Reevaluating the Strategy for Farmers’ Struggle and Sustainable Agricultural Solutions
IT IS A positive development that the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has shown a supportive attitude towards the farmers’ resistance movement, which is being carried out under the joint aegis of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha at the Khanauri and Shambhu borders. Discussions among the leadership are ongoing in a positive atmosphere.
One can hope that, by learning from past experiences and setting aside any differences, all farmers’ organizations in the country will unite to address the problems of agriculture and farmers. Just as there is agreement on the main demands of the farmers, it is also necessary for the farmer leadership to agree on a strategy to get these demands accepted by both the central and state governments.
Farmer leadership
The farmer leadership should also understand that the corporate political players should not be allowed to divert the energy of the farmers’ movement in their favour. In other words, the farmer leadership must remain committed to long-term solutions, alongside addressing the immediate crisis faced by the agricultural sector in India.
However, the biggest challenge before the leaders of both the joint farmer fronts at present is to save the life of senior farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on a hunger strike for the last 51 days at the Khanauri border. The farmer leaders supporting the movement should ensure that Dallewal’s hunger strike does not turn into a “maran-vrat” (fast unto death).
There has been no shortage of sacrifices in the form of farmers’ lives during the last three and a half decades of indiscriminate liberalization/privatization in the country. Lakhs of farmers and agricultural laborers have committed suicide, and this tragic trend continues intermittently.
Three farmers involved in the current protest at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders have committed suicide, disillusioned by the government’s callous attitude.
According to farmer leaders, 700 farmers were martyred in the year-long movement against the three agricultural laws. Many farmers have been victims of bullets fired by security forces in their battle for water, forest, and land (jal-jungle-jameen) against their own governments.
Six farmers were killed by police bullets in the Mandsaur firing incident, which marked the beginning of the 2020-21 farmer resistance. If the issues of land acquisition and low crop prices could be solved by sacrificing lives, this would have happened long ago. Experience shows that the sacrifice of farmers’ lives does not affect the ruling class.
Jagjit Singh Dallewal
Therefore, the first priority should be to save Jagjit Singh Dallewal’s life by helping to end his fast unto death. Saving his life does not mean ending the movement. A new way can be found to continue the struggle.
One possible solution could be to organize group satyagraha-fast actions. A group of farmers could carry out a satyagraha-fast for 21 (or more or fewer) days. After 21 days, another group should take over the satyagraha-fast. This process should continue until a satisfactory agreement is reached with the government on the demands. Farmers from other parts of the country can join the satyagraha-fast at their respective locations.
The agricultural crisis in the country directly affects the lives of farm laborers, workers in both organized and unorganized sectors, and those employed in the service of national and multinational companies in the retail sector. At least the labor unions from both the organized and unorganized sectors should join the satyagraha-fast.
Small traders and entrepreneurs can also participate according to their convenience and strategy. If concerned citizens from the service and industry sectors wish to participate, they too can be part of the satyagraha-fast. If not, other forms of action or resistance can be adopted. However, Dallewal’s fast unto death should be ended immediately.
Along with a new strategy of resistance, farmers will need to think about both immediate and long-term solutions to the crisis in the agricultural sector. A legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops and loan waivers should definitely be considered as immediate measures, but these are not the ultimate solution to the crisis. It will be a long struggle.
The experience so far shows that the farmer movement has been used in favour of neo-liberal forces. Kishan Patnaik has stated that the farmer movement should create its own politics. For Kishan Patnaik, this means creating politics that opposes neoliberalism. Whether it was the farmer movements of the eighties and nineties, or the movements of the twenty-first century, the farmer leadership has thus far only opposed neoliberalism without creating a politics of opposition to it, which is the root cause of the crisis.
For political strategies, the farmer leadership has largely depended on mainstream political parties. At the same time, it seems trapped in the confines of religion, caste, region, and patriarchy. Nevertheless, the biggest space for creating new politics can and should lie in the rural areas of India.
The farmer leadership must understand the reality that, in the current climate of neoliberal consensus in the country, a massive sector like agriculture cannot remain autonomous from the neoliberal network. Sooner or later, it will have to be integrated into the neoliberal system.
To expedite this process, the Modi government passed three agricultural laws in Parliament. Although these laws were withdrawn due to the long resistance of farmers, the government has made it clear that these laws will be reintroduced soon. This will inevitably happen. All three agricultural laws, even in a slightly altered form, will return sooner or later.
The ruling class in India sees corporatization of agriculture as the solution to the agricultural crisis. However, the experience of Europe and America shows that corporatized farming is also in crisis. Despite receiving large subsidies, farmers there have repeatedly taken to the streets.
The famous Seattle resistance against corporatization at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference in November 1999, a decade after the Washington Consensus, stands as a global example, including for India. Yet, the ruling class seems unwilling to consider any model other than the imported corporate model.
This task must fall to the farmer leadership. There are primarily two categories of agricultural economists in India. One group views the crisis through a corporate-centric lens and believes that corporatizing agriculture is the solution. The other group takes a constitution-centric approach, focusing on the Directive Principles of State Policy, and seeks solutions based on that perspective.
Devinder Sharma
It is worth mentioning Devinder Sharma here. He is an active public intellectual in agricultural matters with deep knowledge of both corporate-centric and constitution-centric models. He also has extensive knowledge of the state of agriculture in various countries worldwide and actively participates in the farmers’ movement. His inclination is toward a constitution-centric solution to the agricultural crisis.
The farmer leadership should seek immediate and long-term solutions to the agricultural crisis in India by collaborating with intellectuals like Devinder Sharma and engaging with agricultural economists from both aforementioned categories. 
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Also Read:
Farmers Dying, Middlemen Thriving
Modi’s Economic Policies and Their Impact on India
Dr. Prem Singh
The writer, associated with the socialist movement, is a former teacher at Delhi University and a fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
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