab bacha n sat,

Cheeni bin sakht sa ladoo hoon.