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: 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. It is not insignificant that large corporates are being named as crony capitalists but they only serve to give specifics, the concreteness, and the proof as it were, of what the farmers believe and present as a concern. And this concern is against large corporate machines that the government wishes and hopes will change India’s rural landscape. Exposing the average Indian farmer, small holder, with little or no bargaining power, less savvy about contracts and fine print, to these large entities is not something the vast majority now sitting in protest are willing to stomach. In fact, they appear convinced that this is the game of the big against the small, of the powerful against the weak, or corporates against the people. That frames the agitation rather well as the battle of the people on the streets versus the combine of big business and the government in its pocket.