Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday expressed concern on the new strain of novel coronavirus emerging in the UK and urged the Central government to ban all flights from Britain and other European countries immediately.
He also criticised the Central government for being late in banning international flights when the coronavirus had started spreading in the initial phase.
In a tweet, Gehlot said: "The new strain of novel coronavirus emerging in the UK is a matter of great concern. The government must take prompt action, prepare a contingency plan to contain the same and also immediately ban all flights from the UK and other European countries."
"When coronavirus had started spreading, we were late in banning international flights, which had led to a drastic spike in cases," he added.
"India needs both a preparedness plan as well as steps to restrict any movement from affected country or countries. Our medical experts must be ready with a treatment plan in case of any outbreak of the new strain of virus. Health protocols must be adhered to even more strictly," he said further.
As the farmers' agitation entered the 25th day on Sunday, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and general secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Harish Rawat visited one of the protest sites here on the Delhi border, warning the Central government, saying "the one who will fight the farmer, will fight with God".
Rawat's comments came during his afternoon visit at Ghazipur on Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in east Delhi where hundreds of farmers belonging to western Uttar Pradesh have been protesting on the road since November 27. The farmers are supporting thousands of other farmers sitting on the agitation since November 26 at Singhu and Tikri borders between Delhi and Haryana, braving the chilly winter nights under open skies.
Raising 'Kisan Ekta Zindabad' slogan while addressing the demonstrators at Ghazipur border, Rawat said: "I have come here as a farmer. One who will fight the farmer will fight with God."
Rawat also warned the Central government to "understand" the message, saying he has not come at the protest site to do politics.
The ongoing farmers' agitation has been a major challenge for the Central government as there is no solution to the issue even after 25 days of continuous protest with both sides adamant -- farmers seeking withdrawal of three contentious farm laws enacted in September during Monsoon Session of Parliament and the government rejecting farmers' demand saying it is ready to make amendments but cannot scrap these laws which are beneficial for the farmers.
Rawat's visit comes a day after his meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi in Delhi in which he is learnt to have raised the political situation of Uttarakhand, Punjab and the ongoing farmer agitation.
The former Uttarakhand CM's involvement in such moves is significant as the Assembly elections are scheduled in Uttarakhand in the early part of 2022 and it is speculated that the Congress can bring Rawat at centrestage for the crucial battle.
The Uttarakhand Congress is divided sharply into factions headed by Rawat and combined faction led by Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Pritam Singh and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Indira Hridayesh.
The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has launched a two-month-long special 'Virasat' (natural succession) drive in the state to end the land disputes over the succession rights in villages, and curb the property lawsuits that form a bulk of cases at the tehsil and district level.
The novel drive will end the long-pending disputes over the land and property, and prevent exploitation of villagers by the land mafia who target disputed properties.
This a first of its kind campaign in the state.
According to the government spokesman, the new initiative is expected to settle cases pending for years in the 1,08,000 revenue villages in the state.
Under the campaign, all the information related to the 'Virasat' will also be uploaded on the website of the revenue board based on which the progress of the scheme will be reviewed.
At the end of this two-month scheme, the district magistrate, at the district and the Tehsil level, will randomly identify ten per cent of the revenue village randomly and check the facts given in the report of the Lekhpal through the sub divisional magistrates, additional district magistrates and other district level officers.
The government spokesperson said villagers will be provided the facility to register their names in the land records through both online and offline methods.
For those who own land in their native villages but are living somewhere else, a special counter will be opened at tehsil for submitting applications.
"This initiative is expected to settle long-pending cases in 1.08 lakh revenue villages in the state. This will also curb the irresponsible behaviour of lekhpals who, it has been noticed, generally do not take an interest in these matters and are responsible for piling up land disputes," the spokesperson said.
Under the scheme, the lekhpal will also have to visit villages to verify successors and assist them in filing online applications.
The option of filing applications from community facility centres will also be provided to people while a helpline is also being launched to assist people if they face difficulty in filing applications.
All information related to 'virasat' will be uploaded on the revenue board website where the progress of the scheme can be reviewed.
The villagers also feel that the campaign will not only help in ending the land disputes but will also put a check on the irresponsible behaviour of the 'lekhpal' (revenue officials) who generally do not take interest in these matters.
This is also the main reason behind the disputes within families and relatives and a majority of villagers also face lawsuits, that sometimes trail for generations.
With this system, the villagers will not be exploited at any level and can get their names registered in the land records ('Khatauni').
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the centenary celebrations of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Tuesday and also release a postal stamp during the event, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement on Sunday.
The Prime Minister will participate in the event at 11 a.m. via video conferencing.
