India farmers protest new agriculture laws

[Skeptic Ginger]

NPR: Crowds Of Indian Farmers Gather For Days To Protest New Agriculture Laws

Tens of thousands of farmers manned barricades and blocked highways Friday around India's capital of New Delhi for a ninth straight day, protesting new agricultural laws they fear may hurt their already-meager profits.

Passed in September, three new laws aim to deregulate Indian agriculture, by encouraging farmers to sell directly to companies. The government has long been a middle man, guaranteeing minimum prices for certain crops. The laws say farmers will still have price assurances, but the language is vague, and farmers are nervous about losing government support.

They protested here in Bellevue and other places all over the country. It looks like there was a big protest in London as well.

A few of my neighbors were miffed they blocked the freeway I-405) for a short period of time. It wasn't Bellevue's problem why are they protesting here?

Protest held in Bellevue to bring attention to treatment of farmers in India

BELLEVUE, Wash. – A group of several hundred people gathered in Bellevue Sunday afternoon to draw attention to the treatment of farmers in India.

The group of the protesters, in about 100 cars, drove from Gurdwara Singh Sabha in Renton to downtown Bellevue. The group came to a complete stop several times along I-405 Sunday morning with flags and signs reading “no farmers no food”.

They also marched in downtown, stopping at the library park to congregate. I only saw it on the news and on the Nextdoor site so I don't know if they had masks on.

 

[varwoche]

Ha. I hadn't seen this thread when I messaged you.

The freeway through Bellevue was a parking lot yesterday (Sunday). I was baffled. Trump supporters? BLM? Native American farmers wearing turbans?? No, a protest concerning events in India. I was smack dab in the middle and it was surreal. There were LOTS of vehicles participating, one of which almost crashed into me.

As I'm sure you know, the area has a sizeable Indian population, due to Microsoft and other tech companies.

Feeling irked after a long drive over the mountains, I swore to myself I'd never buy produce from India. (Though I don't recall ever seeing such produce.) I navigated around the mess on surface streets.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I hope now that you are safely home you might have a bit more empathy for subsistence (not sure that term applies) farmers in India. I'm not sure if we get any food imports from India. Just about every generic drug we use here is manufactured there.

 

[varwoche]

I don't think shutting down freeways in Bellevue, WA, USA, and endangering people in the process, is a smart way to raise awareness about issues over which people here have virtually no way to impact. They're piggybacking on BLM and it's lame. "Farmers Lives Matter" according to many of the signs.

 

[theprestige]

I don't think shutting down freeways in Bellevue, WA, USA, and endangering people in the process, is a smart way to raise awareness about issues over which people here have virtually no way to impact. They're piggybacking on BLM and it's lame. "Farmers Lives Matter" according to many of the signs.

The protesters were heartened by the success of the American "Free Tibet" campaign.

 

[Susheel]

Maybe it is just a symbolic display of solidarity to their brethren fighting horrible anti-farmer, pro-corporate crony farm policies. The policies basically give two major Indian corporations a free hand in deciding yield prices and also ensures the destruction of smaller farm holdings with the corporations controlling the markets.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

It turns out there is a billion dollar import/export exchange of agricultural goods between the US and India.

As for raising people's awareness, it did even if briefly and even if most of the people made aware missed the point.

CNN: India farmers' protests: Why you should care about thousands of people protesting

People around the world have been protesting to show support and stand with the farmers because the protests are about "the people who feed all of us" and their fair treatment, said Simran Jeet Singh, a scholar of religion and history currently teaching at Union Seminary and a Stephen M. Keller Term Member for the Council on Foreign Relations.

"The pandemic has shown us that there are two economies," he said. "Essential workers across the world are suffering. The farmers in India represent all of them, and their resistance to unjust legislation that privileges the uber-wealthy corporations is a resistance that speaks to so many of us all over the world."

Specifics about the agricultural products India exports are described in the article. It's surprisingly significant for a thing that is invisible to so many people.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

India has such tremendous potential, especially in agriculture, but the Government thinks it can run on a nationalist/technocrat platform like China ... which it can't.
India is too decentralized and heterogeneous.

