A FIGHT FOR THE MINIMUM

Minimum support price MSP) is at the heart of the farmers’ protests. The government is caught between its viability and political compulsions

- ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

On February 22, as the protesting farm unions from Punjab tried to breach the Haryana border again in Khanauri during their 'Dilli Chalo' march, a young farmer was killed in the clashes. The unions called off the protest for two days to mourn the death of 22-year-old Shubh Kiran Singh, but it was clear that their stand had hardened. The mood had changed dramatically from the evening of February 18 when the farm union leaders briefly seemed upbeat about the Centre's offer of a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for five crops.

The proposal had come after four rounds of discussions brokered by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann-with Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Arjun Munda, and Nityanand Rai. The offer to buy masoor, urad, and arhar, along with maize and cotton at MSP, had seemed like a game-changer for the farmers and the state. The agitating farm leaders-Jagjit Singh Dallewal of the Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Sidhupur (BKU Ekta Sidhupur), and Sarvan Singh Pandher of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC)-were even fielding questions about how it could lift Punjab out of the wheat-and-paddy cycle.

The elation, though, was short-lived, as the unions backed out soon after. Pandher claimed it was because the Centre had put a 'five-year, contractual basis' rider on the offer, which the unions found unacceptable.

Experts in Punjab say the deal would have anyway broken down in the future as crop diversification requires much more effort than just assured MSP for produce. "Wheat and paddy are easier crops to grow than, say, cotton. And they don't require much involvement from the farmer, except during sowing and harvesting," says a Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) professor.