He will later release a postal stamp during the event in which Chancellor of the University Syedna Mufaddal Saifudin and Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank will also be present.
AMU became a University in 1920, through an Act of Indian Legislative Council by elevating the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental (MAO) College to the status of a Central University. MAO College was set up in 1877 by Syed Ahmad Khan. The university has a campus spread over 467.6 hectares of land in the city of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. It also has three off-campus centres in Malappuram (Kerala), Murshidabad-Jangipur (West Bengal) and Kishanganj (Bihar).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a surprise visit to the Gurudwara Rakabganj here early morning and paid tributes to Guru Tegh Bahadur for his supreme sacrifice, expressing "I felt extremely blessed".
People of the Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee were surprised to see Modi present in the premises. There was neither any security, nor barricading arrangements made on the roads during the Prime Minister's unscheduled visit.
Like a common man he moved in the Gurudwara, and shocked everyone by his visit without any pre-scheduled programme. Modi's sudden visit to the Gurudwara comes a day after the ninth Sikh Guru's death anniversary was observed on Saturday.
In a tweet after the visit, the Prime Minister said: "This morning, I prayed at the historic Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, where the pious body of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji was cremated. I felt extremely blessed. I, like millions around the world, am deeply inspired by the kindnesses of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji."
"It is the special Kripa of the Guru Sahibs that we will mark the special occasion of the 400th Parkash Parv of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji during our Government's tenure. Let us mark this blessed occasion in a historic way and celebrate the ideals of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Ji," the Prime Minister further said.
Sources say that during Prime Minister Modi's visit, special care was taken so that the people do not face any inconvenience because on Sunday, the number of visitors is quite high. That is why there was no such high-level security as is usually the case, sources say.
Modi's sudden visit to the Gurudwara comes amid the agitation organised by the farmers of Punjab in the national Capital, which may be seen as a move to placate them. However, the BJP leaders say that the PM's visit is a matter of pure faith and should not be seen from any other perspective.
Guru Teg Bahadur sacrificed his life to protect religion and humanity. His martyrdom is remembered every year as Martyr's Day. On Saturday, the whole country observed Guru Teg Bahadur's Martyrdom Day. Guru Tegh Bahadur preached Sikhism during the 17th century.
Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Sunday recommended dissolution of the House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament at an emergency Cabinet meeting.
The recommendation to dissolve the House came two years prior to its term. It will now be forwarded to President Bidya Devi Bhandari for approval and effect.
Southern Kashmirs Tral in Pulwama district has for long retained several dubious distinctions in the last 31 years of armed insurgency in the valley. This was the crucible from where Burhan Wani to Zakir Musa, and scores of top-notch militants emerged. Wanis death in an encounter in July 2016 led to a four-month-long street turbulence in which over 70 demonstrators and arsonists got killed and thousands, civilians as well as security forces personnel, sustained injuries.
Dadsara, a village in Tral, is said to have created the maximum number of militants among all villages and towns across the valley. It was because of the people of Dadsara and other villages that a two-lakh strong procession gathered to form Wani's funeral procession. Four years later, Dadsara is singing to a different tune.
On December 8, three local cadres of 'Albadar' outfit-Merajuddin Lone, Umer Ali and Owais Farooq- were killed in an encounter with Police and security forces at Tiken in Pulwama. One of them was a resident of Dadsara. The bodies were buried as per the Covid-19 protocol in the distant Baramulla area in northern Kashmir.
Unlike on scores of similar killings and encounters in the past, Dadsara and all other villages in Tral were calm in the morning after. Hardly anyone gathered to offer condolences to the militant's family and nobody demanded burial the dead body at the local cemetery, let alone an effervescent funeral procession and a gun salute at the tombstone. There was no shutdown in Tral.
The voter turnout was thinner in Pulwama and its contiguous district of Shopian as compared to eight other districts in the valley in the District Development Council elections. However, the scenes of defiance, demonstration and protest, that marred over a dozen elections after 1990, were nowhere there across Kashmir. The residents of Pulwama still remember the separatists' anti-election campaign, coupled with terror attacks, which subverted several democratic processes in the past 24 years particularly in that district.
"In many elections, we saw militants attacking the polling parties. Even in 2014, a polling party returning with EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) was subjected to a fatal attack. I remember senior Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Abdul Gani Lone reaching here with their Police guards armed with AK-47 rifles like the Ministers' escorts and provoking the people to fail the elections. Several times, I remember, there were violent demonstrations and teargas shelling by Police. Not a single such incident has been reported from anywhere in the valley during the DDC elections."
