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Sunday, December 09, 2018

Are Farmers a priority for India's Government ?

One of the leaders of the national peasant movement is Yogendra Yadav, who for several years has been a public intellectual with considered views on socio-economic issues. Excerpt from an Interview with Yogendra Yadav in July 2018 -

Interviewer : The Modi government announced that for the kharif season 2018-19, the government has increased the MSP to 50% over cost of production. He essentially claims that the election promise has been fulfilled. Is this true?

Yogendra : The prime minister projects every action of his as historical. This is a historical lie. What has he claimed? First, that he has fulfilled his election promise. Second, that he has increased the MSP in a historic way in which no one else has ever increased it. Third, that the farmer has received what he wanted. All three are lies.

If you take partial cost, the cost of producing paddy is Rs 1,166. The government provides Rs 1,750 for it. The government is patting itself on the back for giving this amount. But if you take the whole cost (these are government provided-figures, not my own), the cost of paddy is Rs 1,560. So the farmer should receive Rs 2,340. If Modi were to fulfil his promise, he would have to provide Rs 2,340 per quintal for the paddy. This is his first lie.

The second lie is about it being a historical increase of MSP. If your record of history starts in 2014 and consists only of the past four years, then yes, I agree that the increase was historic, because you did nothing for the first four years. If you actually look at history, it is not uncommon to distribute sweets to farmers before an election. In 2008, the UPA did it too and for every harvest, the increase in MSP that the UPA provided was larger than this.

When Manmohan Singh’s government distributed sweets among farmers, it did not mean it was a farmer-oriented government. They were afraid of losing elections. They increased the MSP of paddy by 65%. The current government has actually only increased it by 13%.

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