Title: Farmers’ agitation is a vote of ‘no confidence’ in India’s private sector
Headings: Farmers’ agitation is a vote of ‘no confidence’ in India’s private sector
Farmers’ agitation is a vote of ‘no confidence’ in India’s private sector
Big corporates, farmers believe, are new Zamindars who get the Government to act on their behalf. They are convinced this is a game of the big against the small and of the powerful against the weak
Jagdish Rattanani

Content: The issues are complex but faces never-before seen on television and on YouTube et al have explained them rather well and told us why they stand against the bills that were rushed through Parliament with no debate. To the extent the new laws are the handiwork of the BJP and are pushed by its leadership, the protestors have taken a stand against the party and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is a political fight in which the PM isn’t backing down yet, but he isn’t in the lead. His much-hyped communications skills and vaunted political craft pale in comparison to the farmers’ explanations of why they have taken this hard stance against the government. In a line, the farmers are saying this: don’t kill the mandis that have stood the test of time and leave us to the vagaries of private traders, corporates or what are called market forces. While this clean and clear framing stands out, we cannot miss that the agitation is even more a vote of no confidence against the private sector of India. This is the lesser said story of the protests and it carries implications beyond the immediate battle and how it eventually turns out. Thirty years after India took the path of economic reforms under Dr. Manmohan Singh as the finance minister, here is the peasantry of India saying that large corporates have not inspired confidence and do not have a track record that offers comfort. As a result, they are unwilling to leave the security of a government-guaranteed support price for their produce, duly legislated so that it is armed with the teeth of the law.