{"id":10758,"date":"2021-01-20T08:56:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T08:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=152229"},"modified":"2021-01-20T08:56:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T08:56:14","slug":"indian-farmers-on-the-frontline-against-global-capitalism-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/20\/indian-farmers-on-the-frontline-against-global-capitalism-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Farmers on the Frontline Against Global Capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"
In a short video<\/a> on the empirediaries.com<\/a> YouTube channel, a protesting farmer camped near Delhi says that during lockdown and times of crisis farmers are treated like \u201cgods\u201d, but when they ask for their rights, they are smeared and labelled as \u201cterrorists\u201d.<\/p>\n He, along with thousands of other farmers, are mobilising against three important pieces of farm legislation that were recently forced through parliament. To all intents and purposes, these laws sound a neoliberal death knell for most of India\u2019s cultivators and its small farms, the backbone of the nation\u2019s food production.<\/p>\n The farmer says:<\/p>\n \u201cCorporates invested in Modi before the election and brought him to power. He has sold out and is an agent of Ambani and Adani. He is unable to repeal the bills because his owners will scold him. He is trapped. But we are not backing down either.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n He then asks whether ministers know how many seeds are needed to grow wheat on an acre of land:<\/p>\n \u201cWe farmers know. They made these farm laws sitting in air-conditioned rooms. And they are teaching us the benefits!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n While the corporations that will move in on the sector due to the legislation will initially pay good money for crops, once the public sector markets (mandis<\/em>) are gone, the farmer says they will become the only buyers and will beat prices down.<\/p>\n He asks why, in other sectors, do sellers get to put price tags on their products but not farmers:<\/p>\n \u201cWhy can\u2019t farmers put minimum prices on the crops we produce? A law must be brought to guarantee MSP [minimum support prices]<\/em>. Whoever buys below MSP must be punished by law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The recent agriculture legislation represents the final pieces of a 30-year-old plan which will benefit a handful of billionaires in the US and in India. It means the livelihoods of hundreds of millions (the majority of the population) who still (directly or indirectly) rely on agriculture for a living are to be sacrificed at the behest of these elite interests.<\/p>\n Consider that much of the UK\u2019s wealth came from sucking $45 trillion from India alone according to renowned economist Utsa Patnaik<\/a>. Britain grew rich by underdeveloping India. What amount to little more than modern-day East India-type corporations are now in the process of helping themselves to the country\u2019s most valuable asset \u2013 agriculture.<\/p>\n According to the World Bank\u2019s lending report, based on data compiled up to 2015, India was easily the largest recipient of its loans in the history of the institution. The World Bank thus exerts a certain hold over India: on the back of India\u2019s foreign exchange crisis in the 1990s, the IMF and World Bank wanted India to shift hundreds of millions out of agriculture.<\/p>\n In return for up to more than $120 billion in loans at the time, India was directed to dismantle its state-owned seed supply system, reduce subsidies, run down public agriculture institutions and offer incentives for the growing of cash crops to earn foreign exchange.<\/p>\n The plan involves shifting at least 400 million from the countryside into cities.<\/p>\n\n
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