One-odd incident of a militant attack occurred in Srinagar where some unidentified gunmen shot dead the personal security officer of the Peoples Democratic Party activist Haji Pervaiz.
This is not the only manifestation of change in the last over one year. It has been widely noticed that many of the Twitter handles and Facebook accounts, which used to bully, troll and intimidate anybody not toeing the Pakistani line until May this year, have silently disappeared. While hundreds of such accounts have been removed by their users after the Cyber Cell of the Jammu and Kashmir Police began filing FIRs over �anti-national' and �subversive' content, many others have deleted objectionable and intimidating posts.
According to senior Police officials, the security and the intelligence agencies had, immediately after the killing of 40 CRPF personnel in a car bomb attack, identified all the vehicles used by the "militants and their Pakistani handlers".
"First of all, we called or detained temporarily some of such elements after August 2019. Secondly, we shut down the internet for a purpose. We knew about their plans to create a mayhem like 2016, 2010 and 2080. Thirdly, we let them off but made it clear that the age-old practice of running an anti-India tirade alongside armed insurgency wouldn't be tolerated any more. Most of them responded positively and stopped indulging in subversive and anti-Indian activities," said an officer.
The officer referred particularly to the Twitter accounts of two women activists, one a journalist based in Mumbai and another a Kashmiri scholar in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), to prove his point that the world was "misled" by the social media, as well as the foreign press, with regard to the "real situation" in Kashmir after August 5, 2019.
"For months they ran a tirade that we had jailed and tortured thousands. They reported that the Kashmiris were defiant, and thus suppressed, and that there was lockdown and curfew. As a matter of fact, we had detained less than 4,000 persons of proven subversive history. We have released almost all of them. Our lockdown was for less than two months. In October, November and December 2019, there was a shutdown sponsored by the separatists and the terrorists. They gunned down wholesalers and fruit dealers and spread a wave of terror to ensure that the signs of normalcy do not go out. This election called their bluff and exposed everybody," said the same officer.
During the Congress meeting at interim party chief Sonia Gandhi's residence, Rahul Gandhi's close aides K.C. Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala were not present, sources said.
Sources close to Venugopal said that he was at his native place to perform some rituals after the demise of his mother, but the question arises did Rahul Gandhi deliberately keep Venuopal away, whose elevation in the party is one of the reasons for the dissent the party is witnessing.
Perhaps there are no answers and the sources from the other camp said that his absence is being seen as a message that Rahul Gandhi wants to work with the seniors as well, so the brainstorming session on the lines of Panchmarhi is being suggested, but before that Sonia Gandhi will be meeting most of the leaders in batches before taking a final view on the situation in the party.
Many leaders in the meeting wanted Rahul Gandhi to takeover on which he said that he is willing to work whatever he will be asked, said sources, but that due process for internal elections that is already in motion should not be disturbed.
"No one has a problem with Rahul Gandhi, and this is not just for today. Everybody said that we need Rahul Gandhi's leadership. We must not fall into the trap of other people who are trying to distract the party's agenda," senior party leader Pawan Bansal said emerging out of the most awaited meeting ever since the group of 23 leaders had shot off a letter to Sonia Gandhi in August this year.
The cases of rare black fungus infection linked with Covid-19 have started to appear across the hospitals in the national capital after being higlighted by Ganga Ram hospital a few days ago.
However, doctors said this alarming affliction called Mucormycosis is rare but not new. What is new is the impact of Covid behind triggering this deadly infection.
Max Superspeciality hospital in Delhi has reported as many as 24 cases amid the Covid pandemic as against four cases reported last year.
Sanjay Sachdeva, Principal Director of ENT, Max hospital, told IANS that all these patients had Covid-19 while 20 of them lost their eyesight.
"While we lost one patient, three were recovered without any incision," he added.
Sachdeva observed that Covid is also somehow aggrieving the fungal infection.
"Its aggressiveness has increased in the Covid times, as within two days of detection, people have started to lose their eyes, nose and other body parts," he said.
Sonali Malhotra, Senior resident, ENT, at Centre-run Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), told IANS that in the last one-and-a-half months, at least five cases have been reported in the hospital. Of them, three were Covid-linked.
"Two were Covid positive at the time of its (Mucormycosis) detection while another one was reinfected with the Covid-19 infection," she said.
Aparna Mahajan, Consultant ENT surgeon, Fortis Escorts Hospital at Faridabad, also informed that the hospital had reported four cases recently.
As per doctors, Mucormycosis has been a cause of disease and death in transplants, ICU and Immunodeficient individuals since long, however, it is the rapid increase in numbers seen in unsuspected Covid patients which is matter of grave concern.
