I am not familiar with politics in India, so my question is: how does the BJP manage to push laws that (seem to) adversly affect the interest of half of the population? Isn't that political suicide for the BJP?
Their proposed laws deregulate agri markets but people no longer trust them to do any good: https://the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/the-trust-battery-is-at-1/
So yes, they overestimated their reach and this would have certainly been political suicide, if only they had any competent opposition.
There was monopolies of mandis(farmer are restricted only to sell here) now government allows them to make contract or sell anywhere.
I wrote posts on it : https://iamamitmurari.medium.com/farm-laws-farmer-issues-and...
That's oft-repeated claim that lacks serious backing. If that were true all farmer associations must have opposed the laws which is not happening[1].
1. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/who-are-shetkari...
You have no clue. Farmers were free before also to sell anywhere.
Reliance is going to monopolize in agriculture also similar to what they have done with Telecom via Jio.
I have a BSNL net connection (with reliability going down from good to worse). Being public sectore, Central govt is accountable for BSNL quality.
The way BSNL value is/was destroyed to promote Reliance... is now repeating elsewhere.
https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/reli...
His industry has no interest in food and agriculture!
This is factually incorrect [1]. Only about 30% [2] of produce is sold in mandis.
Any anti-mandi law is essentially an anti-farmer law; because mandis act as a safety net for farmers. No farmer can negotiate good deals with big corp, and once the buyer side is monopolized (ala Jio); the farmer is forced into bad contracts. What the government should do is implement mandi reforms.
[1]: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/can-free-trade-...
[2]: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/agriculture/by-pushing-f...
https://finshots.in/archive/agriculture-will-never-be-the-sa...
As for the shtick that they will not abolish mandis, that is already demonstrably untrue [1]. It is trivial to observe that big corp will utterly destroy them and then coerce farmers into bad contracts when they have no alternative.
As for your argument that the "free market" will improve the situation, for the record, it has been done before and has miserably failed. [2]
For posterity, I would recommend that you don't cite sources that are essentially blog posts with zero data or theory. I might as well cite the Communist Manifesto then. There is actual serious work on this matter.
[1]: https://www.newsclick.in/Fallout-Farm-Laws-New-Laws-Paralyse...
[2]: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/bihar-scrapp...
Those in their stead conspire to do price rigging, and wash produce down the drain.
The recent sugar, wheat tomato, onion shortages were due to them doing exactly that.
They have a giant misinformation network, which has recruited everybody from bots to popular actors to popular sportspeople and they spread out misinformation in a highly organized manner. Very effective at spreading FUD which translates into votes come election time.
Even now, on Twitter and Reddit you'll find thousands of posts about how the protesting farmers are khalistani terrorists.
Goebbels would be proud of what the BJP have accomplished.
Both parties are guilty of spreading misinformation, but now-ruling party encashed the majority votebank first, and almost controls the popular narrative. Moreover INC doesn't have promising leadership, they are mostly exploited by Nehru-Gandhi family.
In most demographics, majority of people are conservative and it's just matter of time someone exploits it.
The way it has been going on is that government announces something or passes some bill because they have to do something on a particular topic (say black money, taxes, Covid). However, they are incompetent or don't have the willingness or interest in actually carrying it out. So, these changes turn out to be catastrophic. They take toll on economy as well as anyone impacted because of the decision making.
Agriculture reforms are much needed in India. However, the government did it in hurry by-passing rules and without consulting farmers. I guess, they just want to do something so that they can let the marketing take care of the rest (that the goverment has done something for farmers - doesn't matter what or irrespective of whether it really helps them).
With these bills, the concern is that it will let private players take over and exploit farmers because of insufficient provisions to take care of farmers' interest. And then nobody will care (very much a risk because no one raises voice of oppressed which might show government in bad light because of the sold-out media). And the government will push narrative that they did the "reforms" (backed by fake data which is a hallmark of this government).
That is false. These reforms are decades in the making with just about everyone opposing these laws now had advocated for it. Case in point, take a look at this tweet from BKU (the union leading these protests) - https://twitter.com/BKU_KisanUnion/status/110167401066691379...
