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Comment by screye | Hacker News Reader

That is an incredibly biased reading.

The farm laws were among the most progressive changes the farms had seen in the last century. It was politically hijacked despite having been previously supported by the same opposition who was currently leading the agitation.

India is politically incredibly left as a nation, and IMO the right simply isn't right enough. If India can even reach a Bernie or Warren level.of capitalism, it would be a dream come true.

Sadly, we are stuck in a system that glorifies blind socialism despite it having continuously kneecapped the economy decade over decade.

I hope the PSUs get sold off. The farm bills pass (wishful thinking) and India finally manages to claw back some power from this kafkaesque beaurocracy.

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> It was politically hijacked despite having been previously supported by the same opposition who was currently leading the agitation.

That's either ignorance or a plain lie. Rahul Gandhi, one of the leaders of Congress, has been a vocal opponent of the farm laws from day 1. Here's his speech in Parliament on it - https://old.reddit.com/r/india/comments/li5iey/rahul_gandhis... ... At no point has the opposition Congress ever supported the law.

In fact, it was never even given an opportunity to do so!

This law was suddenly introduced as an ordinance, and bludgeoned through Parliament with the sheer majority of the government, without even a discussion in Parliament. Despite requests, it was not even sent to any Parliamentary committees. Worse, the government hadn't even consulted anyone, and the law had a lot of glaringly loopholes for the obvious benefit of the corporate sector.

A agree completely with you that reforms are much needed in India's agriculture sector. And PM Modi could have easily implemented many of them if he had just followed democratic process and consulted everyone. The farm laws passed by him was sloppy too - many parts of these law were bound to be overturned by the Supreme Court too, as it infringed on the rights of states in our federal setup.

> That's either ignorance or a plain lie

Ooh, boy. I had an incredibly long post with all the links to support my claim. Sadly, I am struggling to find it.

In the meantime, here is another comment I found, that makes the same points (just unsourced for now).

    Every economic survey since 2011 said we need these laws. InterMinisterial Task Force during Vajpayee, Manmohan and Modi Sarkaars said we need these laws. 
    
    Multiple Dept of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare reports said we need these laws.

    BKU leader said we need these laws. Today protesting BKU won’t accept that guy mediating. 2008 BKU protested FOR these reforms. 

    Most of the Farmers outside of Punjab/Haryana said we need these laws and support these laws. 

    PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, the best Finance Minister India has had, tried to implement these laws.

    CPIM said we need these laws n got rid of APMC in Kerala. Congress said we needed these laws n put it in their 2019 manifesto.

For now, I can lay my reputation on the line and assure you that I have a fully sourced comment somewhere that makes these exact point. I will try to find it by tonight, and comment under here. (remind me if I forget)

I added all the links, and then HN failed to update the comments. SMH.

So as a next least-worst thing, I am linking to a right wing article, so don't call me out on that. But, do look at the links in there. The points themselves stand on their own and are well supported from primary sources.

https://dynastycrooks.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/all-the-hypoc...

It's ok without sources because you are now talking about something different entirely. (And it doesn't support your assertion). Your claim was that: It was politically hijacked despite having been previously supported by the same opposition who was currently leading the agitation.

That is an absolutely misleading (and ignorant) statement because the opposition were against the farm laws because of:

1. The shoddy laws (with glaring loopholes) that the govt. claimed was "reforms". 2. The manner in which the laws was passed. 3. The unconstitutional parts of the laws.

What you have highlighted are all the preliminary preparations that go before the process of law making even starts. This is the respective governments - NDA or UPA - considering how to make policies based on their political ideology and ground realities (as they see it). Just because the NDA or UPA agreed that reforms are needed doesn't mean they were in agreement on how these reforms need to be.

If the government had bothered to consult the opposition, and other parties that would be impacted by these laws, a good law could have been created. Instead, the law was created in secret, was made a law immediately by introducing it as an ordinance bypassing the Parliament initially, and then rushed through Parliament with the brute majority of the government without even allowing a debate.

What I find strange is the support that the Indian (opportunistic) left's narrative gets in US media including niche tech communities like HN. Any one who has grown up in India in the past 50 years has witnessed the devastation caused by Socialism in this country. Socialism did not make India equal - it made India's bureaucracy and politics a cesspool of corruption that did enormous damage to India's poor. Anybody on this community who wants a crisp, fair view of the situation should spend a minute reading this editorial from India's largest newspaper before commenting: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/swa...

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