Bhiya Ram, Assistant professor, ENT department, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh, said Covid patients, who are already immunocompromised with the underlying condition, had faced severe Covid-19 and been on steroids, are at a greater risk of contracting Mucormycosis and fatality associated to it which ranges as high as 80 per cent.
Of the ten patients Ganga Ram reported in December, lives of five patients could not be saved.
"The frequency with which we are witnessing the occurrence of high morbidity and mortality in Covid-triggered Mucormycosis has never been seen before which is shocking and alarming," Manish Munjal, senior ENT surgeon, Ganga Ram hospital, told IANS.
Uma Malliah, Senior Consultant, Ophthalmology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, informed that three of the seven cases the hospital reported could not be saved.
The doctors said early detection of Mucormycosis could save lives as well as control the infection spread.
"Symptoms such as nose obstruction, swelling in the eye or cheeks and black dry crusts inside the nose should be reported immediately and anti-fungal therapy must be initiated as early as possible," Ram said.
"Patients should immediately rush to their nearest ENT clinics for problems such as pressure in the eyes and numbness in the cheeks. The investigation of nose through endoscope can easily reveal the typical purple or black spots developing in the nose and if spotted, treatment should be started without any delay," Ram added.
Malliah said the patients reported in Apollo hospital were largely diabetic.
They were specifically severe in diabetes, renal failures and transplant, and have been on steroids for a very long time," she added.
Sonali Malhotra said diabetes is the major common link found between the Mucor patients which makes them susceptible to Covid-19.
"Since they already have underlying conditions, their chances of getting infected with Covid fare higher," she added.
Another distinct property being reported in the Mucor patients is that the majority were elderly people.
Malliah informed IANS that the patients reported to her hospital were majorly between 45 and 60 years.
Sachdeva told IANS that his patients varied from 47 to 72 years.
Nehal Modi, the brother of fugitive jewellery merchant Nirav Modi, has been charged by a New York prosecutor in an alleged $2.6 million fraud carried out through a multilayered scheme to cheat one of the world's biggest diamond companies.
Announcing the charges against Nehal Modi on Friday, the prosecutor, Cy Vance, said, "While diamonds maybe forever, this flawed scheme was not, and now Mr Modi will face the clarity of a New York Supreme Court indictment."
Modi was charged in the state supreme court with "grand larceny in the first degree" for allegedly "fraudulently obtaining over $2.6 million worth of diamonds from a diamond wholesale company located in Manhattan," said Vance, who is the prosecutor for the city's Manhattan district.
The crime of grand larceny in the first degree under New York State laws is theft involving more than $1 million and it carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
According to the New York Post, Modi told the court he was not guilty of the charge and was released without bail.
In a short video on the Post site, Modi is seen walking with a man who may be his lawyer in what appears to be the corridor of a court building. Asked about the case, he replied, "There's nothing about the case."
Asked about the Interpol notice, the man accompanying him, said, "We are not discussing anything about the case, I told you that."
Nehal Modi is wanted in India in connection with an alleged Rs 13,500 crore (about $1.9 billion) fraud involving the Punjab National Bank, and at the request of India the Interpol has issued a Red Notice, which is a request to law enforcement worldwide to arrest him pending extradition.
Under the judicial procedure in New York, the prosecutors first presented the case to a grand jury -- a panel of citizens -- to determine if there was a prima facie case to proceed with prosecution. The grand jury indicted him -- a finding that there were enough grounds to charge him.
The alleged crime goes back to 2015 when Nehal Modi asked a company identified as LLD Diamonds USA to obtain over $2.6 million worth of diamonds with "false representations", some of which he pawned for loans and sold the rest as steeply discounted prices, the prosecution said in a statement.
LLD Diamonds says on its website that it "is the world's largest privately held diamond manufacturer and cutting group -- entirely independent of external suppliers, having its own widespread sources of rough goods through ownerships in mines around the world."
The prosecution said that in March 2015 Modi first asked the company to give him diamonds worth about $8,00,000 claiming they were to be shown for potential sale to a company identified as Costco Wholesale Corporation, a chain that gives price discounts to its customers who join as members.
Modi then claimed that Costco agreed to buy the diamonds and LLD gave it to him on credit to be paid within 90 days, the prosecution said.
But he pawned the diamonds to another company for a short-term loan and came back to LLD to get more diamonds, this time worth $1 million, claiming that Costco had agreed to buy them, according to the prosecution.
He made some payments to LLD but used the major portion of the proceeds to for business and personal expenses and in order "to cover his fraud, Modi falsely claimed that he was he was having payment problems because of a "Costco fulfilment error," prosecutors said.
