The Four solid pillars of Congress supervised modern Indian Farm Exit Policy (IFEP):
1. Farm Debt
2. Dismantling Food Security and Basic Procurement Policies of Green Revolution
3. Regulatory Incompetence
4. Deliberate Political Insensitivity via Denial, Subterfuge, Fraud, Diversion
Showing posts with label rural. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rural. Show all posts
Monday, 26 February 2007
Wednesday, 14 February 2007
Vidarbha and Sharad Pawar
That the credit of architecting the farm exit policy for Vidarbha cotton farmers would decisively go to Shri Sharad Pawar was surely difficult to predict. However it now seems that one of the most discredited Agriculture Ministers of India should belong to Maharashtra is a comment on the rapid rise in politics, of Shri Pawar from the days of the sugarcane cooperatives of Western Maharashtra.
The sugarcane cooperatives of Western Maharashtra have been the traditional power brokers in Mumbai, and often at the expense of Vidarbha interests.
The media images of Vidarbha, show that each additional suicide in Vidarbha is seen as an albatross hanging on the neck of Shri Pawar. Even the mistakes committed by other ministers, somehow get blamed upon Shri Pawar.
The political fallout of his image in Vidarbha, as a cricket glory seeking and tough talking, politically shrewd, Agriculture Minister of India, in stark contrast to the mockery of Indian farm suicides going on unabated under his jurisdiction, will be deep standing.
Maybe it will require consummate political manouevres to retain his clout in Vidarbha after the widespread dismay, his name and image arouses amongst the cotton farmers of Maharashtra.
The Congress political bigwigs may have some reasons for keeping silent. However, how many days before the murmurs of discontent and political stock taking begins in Congress, remains to be seen. Vidarbha is electorally very important for Congress.
Vidarbha is surely an important electoral battle ground and a bell weather for Congress central government prospects, not just the state prospects. If Congress begins to get discredited here, in rural areas, for reasons of apathy to suicidal farmers, due to the cricketing pursuits of Shri Pawar and his defense of pesticide levels in Indian mother's milk, it will mean sweeping changes in the way Agriculture Ministry, and how it is seen in terms of relative political weight in Indian political circles.
Shri Sharad Pawar is of course, no Chaudhary Charan Singh though he may sometimes try to put on that mantle.
I have often pointed out that there is an inherent contradiction in the roles assigned to Shri Pawar as Agriculture Minister and as Food Minister. At some point this contradiction will need to be decisively resolved within Congress at the highest levels, before India submits to European and American pressures on WTO.
I am amazed at the amount of spontaneous distrust, that Shri Sharad Pawar evokes amongst Vidarbha farmers, and yet manages to cling to his ministry as an important Central government constituent and political heavy weight.
The sugarcane cooperatives of Western Maharashtra have been the traditional power brokers in Mumbai, and often at the expense of Vidarbha interests.
The media images of Vidarbha, show that each additional suicide in Vidarbha is seen as an albatross hanging on the neck of Shri Pawar. Even the mistakes committed by other ministers, somehow get blamed upon Shri Pawar.
The political fallout of his image in Vidarbha, as a cricket glory seeking and tough talking, politically shrewd, Agriculture Minister of India, in stark contrast to the mockery of Indian farm suicides going on unabated under his jurisdiction, will be deep standing.
Maybe it will require consummate political manouevres to retain his clout in Vidarbha after the widespread dismay, his name and image arouses amongst the cotton farmers of Maharashtra.
The Congress political bigwigs may have some reasons for keeping silent. However, how many days before the murmurs of discontent and political stock taking begins in Congress, remains to be seen. Vidarbha is electorally very important for Congress.
Vidarbha is surely an important electoral battle ground and a bell weather for Congress central government prospects, not just the state prospects. If Congress begins to get discredited here, in rural areas, for reasons of apathy to suicidal farmers, due to the cricketing pursuits of Shri Pawar and his defense of pesticide levels in Indian mother's milk, it will mean sweeping changes in the way Agriculture Ministry, and how it is seen in terms of relative political weight in Indian political circles.
Shri Sharad Pawar is of course, no Chaudhary Charan Singh though he may sometimes try to put on that mantle.
I have often pointed out that there is an inherent contradiction in the roles assigned to Shri Pawar as Agriculture Minister and as Food Minister. At some point this contradiction will need to be decisively resolved within Congress at the highest levels, before India submits to European and American pressures on WTO.
I am amazed at the amount of spontaneous distrust, that Shri Sharad Pawar evokes amongst Vidarbha farmers, and yet manages to cling to his ministry as an important Central government constituent and political heavy weight.