In the above tweet, the farmers union is demanding that these vert farms laws should be implemented. Then after the government did that, they started protesting what they were demanding in the first place. And this is not the only incident.
Second case in point - here is what the Congress and AAP (the principle opposition parties leading the protests) promised to do if they were elected in the elections in 2019 - https://www.indiatoday.in/news-analysis/story/a-tale-of-u-tu...
So how come everyone demanding these laws is now protesting against the same laws? Common sense would dictate that the protests are not due to these laws. They are political in nature, where these laws are used as a shield to help legitimise these protests
They suggested changes to the bill and commented - "We have serious doubts whether the current bills will serve any purpose to the farmers and it appears more of a tool for the buyers rather than the farmers."
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-natio...
It hampers the middleman more than the actual farmers. North part of India has two states which have significant contribution to farming in India - Punjab and Haryana.
New laws allow the farm owner to directly sell the crop to the corporate without any middleman. In the above two states the trade is tightly controlled by middlemen. Hence the issue. In other states, very few people are protesting.
Despite every misstep that BJP has taken, every economic blunder they have made and widespread increase in authoritarianism, its popularity has only risen.
One of the vilest BJP leaders, Ajay Bisht, who rules UP - one of the most backwards state in India is expected to be one of the upcoming PM candidates for the next election. It doesn't matters he has made Up into a bigger hellhole, but because he is a "yogi" (saint/ one who does Yoga), he is BJP's posterchild and one of its most popular leaders.
You'll notice that the protestors are mostly from Punjab - the BJP did not win in Punjab, so they don't have much to lose there by helping other farmers at the cost of Punjabi farmers. The previous system was more favorable to Punjab's farmers.
Pre-independence, during the Zamindar System (Indian version of Feudalism). The Zamindar owned the land and the farmers worked on it and the Zamindar compensated them what he felt like. The farmers had no leverage to bargain and was pretty much the salve of the Zamindar. This was the Indian version of slaves.
Similarly after the Independence, the Zamindar System was abolished. But a market yards (mandis) system came up, here the farmer either owns the land or rents out the land from someone. But can ONLY sell the produce to the local Mandi. The Mandi has the upper-hand in deciding the prices and the farmer cannot negotiate as no one else is allowed to buy it from the farmer. The Mandi effectively became a new/mutated (keeping up with the Covid times ;)) version of Zamindar aka Feudalism. The farmers are still technically slaves of the Mandi.
As per the new law, the farmer has to right to sell the produce to ANYONE, including the Mandi. So, the Mandi can quote the price and if anyone bids a higher price, they can get it. If need be, me as a consumer can buy directly and legally from the farmer.
As for the minimum price protection, the mandi does offer that service and that service will continue as per the current system if you agree to sell to the Mandi. But in many states, the state government offers an insurance were the farmer can enroll in it and if the crop is damaged due to weather or locust (like it happened recently) or failed to get a promised minimum price, the farmer will be compensated.
In the state of Tamil Nadu (couple of relatives are involved in farming there), this insurance/financing is done via the Banks. At each stage, the bank gives money for buying manure & seeds. Basically you can take a loan from the bank to do agriculture and if it fails or you dont get the minimum promised price, the loan is written off. So, the farmer can do the agriculture without spending any money from their own pockets and in case of loss, the bank writes off the loan.
There are similar systems in various states, because of the Mandis there is no competition and the state govt & Mandis and do what they feel like. Now with the new law, the Mandis are facing competition. Basically they opened a protected market to competition.
As you asked, the BJP is pushing to implement this law in an Agrarian country like India is because they know that the majority needs this law and they can use this to get votes in the next election.
Right now the whole protest is from the single state of Punjab where you have the oldest and the richest Mandis. You cannot blame the Mandis for getting upset in damaging their business.
Plus states like Kerala with very low farming and they don't have a mandi system but is ruled by the communist party is just sending their party workers to protest, just because they dont want the BJP to succeed. Their opposition is to the party that is implementing the change and not the law. That is the same case with most of the opposition.