In August, Modi returned to LLD "with the false claim" that Costco wanted to buy more diamonds and after picking them up, he pawned some of them and sold the rest to retailers at a "steep discount", according to the prosecution.
By the time when LLD discovered the fraud and demanded payment or return of the diamonds, Modi had already pawned or sold off all the gems and spent most of the money, prosecutors said.
LLD then filed a complaint with the Manhattan prosecutor's office.
Vance asked others who may be "the victim of this type of theft" to call the financial fraud hotline of his office.
Why Is the Farmer Angry?
The government recently brought in 3 farm laws with the stated objective of bringing in investment into the Agriculture sector by- removing impediments in the market access, stockpiling regulations and laws, as well as improving contract farming structures. Besides this, there is a pending bill in Parliament to remove the power subsidy to the farm sector. There is also a new law which penalizes a farmer with fines of $150,000 (the annual farmer revenue being $1000) for burning paddy residue and giving rise to air pollution. These legislations have unnerved farmer bodies. The farmers have opposed all five laws, and have been campaigning for the last three months. However, matters escalated within the past 20 days seeing masses encircling the national capital in peaceful protest. They have also demanded that the Minimum Support Price for all crops be legislated with penal provisions if violated.
Since 2013 the bumper crops have resulted in a steady deflation in farm-produce prices which are now 7 years running. Over 3,00,000 farmer suicides in the last decade have been a direct outcome of the agrarian crisis that grips the nation.
How poor is poor anyway?
The Economic survey in 2017 stated that the farming household incomes in 6 states in India fell below Rs. 50,000 per annum (for a family of 4), well under the minimum wage for unskilled labour set by each state. The range of income for over Rs. 14 crore farming households in India varies by state from a low of Rs. 30,000 to a high of Rs. 1,92,000 per annum, and the average for the country is Rs. 78,000 p.a. i.e. under Rs.20,000 p.a. per capita, or under Rs.2000 per month. 60% of this rural income is coming from non-agricultural sources, mainly as labour/working in factories /MNREGA to supplement farm income.
Any discussion on farmer issues must first come to terms with the reality that 500 million farmers are below any sensible definition of the Poverty Line. When the media tags some of them as being pampered, they end up showing blatant insensitivity to all but 2% of farmers with landholdings over 25 acres. The highest-earning states, Punjab and Haryana generate a household gross income of Rs.192,000 ($2700)p.a., and an average household debt between Rs.3-9 lacs.
Food Security
A nation’s memory should not be so short, that to cope with famines and food shortages in 1965 Lal Bahadur Shastri had to resort to giving a call to the nation for fasting one day a week to reduce the demand. Even between 2006-08, the central government was wooing farmers in Punjab and Haryana for growing more wheat as the supply was inadequate for meeting the commitments in the Public Distribution System. Our farmers have made us self-sufficient in foodgrains, milk, fruits and vegetables, and substantially reducing imports of edible oils and pulses.
Therefore, what should a $2.7 trillion economy be willing to pay for its food security?
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) conducted a study in 2018 quantifying the support major nations provide to their respective agricultural sectors. Globally the annual aid to agriculture is approximately $ 700 billion, without which agriculture has proven unviable on a standalone basis. China tops the list with $190 billion, The European Union with $120 billion, and the US with $50 billion. Whilst India provides its farmers with a direct subsidy of $30 billion (fertilizer, power, irrigation water) , PM Modi introduced a Rs.6,000 direct benefit transfer to all farmer households ($8 billion) totalling $38 billion. However, the study shows we are penalizing our farmers $77 billion by paying them below international prices in many crops. There isn’t a single developed country that does this.
The reality on the ground is that policies of successive Governments have resulted in the Indian farmer subsidizing the Indian trader (no evidence that benefits go to consumer) and the farm sector being deprived of fair treatment. The contrast is glaring when we compare China and India with populations of 150 and 140 crores, China subsidises $190 billion, and India penalises $ 38 billion every year.
50 crore able-bodied resources-who wants them?
If Indian farming were to adopt Israeli/Dutch farming practices, 90% of the 60 crore (600 million) farmers would be rendered surplus. Does any government or economist have the faintest idea where they would create 50 crore (500 million) jobs? If these people stopped farming, what would the cost of Universal Basic Income to support their very existence resemble? Both the Industry and Services sectors have been shedding manpower due to automation and Artificial Intelligence applications.
Hence, it is crucial to identify and develop livelihood opportunities for this cohort without geographically destabilizing it. It is for this reason that schemes like MNREGA are so successful in rural areas. We can hope for and strive towards achieving social stability only when 50% of our population can see a future for themselves.
