Has the Modi govt finally freed farmers from the tyranny of mandis?

There's a direct and clear relationship between whether governments are willing to cough up higher MSPs and whether they will be re-elected

For the last 40 years, governments have quietly longed to do what the Modi government has now done, namely, discard the minimum support price system for farmers. 

The basic policy issue is this: How can a country afford to guarantee income and not tax it also?

The latest move is couched in terms of freeing farmers from the tyranny of mandis, but the real reason is a fiscal one—MSPs can only go up due to political exigencies and are becoming too great a burden on the exchequer. 

There’s a direct and clear relationship between whether governments are willing to cough