To me, this is like the horse traders protesting when the Automobile came out or the coin-operated telephone people protesting when mobiles came about or like the fossil fuel industry crying about the advent of Solar & renewal energy.
EDIT
> But can ONLY sell the produce to the local Mandi.
This is factually incorrect. Only about 30% of produce is sold in mandis. [1] [2]
[1] https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/agriculture/by-pushing-f...
[2] https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/can-free-trade-...
I'm not sure if the Indian government does this, but in some countries the government breaks up monopolies and tries to prevent them from forming in the first place.
I think the new laws allow anyone to approach a farmer with a better deal, and if the farmer chooses, they can even try to sell directly to the end customers.
As for the claim that the new laws allow anybody to approach a farmer with a better deal; sure that works in theory -- but notice that 1) that only works if there isn't a monopoly that drives prices (consider Jio that successfully monopolized telecom in India and now effectively sets prices throughout the industry) 2) farmers would be contractually obligated to sell produce (which would be a long-term deal).
The issue might be alleviated if the government promises to enforce a minimum price on all contracts made, but it will do nothing of that sort.
As for selling directly to end customers, in my limited knowledge, that is not a thing in India.
[1]: https://www.emis.com/php/company-profile/IN/Bharti_Airtel_Se...
[2]: https://assets.airtel.in/teams/simplycms/web/docs/Airtel-Int...
> Bharti Airtel Services Limited (BASL) engages mainly in selling of hardware for internet and satellite business.
Also please do elaborate on what sources of revenue that Airtel has that cause its 300M in loss while (as you claim) it makes profits in their telecom?
"Bharti Airtel Services Ltd. provides telecommunication services. The Company offers mobile, voice, and data services, as well as fixed line, high speed broadband, IPTV, and DTH services. Bharti provides telecom solutions for enterprises and international long distance service carriers."
> Also please do elaborate on what sources of revenue that Airtel has that cause its 300M in loss
Not interested. The bottom line is that Bharti Airtel Services, the direct competitor of Jio, is making a profit, contrary to your beliefs. Jio is not a monopoly.
Agri needs reform, but that does not mean that the proposed ones are what is needed.
Where are the mandis going? If they are non-competitive, they are out. But if they lose their non-sense and compete, they can be around. Also, the people working at the Mandis (Mandi employees), they are also free to start their own company that compete with the Mandis.
> what prevents a monopolized market from then strong-arming farmers into bad deals? This law, which prevents monolopy. The current monopoly is the Mandi. How will be farmers be strong-armed to a bad deal if they have options to choose?
> This is factually incorrect.
My mistake, "But can ONLY sell the produce to the local Mandi at some states". Punjab is an example of were Mandis have complete power. While in other states like TN, Bihar, MP, UP and more have already changed the rule.
> Only about 30% of produce is sold in mandis.
that is a bit misleading as Mandis dont have prominence is all states. But in Punjab where they are there, no one is allowed.
They would be non-competitive because of the no taxation clause that the bill has -- allowing big corp to undercut the mandis. Not to mention that corps are known to take losses just to establish market monopoly (see Jio).
> But in Punjab where they are there, no one is allowed.
I don't understand why you cite the mandi as a monopoly, when in the existing system a farmer can choose to sell anywhere they want?
Let the big corps procure from the farmers, at a "competitive price" as you say. Why should they deserve tax breaks?
The fact of the matter is that the mandi is desirable and has contributed to the material success of Punjab's farmers. There is no doubt that there are inefficiencies and leakages, but to do away with them in deference to the gods of the "free market" is a bit questionable. Unrelated quote: "the quality of public education might not be very good, but that doesn't mean we do away with it".
As for your comparison with other states, I would recommend you check out this article: https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/why-punjab-should-not...
1. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/who-are-shetkari...
2. https://m.economictimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/how-ind...
And even if the general populace had a feeling about this, it mostly turned negative after the shameful happenings on 26th January (India's Republic Day, the day the constitution of independent India was applied). These "protesters" carried out a raid similar to the US Capitol attack. And with that, any public support evaporated exactly like in the US