The market for Produce:
The Government of India designed a model, Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act in 2003 to bring reforms in the agricultural markets, and these markets are regulated under the APMC Act legislated by State Governments. There are about 2500 principal regulated markets based on geography (the APMCs) and 5000 sub-market yards managed by the respective APMCs in India. Each state APMC selects a group of Commission Agents that enforce the following- market-making, cleaning, standardizing, packing the produce, as well as getting auctions conducted in the presence of farmers who assent to the bid offered to conclude the transaction. For this, they charge a fee on the value of the sale.
These 7,000 Mandis are woefully inadequate to support the sale of the produce. Conservatively, we need at least 42,000 Markets &Yards on the principle of buying point at 5 Km distances from major growing clusters. State governments other than Punjab and Haryana have failed their farmers by doing minimal work in agriculture markets. Farmers consequently, have no pricing power and left to the mercy of traders/aggregators.
Successive Central and State governments have time and time again ignored investment in this sector. From the years 2000 to 2020, the total investment in Agriculture has been $20 billion or Rs. 7,500 crores per year. It is embarrassing to note that a $300 billion sector gets a capital expenditure of $ 1 billion a year and much lip service is paid to the Kisan in every budget since independence.
The total Credit given by banks and institutions to the agriculture sector is roughly Rs. 12 lac crores, of which 55% is too small a number to be given to marginal farmers. The gross NPAs in agriculture are about 1 lac crores, much lower than the Corporate sector which have habitually provided write-offs funded by the Indian taxpayer. The above lending is inadequate, hence many farmers remain indebted to Adhatiyas (commission agents in mandis) estimated at nearly 35% of bank credit.
To give PM Modi his due, the lending to the agricultural sector has doubled from Rs.6 lac crores to Rs. 12 lac crores during his 6 years. His thrust in this direction is visible (included in this is growth in FCI debt by nearly Rs.2 lac crores which is strictly not agriculture credit but food security credit).
India being a low per-capita income country can also justify why only 10% of the produce lands up getting processed and not sold in its primary state. The value addition products are milk and sugarcane. Although, the bulk of the milk is pasteurized, packaged and sold. These demographics are changing slowly, but demand growth of ready-to-eat food is slow due to low per capita income of 95% of the population.
MS Swaminathan Commission and MSP
The Swaminathan Commission was created for finding solutions to the problems faced by farmers. The commission submitted five reports between December 2004 and October 2006.The contentious recommendation related to the calculation of fair pricing of the produce.
To give farmers a minimum support price at 50 per cent profit above the cost of production classified as C2 by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)
Swaminathan Commission recommended this to be the basic cost and prescribed MSP 50 per cent above C2.
The UPA government failed to notify prices as per the above formula. MSP has no meaning if it is not backed by a body that will buy the offered produce at the announced price. PM Modi as CM of Gujarat was the biggest advocate of MSP as per the Swaminathan formula, and it was a major poll plank for him in 2014. As PM, in 2015 his government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying they could not fully implement it. There were major farmer agitations in 2018, and once again PM Modi in 2019 reiterated his promise of implementing the report. Till date, the government only gives a mark-up on variable cost but excludes rent on land and farmers labour. Once again, the results belied expectations.
Governments use MSP as bait to provide direction to farmers on what to grow. This is how Punjab and Haryana farmers were induced to completely shift to growing grains- wheat and paddy. Whilst the farmers have delivered output, unfortunately, they did their job too well. The government only buys 40% of India’s paddy and wheat production at MSP leaving the rest of the farmers out to dry, having to sell at 30/40% discounts. The ground reality also is that the Food Corporation of India through whom the Central government buys wheat and paddy at MSP, was holding nearly 100 million tons of Grain as Food Security reserve, and the FCI’s debt would hit Rs. 3.5 lac crores. India is now surplus in grain.
These reserves came in good use as 80 crore (800 million) people could be issued 10Kg per capita every month during the COVID 19 crisis i.e. 8 million tons per month. Possibly the FCI is out of cash, and till the government provides adequate budgetary support further buying may be stymied.
Only 6% of the total production in 22 crops that have a government declared Minimum Support Price is actually bought at that price. 94% has historically been sold to traders in a free market mechanism. Hence it is pertinent to ask, if the private sector has invested in developing the agricultural value chain, or just exploited the small farmers who have no staying power. A classic case is of Bihar where Nitish Kumar abolished APMC in 2007. The farmer in Bihar sells at a 35% discount to the farmer in UP. This act in one stroke killed agriculture in Bihar and forced the creation of “migrant labour”. Ironically, hardy Bihari farmers with larger landholdings in Bihar work as farm labour on smaller holdings in Punjab and Haryana.