 

[dudalb]

India has such tremendous potential, especially in agriculture, but the Government thinks it can run on a nationalist/technocrat platform like China ... which it can't.
India is too decentralized and heterogeneous.

I wonder if India is headed toward a breakup. I would not be suprrised if the seperatists movements in India..of which there are several..begin to pick up steam.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

India planning surgical strike to cover internal unrest: Pakistan

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday said India is planning to undertake a surgical strike against Pakistan to divert the attention of world from its worsening domestic situation....

India’s irrational approach was driven by its frustration emanating from internal unrest due to the RSS-BJP regime’s policies aimed at subjugation of religious minorities and disadvantaged segment of the society. “India is planning a false flag operation … we are well aware about Indian designs. We have intelligence report about false flag operation by India,” he said.

 

[dudalb]

India planning surgical strike to cover internal unrest: Pakistan

And, of course, Pakistan will strike back.
Let's just hope this does not escalate to Nukes.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

And, of course, Pakistan will strike back.
Let's just hope this does not escalate to Nukes.

I'm not sure it's even true. But I'm also not sure it isn't true.

 

[Susheel]

A meme going around Indian social media:

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

A meme going around Indian social media:
View attachment 43836

That map is full of funnies.

Beef eating good people.

Beef and pork eating good people.

 

[Francesca R]

India has such tremendous potential, especially in agriculture, but the Government thinks it can run on a nationalist/technocrat platform like China ... which it can't.
India is too decentralized and heterogeneous.

. . . Which is what the 2020 Agriculture Acts were about changing. But small farmers don’t like it because they prefer to sell at (probably higher) mandi prices.

 

[Garrison]

. . . Which is what the 2020 Agriculture Acts were about changing. But small farmers don’t like it because they prefer to sell at (probably higher) mandi prices.

Yeah initially I was sympathetic to what was being cast as small farmers versus big government, but the more details I read about how insulated these farmers are from reality the harder it is to side with them.

 

[Francesca R]

It would be small farmers versus big corporations; they would prefer the government. Except that it's the government doing the deregulating of course.

There are reasons to oppose it (economists tend to like it; economists would like it if the government removed grain subsidies as well, and just about everything not free-market), but the charge that "India has such tremendous potential, especially in agriculture, but the Government thinks it can run on a nationalist/technocrat platform like China" is not really on the mark here.

 

[dudalb]

I read that the BJP is using this issue to stir up hatred against the Sikhs.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

As I looked into this deeper, there are opinion pieces that claim the only people protesting are in this one area of the country and claiming the rest of India isn't siding with the protesters and other reports that explain these are the only poor farmers with enough resources to protest and the vast majority of the affected farmers are too poor to protest.

Examples:

Gulf News OpEd: Farmers protest: Deconstructing the debate around India’s farm bills

Most policymakers in the last two decades have been advocating these laws and extensive consultations under various governments have variously advocated the same farm laws that have now been legislated under the current government.

You can guess which side that OpEd is on.

The Indian Express OpEd: India’s farm crisis is of the middle peasant, not the chhota kisan- It is the rural middle class — which experienced a roughly four-decade spell of prosperity from the 1970s and now has its back to the wall — that’s at the forefront of the agitation against the farm reform laws.

Today’s farm crisis is not of the impoverished chhota kisan, but of Charan Singh’s khudkasht peasant-proprietor who has seen better times. It is this rural middle class — which experienced a roughly four-decade spell of prosperity from the 1970s and now has its back to the wall — that’s at the forefront of the agitation against the farm reform laws.

Apparently some see the 'too poor to exist' as not existing anyway and suggest they transition to factory jobs.

One should look at both POVs before deciding you have no empathy for the protesters.

 

[lomiller]

Agriculture in India needs reform in the worst way. If it this does in fact hand agriculture to a monopoly\duopoly it may literally be the worst way, but if reasonable anti-trust regulations are in place this should be a positive move.