Thursday, 8 February 2007
Political Response to Farm Exit Policy of Congress
That a massive economic restructuring process is underway in India is no more in doubt. What is interesting, is that the major economists and think tanks are busy with issues of :
1. Indian GDP
2. Competition strategies to attract some leftover foreign investment away from China, to India.
3. How urban India can best position itself to benefit from globalization and WTO.
However, given the sheer size of Indian farm dependant population, this economic restructuring is naturally accompanied by large scale stresses and deep fissures, on Indian social structures and long term food security policies.
Entire decades of food security infrastructure planning and institutions are being dismantled within ministries, without open debate.
Mrs Sonia Gandhi will of course continue to excercise an unshakeable mental and psychological hold on some of the most deprived of Indian voters. However, whether the charm of the sacrificing daughter in law, will survive the kick on the food plate, remains to be seen.
Some of these stresses will surely impact the electoral politics of India.
However, apart from Mamta Bannerjee and Mohan Dharia, hardly any Indian politicians seem to be aware of the electoral impact of these urban led, strategies for economic growth. Maybe Shri Naidu from Andhra Pradesh, can head a think tank within Congress, to warn them of the impending impact of Shining India and Second Green Revolution electoral campaigns.
Certainly not Shri Sharad Pawar and Shri Manmohan Singh, though I feel Shri Kamal Nath does know what impact, this is all going to have on Congress prospects in the next elections.
The Indian media is now regularly, but still cautiously, depending on the views of the editors, covering the stories of Indian farm suicides, while Shri Sharad Pawar cursorily reads out the figures in Parliament and defends wheat imports from Australia and the "acceptable levels of pesticides" in what Indians drink and what mothers milk contains.
But apart from the cursory reading of the suicide figures, there is still no attempt to come to grips with the issue of undeclared farm exit policy of Congress.
Suicide figures are just figures to be read out in the Parliament. They hide the faces and the stories, of the farmers and the families of the suicidal farmers.
The US Secretary of Agriculture also, deems it fit and appropriate, to compare the suicides of Indian farmers with the much smaller number of farmer suicides in United States, in the Indian capital, amongst the friends of Indian commerce federations, while trying to drum up support for the re-energized WTO and supposedly, still a Doha Round. Though of course, Europe and America look at Doha Round only as an attempt to revive WTO, and in reality, have more significant and pressing issues they would like discussed under the umbrella of WTO.
Ask the suicidal Indian farmers, if they are optimistic to the same degree, about the success of Doha Round, and you are greeted with blank stares. They are already facing Doha on a daily basis in their homes.
That some people are getting ready to foist one more Doha, this time done better, hardly elates the Indian farmers.
1. Indian GDP
2. Competition strategies to attract some leftover foreign investment away from China, to India.
3. How urban India can best position itself to benefit from globalization and WTO.
However, given the sheer size of Indian farm dependant population, this economic restructuring is naturally accompanied by large scale stresses and deep fissures, on Indian social structures and long term food security policies.
Entire decades of food security infrastructure planning and institutions are being dismantled within ministries, without open debate.
Mrs Sonia Gandhi will of course continue to excercise an unshakeable mental and psychological hold on some of the most deprived of Indian voters. However, whether the charm of the sacrificing daughter in law, will survive the kick on the food plate, remains to be seen.
Some of these stresses will surely impact the electoral politics of India.
However, apart from Mamta Bannerjee and Mohan Dharia, hardly any Indian politicians seem to be aware of the electoral impact of these urban led, strategies for economic growth. Maybe Shri Naidu from Andhra Pradesh, can head a think tank within Congress, to warn them of the impending impact of Shining India and Second Green Revolution electoral campaigns.
Certainly not Shri Sharad Pawar and Shri Manmohan Singh, though I feel Shri Kamal Nath does know what impact, this is all going to have on Congress prospects in the next elections.
The Indian media is now regularly, but still cautiously, depending on the views of the editors, covering the stories of Indian farm suicides, while Shri Sharad Pawar cursorily reads out the figures in Parliament and defends wheat imports from Australia and the "acceptable levels of pesticides" in what Indians drink and what mothers milk contains.
But apart from the cursory reading of the suicide figures, there is still no attempt to come to grips with the issue of undeclared farm exit policy of Congress.
Suicide figures are just figures to be read out in the Parliament. They hide the faces and the stories, of the farmers and the families of the suicidal farmers.
The US Secretary of Agriculture also, deems it fit and appropriate, to compare the suicides of Indian farmers with the much smaller number of farmer suicides in United States, in the Indian capital, amongst the friends of Indian commerce federations, while trying to drum up support for the re-energized WTO and supposedly, still a Doha Round. Though of course, Europe and America look at Doha Round only as an attempt to revive WTO, and in reality, have more significant and pressing issues they would like discussed under the umbrella of WTO.
Ask the suicidal Indian farmers, if they are optimistic to the same degree, about the success of Doha Round, and you are greeted with blank stares. They are already facing Doha on a daily basis in their homes.
That some people are getting ready to foist one more Doha, this time done better, hardly elates the Indian farmers.
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