Bharat Bandh. Nationwide protests by farmers

Farmer unions in India launched a nationwide protest on 27th September 2021 marking one year since the parliament passed the three agricultural bills, to re-energize their protest against the contentious farm laws. Prime minister Modi has called the reforms a "watershed management" for agriculture, on the contrary, the farmers who have been demanding the repeal of the laws promise that these laws would expose them to the vagaries of the free market and add to their poverty.

What are the protests about?

The three farm laws: ' The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; 'Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020'; 'Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act,2020' would increase farmers' income as per the government but unions view them as unfair and exploitative.

Collectively these laws would loosen rules around the sale, pricing, and storage of produce; these rules have been shielding the Indian farmers from exploitation and vulnerability to unfettered free markets. They permit private buyers to stockpile essential commodities to be sold in the future which could previously only be done by government authorized agents. These laws also draw an outline for contract farming. Most Indian farmers currently sell the majority of their produce at government-controlled wholesale markets or 'mandis' at assured floor prices, however, one of the biggest changes is that farmers will be allowed to sell produce at a market price directly to private players- businesses, supermarket chains, and online grocers.

Farmers feel apprehensive of these reforms on the ground that initially farmers might be attracted towards these private associations that would offer a larger price as an incentive to sell their produce to them, however, this would cripple and ruin mandis, thus depriving the farmers of any backup option. The farmers argue that it would gradually lead to cartelization and thus the farmers would be subject to exploitation. Despite the government's assurance that the mandi system and MSP (Minimum Support Price) shall be continued, there is no legal provision as per which farmers could stand against their exploitation, so ultimately the farmers would fall at the feet of exploitative businessmen and firms. The farmers' apprehension of these reforms is that it is a calculated move aimed at the privatization of agricultural sectors by handing it over to big corporates. These reforms are viewed as revivalist in nature teleporting us back in time where the farmers were at the mercy of exploitative moneylenders as the introduction of these reforms, which run parallel to this old, unjust system, would lead to concentration of wealth. Thus, these "black laws" function as a death warrant for small and marginalized farmers.

By the face of it, farmers are recipients of generous subsidies and are subject to renunciation of their debts, they are exempted from income tax and receive assured prices from the government for 23 crops. But delving into the reality, farming in our nation isn't very lucrative, most Indian farmers are marginal, about 68% of these own less than a hectare of land and about 6% of them are actually able to receive the assured prices for their produce. Thus, the already brewing anger in the farmers over injustice has been channelized through these protests against these "market-friendly" laws.

Back to the point.

The call for "Bharat bandh" to symbolize that farmers were still defiant was supported by major opposition parties. The SKM (Samyukt Kisan Morcha) called for schools, colleges, shops, and workplaces to shut but said that the emergency services shall not be intervened. This strike began at 6:00 am and continued till 4:00 pm disrupting traffic in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi as major highways were blocked by protestors, normal life had been affected in Kerala, Punjab, Maharashtra among other states as well. However, the SKM claimed that the protest was peaceful and no unpropitious incident was reported. The protest had come after a rally in Muzaffarnagar which proved to be one of the biggest to date. An old image from Patna was being circulated to claim that SKM's nationwide call found no solidarity, however, this news was reported to be fake and the "Bharat bandh" was regarded as a successful event.

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