Farmers’ Agitation 2.0

The national capital New Delhi is witnessing heat in the cold December month as the farmers have raised the temperatures again when the year end is nearing. Farmers have assembled along the Punjab-Haryana borders again and are trying to march into the national capital to raise their demands. As they are not satisfied after the consultations with the Central Government after the previous farmer agitation that brought the national capital to halt with tensions extending from Punjab -Haryana borders to the rest of the nation. The farmer agitation 2.0 that has been initiated has led to the Police-Farmer clash again as the agriculturalists have tried to march towards the national capital. The main issue that has been the central point of the previous agitation has emerged again and that is the question of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the crops. On Sunday clashes were witnessed between the police forces and the farmers. Police stopped the farmers from crossing the barricades at the Punjab-Haryana border by resorting to tear gas shelling and the use of water cannons. This has resulted in the injury of nearly eight protestors. Security has been tightened and the internet services have been suspended in Haryana to stop the rumour mongering and to maintain the law and order. The violent clashes witnessed are similar to the ones that erupted during the 2020 and 2021 farmer agitation. Those protests led to the abandonment of the three farm bills by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These bills were meant to overhaul the Indian agricultural economy. At that time the farmers expressed apprehensions that that the bills have allowed the big corporations to decide the price of the agricultural crops having direct bearing on the economic condition of the farmers. The main demand was the legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price(MSP) for the essential crops. After the withdrawal of the laws in 2021,the Central Government had said that it will constitute the advisory panel that will include the government representatives and the farmers to solve the logjam but farmers seem to be dissatisfied. Now the farmers have broadened their wish list and have included more demands in this agitation focussing on the financial feasibility of farming. It includes the farm debt waiver, pensions for farmers and farm labourers besides no hike in electricity tariffs, The farmer leaders are accusing the government of insincerity on farmer issues. Experts are of the opinion that the nationwide safety net for the farmers is a complicated process. As per the experts there is a need to widen the scope of the MSP besides improving the procurement process. After being disabled to enter New Delhi, the agitating farmers are planning their next moves. The “March to Delhi” by the farmers is a national concern for many reasons keeping in view the previous agitation. It is an open secret that how the subversive elements misused the farmer agitation to destabilise the nation that resulted in clashes between the subversives in the agitation and the security forces. There was ample intelligence that the terrorist groups operating in Punjab left no stone unturned to hijack the farmer agitation and caused the mayhem. The kind of voices that emerged after the support of the violence by the fissiparous tendencies made it abundantly clear that the Khalistani separatists wanted to misuse this agitation to score the points. This cannot be allowed. Recently the attack on the former Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in the open public glare at the Golden temple Amritsar by the Khalistani terrorist Narain Singh Chaura is not an isolated incident. These elements can use these public protests emanating from Punjab to spread violence and terrorism. As such the Central Government must not lower the guard and define its policy comprehensively to address the farmer issues.