I get the pleasure to talk to Aman Bali from Kashmir, who is currently providing excellent on the ground coverage of the ongoing Kisaan-Majdoor protests in India, and Jodh Singh from America, who helps provide historical context and analysis.
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We start off with what has caused these protests, we move on to how this spurned a people’s protest, seemingly bereft of any political impetus. To be cliché – a movement, for the people, by the people. - We demarcate how these protests are not abrupt. In fact the protesting started back in June and the protests we now see in Delhi are simply the next step in the Kissan-Majdoor protest - that of increasing their own negotiation powers by bringing the protest to the capital.
We take a look at the bills in some depth and, amongst a number of things, we demarcate how the socio-economic fabric of Punjab would be drastically altered. We start with the three main laws of contention - Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce, Promotion and Facilitation Act, Farmers Empowerment and Protection Agreement Act and the Essentials Commodity Amendment. We also discuss the two further ordinances – the air quality ordinance and the electricity amendment.
We talk about sharecroppers, landgrabbing, middlemen, Mandis, Mandi Tax, MSP and alot more than I can fit in one post.
Overall the one of the biggest themes that lept out is the appalling lack of legal redress any of these farmers would have if these bills were to be passed. In addition, it seems these laws are part of a bigger issue – India’s urgent want to industrialise almost overnight. A task which, as Aman Bali rightfully points out, needs to be done incrementally.
We look at the locus of the protests coming from Punjab and Haryana, the role of Sikhi and how the diaspora can help. We also dissect the idea that 250 million people have been protesting in Delhi.
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