A pandora’s box seems to have opened up with the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra deciding to go for loans waiver to farmers. Of course, in the case of Uttar Pradesh, it was promised during the elections by the BJP, but the decision in the other state – also ruled by the BJP – have been literally dictated by the agitating farmers, who, in turn, have got complete support from all the opposition parties. Shiv Sena, a partner in the ruling coalition in Maharashtra, supporting the opposition on this issue is not surprising, given the fact that it is a partner of the BJP only on paper, but its worst enemy in reality.
However, this is not all. Now farmers in Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab are planning to agitate on similar lines. In fact, the farmers’ agitation for waiving off loans and better remunerative prices is assuming the proportions of what is believed to be a huge anti-BJP front, which all the opposition parties think will be the best weapon to unseat the Narendra Modi-led government even before the general elections in 2019. But in the process they are not realising that they are simply playing with fire, which will burn them too, if not today then tomorrow, even if there is an alternate government led by Rahul Gandhi or Nitish Kumar or anyone else.
Nobody disputes the fact that nearly 70 percent of the population of India is engaged in agricultural and allied activities. Those holding less than one hectare of land constitute 62 percent of the population while the remaining with 1-2 hectares make up for another 19 percent. Then there are the landless farmers. Actually, the truth is even harsher — most of the farmers dependent on agriculture are often underemployed. This is because full-time farming doesn’t happen due to a number of variables.
Farmers have not enough land to cultivate on a big scale with their small, often tiny, holdings; majority of them are still dependent on erratic monsoonal rainfall; crop yield in the country is low in comparison to international levels. The strategy of irrigation is faulty and agricultural development is degrading land resources in the form of alkalinity, salinity and water-logging, thus badly affecting the fertility of the soil.