The water table levels in Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh have dropped alarmingly due to growing grains especially paddy which is very water-intensive. Crop diversification in these states is necessary to preserve agriculture for the long term. However, for three decades farmers have moved away from other crops to wheat, paddy, cotton as the Central government incentivized them to become the grain basket of the country. State governments worked hard to create a working mandi (marketplace) system with 50% of the country’s mandis in these two states alone. In both grain crops, the farmer has an assured buyer in the form of the government.
The government of India needs to have the courage to tell the farmers that it erred in its forecasts and farmers in low water table states need to shift to other crops. They could have offered compensation for a defined period for farmers to switch to fruits, vegetables and pulses. This is the least gratitude to be shown for providing us with food security. The farmers know this reality of a disappearing market and hence the heightened fears and tensions as all are upto their ears in debt. It is better to address the real problem of impracticability of Price based support openly and provide succour by a Direct Benefit Transfer. The Prime Minister can redeem himself in the eyes of the farmers by discussing the unthinkable and formulating such a financial solution.
Remarkably the Agricultural sector is the best performer during COVID times and has saved the economy the blushes by absorbing the 80 million migrant labour that returned to their villages preventing a major law and order challenge. Credit also goes to the Central and State Governments that procured a record 39 million tons of Rabi crop and did not let the standing crop go waste. This good work was done by end of May 2020. To be noted is that 67 million tons were absorbed by private buyers. Since APMC regulations were largely suspended due to COVID, and the market mechanism moved smoothly, it perhaps emboldened the Government to hammer the 3 laws through Parliament in a hurry.
60 crore farmers and no representatives in Parliament!
One would presume that 45% population in the country would have a very powerful say in national politics. Yet nowhere does one see a political leader of significant standing who is an agriculturist. We had Chaudhary Charan Singh, Devi Lal, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Prakash Singh Badal, but no younger leaders have emerged. Like India’s middle class, farmers are a generic class which gets split by caste and religion, their challenges for each crop are different, and hence get exploited by political parties whose vested interest is in keeping farmers away from aspirations. Winds of change are visible in the current agitation. After the 1988 agitation of Mahendra Singh Tikait which shook the Rajiv Gandhi brute majority government, 500 farmer associations have come together in opposition to the three farm bills. They have refused to let any political party share the podium. The movement is gathering steam and the Modi government is facing its biggest challenge in the last 6 years.
The Challenge needs a response
In summation, grain and sugar in India is surplus, the water table in Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and UP is dropping rapidly. Policymakers want farmers to reduce growing wheat paddy and sugarcane, but do not have the courage to start a debate on this. The government is running out of money to buy and hold beyond 60-100 million tons of Reserve Food Stocks (depends on the time of the year). Capital Expenditure in cold storages, food processing is not happening in significant volumes and nearly 30% of fruits and vegetables grown to perish. The poverty of farmers - over 3 lac suicides in the last decade due to shame at not meeting loan commitments, with annual income sometimes as low as Rs. 30,000 stares us in the face. Yes, the nation’s challenge is defined and urgent actions have to be taken.
However, since they impact such large numbers, it is mission-critical that all stakeholders be engaged. Policy measures that emerge must meet the test of fairness especially to a class of people that have been used for getting their votes, compulsorily acquiring their lands (sometimes for dubious project plans) and steadily pushed to a life of penury.
During the last six years, PM Modi has taken more constructive/structural actions to alleviate the farmers cause than at any other time since Independence. However, he had made a lofty commitment to double farmer household incomes by 2022 and given his track record for relentlessly pursuing the last mile activity, perhaps the pressure of time running out is telling on him too. Farmers cut across religion, caste and gender. 50% of the population is too large for even a magnetic PM to alienate. The irony is that 70 years of collective angst of being ignored, exploited and cheated is bursting against a man who has tried to do good.
The Real Battle-ground
India’s non-milk agricultural sector is approximately $300 billion per annum at farm-gate prices. It is small, distributed, governed by State laws, coming out of small landholdings, and is manpower intensive. No corporate wants to get into a space where so many non-business related headaches have to be faced. However, the opportunity becomes interesting to them ex farm-gate to the final consumer. The product has to be cleaned, segregated, packaged, distributed and retailed, or processed/preserved, stored and distributed and retailed. Suddenly this becomes a $500-1000 billion market at the consumer level. There are multiple conflicts to be won:
Hence the need for a parallel new market which will create disintermediation, and also possibly eliminate the cash-flow of the opposition party supporters over some time.
