Aruna Roy: All citizens should stand with the protesting farmers. At stake is India’s food self-sufficiency and sovereignty
The farmers’ protest is our protest, in a more direct sense than we imagine. Food is basic to our lives and farmers have made us self-sufficient in food. Were it not for the public distribution system (PDS), grain procurement at minimum support price (MSP), and bumper harvests, we would have continually faced widespread hunger and starvation, in independent India. This architecture of self-sufficiency is threatened by these three contentious laws.
The social scientist Susan George, writing in the 80s, in her book called How the Other Half Dies, shows how control over farming and food production leads to loss of food and national sovereignty. Dependence on outside “market forces” is enslaving. Corporate control over purchase will end with farmers having lost control over contracts, choice of production, and land, making India vulnerable to foreign pressure and blockades.
Among other things, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce
(Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, popularly termed the ‘APMC Bypass Law’,
will undermine the MSP regime – at least for rice and wheat. MSP is a guarantee
to the growers of food that their produce will be bought by government at a
price where their subsistence will be supported. This guarantee will collapse
if the regulated markets are deregulated. This minimum guaranteed price helps
protect the farmer from market fluctuation….
Indian Farmers' Protest - Work in progress videos
Jairus Banaji on the Indian corporatist strategy of
subordinating farm households and family labor
Navsharan Singh: A million reasons to march
Discussion on Indian Agriculture and the ongoing Kisan agitation
Amit Bhaduri: Faces in mirror held up by farmers’
protest
Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist?
Amandeep Sandhu on Arthiyas - extract from PANJAB:
Journeys Through Fault Lines
Ravinder Kaur:
Has Modi finally met his match in India's farmers?
STATE OF RURAL AND AGRARIAN INDIA REPORT 2020. By the
Network of Rural and Agrarian Studies
