The Hindu Business Line : Farmers may not feel good, but are hopeful certainly

ON THE eve of his departure for Kanyakumari before commencing his `Bharat Uday Yatra', the veteran BJP leader, Mr L. K. Advani, made a statement that was widely reported in the Press. "The feel good," he said, "has not reached the farm sector." That amounted to a confession that `India shining' is not `Bharat Uday'. As the `Bharat Uday Yatra' progressed, numerous speakers extolled on the great achievements of the NDA Government in the agricultural sector.

Prominently mentioned were issues of credit cards to farmers, reduction in the rate of interest on crop loans, hike in the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) of most commodities, introduction of a new comprehensive crop insurance scheme.

But the rural audiences were indifferent; the déjavu expressions. The lack of enthusiasm for the lacklustre performance of the NDA Government during the last five years is understandable and, generally, acknowledged.

The rejoinder came from the ebullient Pramod Mahajan on March 5 while addressing a press conference during which the National President of the Swatantra Bharat Paksha (SBP) announced the its decision to join the NDA. "If `the feel good' has not reached the farm community," he said, "the fact that the SBP — a party with large farm support — decides to join the NDA shows that farmers have faith and hopes in the NDA's farm credentials."

The SBP has the support of the mainstream non-political farmers' organisations in some 14 States. Its leaders are acknowledged spokesmen of the middle-level farmers. If the NDA performance in farm sector has not been brilliant what explains the SBP joining the ranks of 20-odd political parties that are already members of NDA?

The explanation is to be found in the 30 long years of the farm movement of the current epoch. By the 1970s, the major problem of food shortage was resolved. The farmers had made a qualitative jump in respect of both production and productivity.

The village moneylender, the sahukar, had been completely replaced by the network of cooperative societies and the much-vilified zamindars had disappeared from the rural scene.

In short time, the farmers had started realising that the disappearance of the zamindars and sahukars made no difference and that they continued to be under the burden of heavy debts, nevertheless. Even in sugarcane belts, where new glittering cooperative sugar factories had come up, the lot of farmers was not any different.

The leaders of the new farm movement, starting from Narayan Swamy Naidu, argued, convincingly, that the real culprit for the farmers' penury was the government itself, which ensured that the farmers would not be able to recover their costs of production. This accusation was made in unmistakable terms and was, ironically, substantiated by the government documents during the course of the Uruguay Round of talks on the international trade.

"All governments since Independence have imposed negative subsidies on farmers... ", charged a farm movement. The Congress party in power then, and its farm leaders, admitted that agriculture was a losing proposition but denied that the government was the culprit.

The main architect of economic reforms, launched in 1991, Dr Manmohan Singh, admitted that liberalisation had not touched the agriculture sector. He was, however, unable to explain why and unwilling to fix a date for a change. All parties were happy to get some fodder against the ruling Congress party with the facts and arguments provided by farm organisations.

The cadres of the Janata Party, the PSP and the BJP organisedon substantial scale farm agitations, mainly rasta rokos and rail rokos. The farm movement has had an anti-Congress tilt that came from a sort of anti-incumbency sentiment. The Congress was the party in power when farmers faced the worst times. The lacklustre performance of the NDA Government in the last five years, notwithstanding, the farm movement and, consequently, the SBP have a certain affinity for the NDA members because, unlike the Congress, these parties endorsed the negative subsidy thesis and actually lent support to the farm agitations.

Like a majority of Indian voters, the farmers of the movement and the liberals of the SBP are impressed by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee's performance in ensuring political stability in the epoch of coalitions without affecting the basic thrust of governmental policies towards openness and liberalisation.

The NDA is becoming irresistible for the same reasons that the Congress became the representative force in the pre-Independence decades. The Congress then represented a mass organisation that covered all shades of opinions and all kinds of programmes. It could accommodate Dr Hedgewar, founder of the RSS as also E. M. S. Namboodiripad, the doyen of Indian Marxists. The Congress continued to have this character till the elections in 1952. The first Nehru Cabinet included such diverse personalities as Dr B. R. Ambedkar, John Mathai, R. K. Shanmukham Chetti and Shyama Prasad Mukerji. Catholicity was then the secret of Congress' strength. As years passed things changed in the party. Today's Congress has the narrowest base in all history.

The BJP, the principal constituent of the NDA, has moved in the opposite direction. In the pre-Independence days the Hindu Maha Sabha was a largely regional insignificant entity. The Jan Sangh was an improvement. The BJP has an even larger base and improved is Parliamentary position form only two to a three-digit figure in less than 10 years.

The NDA of today is as catholic and inclusive as the pre-Independence Congress. It can accommodate at the same time George Fernandez, Murali Manohar Joshi, Balasaheb Thakrey and the leaders of the farm movement.

The farm leaders feel more comfortable in the open and inclusive ambience of the NDA rather than the constrictive dynastic dogmatism of the Congress.

The `feel good' has not touched the farmers it is true. But they are feeling more optimistic about the future than they ever did since independence.

(The author is Founder, Shetkari Sanghatana, and can be contacted at sharad@mah.nic.in)

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