Corporates entering the sector would look at acquiring 50-60 % of revenues over a 10-15 year period i.e. $100 billion-plus of purchases at farm-gate prices and at least $ 300 billion-plus at retail prices. They will need locking-in of produce ex farm-gate to focus on front-end business. The farmers if they organize themselves well can assure themselves better and transparent pricing. The Central government has blundered in not communicating this to farmers. It could play a key role in working with Farmer Associations on designing contracts that are not one-sided. However, the track record of the state governments in enforcing contracts is very poor. Take the case of Sugarcane. Mills are supposed to pay for these wares in a defined period, yet we find that often arrears run upto two years, and then political parties do farmers a poll plank favour to get them monies due to them. Trust is the key in these challenging times that is lacking.
This discussion begets the question as to why the Government was in a hurry to bring in the Farm laws without getting stakeholder consent, without referring them to a standing committee in Parliament, or rushing it through a voice vote in the Rajya Sabha.
Multiple rounds of discussion with Farmer bodies and the Government’s openness to make amendments indicates a recognition that clauses were weakly drafted, or worse that nuances of all issues were not fully thought through: The Government now faces a Hobson’s choice on multiple issues:
The NDA has only one principal vote catcher - PM Narendra Modi. Brand Modi is strong, credible, built on the premise of swift and decisive decision making with great emphasis on last-mile delivery. The personal integrity and hard work of the PM have not been questioned, and he has positioned himself as a robust nationalist. Attacks by Congress on “suit-boot ki sarkar” and Rafale were short-lived because the challenger was not credible himself.
Brand Modi now face formidable odds. They are faced with thousands of 70 years plus farmers protesting peacefully, braving the winter by sleeping in the open, speaking politely without rancour, refusing to let their movement become political or sidetracked. The bulk of India’s armed forces, police and para-military are farmers’ children. They are all watching their parents and grandparents participating in this Satyagraha. The longer this agitation lasts and becomes a national rallying point for all who oppose Modi, the PM’s image loses badly. The government’s media machinery seems confused, attacking the farmers on air with oft repeated nametags, but filing a different reply in the Supreme Court. Either Solicitor General Tushar Mehta is confused or a cohort of cabinet ministers.
A few days ago the call by farmer associations to boycott all products of Ambani and Adani (perceived Modi backers) has provided the missing credibility to the accusation that Rahul Gandhi could not achieve in his battle of words. Farmers have given a call to “gherao” BJP leaders, and this must be making BJP Members of Parliament from rural constituencies incredibly nervous. They cannot risk an escalation of this call, after all, it is over 40% of the country’s population we are talking about. It’s now becoming Brand Modi vs Brand Farmers by default.
The good news is that 20 days and counting, the PM has not spoken so far. He has kept the door open for a final roll of the dice. Government supporters fear that withdrawing the 3 bills would end the PM’s ability to push through other needed reforms. However, the PM is a great communicator, and in national interest, a solution which is a win-win is needed both for the sake of justice and the country’s image in the world.
The eyes of Global media are on this remarkable protest. Western and Chinese media would love to tear into PM Modi for vested reasons. The attempts by the BJP spin doctors, and its loyal media channels to brand these farmers as “separatists” have bombed badly. The government also faces a data crunch on how deep-rooted the farmers’ resentment is to the 3 Bills nationally. Time is not on the Government’s side to figure out whether small and marginal farmers in the poorer states would support contract farming on a large scale. The farmer bodies have dug in their heels and are prepared for the long siege of the Capital. With trains not running, farmers from all over the country are not able to reach New Delhi, so the heavy lifting is being done by the neighbouring states. The stability of the NDA government in Haryana is threatened by its coalition partner JJP(a farmers party) under severe pressure from the electorate to withdraw support.
The government needs to understand the psyche behind why people are still into farming despite it being uneconomic. The simple explanation is the attachment to their land, and that is their real identity. A perceived threat to their land titles by replacing traders and market makers by a new set of players who have both money and political muscle makes them very agitated. All they want to see is a fair market for their crops. They are entrepreneurs - the rest they can do. No government till now offers them that.
Media reports suggest that the BJP plans to launch a nationwide farmer connect the program to explain the new laws. Consultation with the stakeholder is sought to be done post-event. It looks like the start of a long winter for the residents of the National Capital Region. This agitation seems to have vaccinated India’s sleeping opposition parties out of hibernation. We do see some green-shoots in the form of the Central government clearing exports of 6 Million tons of sugar, and trying to make India the food security provider to the UAE. Nearly 20 farmers have died so far braving the weather, if body-bags starts to mount, emotions will start to run high. Waiting out the agitation is not an option .
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