 "parali")
Smoke blankets the road leading to Balkala, a village nearly 10 km from Amritsar. Remnants of the burnt wheat stubble can be found as one turns towards the village. Despite the cloud of smoke in the adjoining areas, there seems to be no haze in the minds of farmers in the region as to what they are up against.
“See, in order to do something good, financial incentives are imperative. Stubble burning has become a biannual problem and the government needs to help us,” says Charanjit Singh, a farmer in the village.
“The National Green Tribunal, in a hearing last year, said farmers with up to 5 acres should get machines to dispose of stubble for free. And those with up to 10 acres must get 80 per cent subsidy on these machines….. What will we do if we don’t get anything?” he adds.
While the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is evident in several states, making inroads into Punjab will continue to remain a challenge for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the locals believe.
Jaspalon, a small village located about 30 km from Ludhiana, is an example of the farmers’ state of mind. Farmers from this village have been protesting at the Shambhu border for more than 100 days now. The repercussions of the two farmers’ protests -- in Delhi’s Singhu border in 2020 and the Shambhu border in Haryana -- are being faced by BJP candidates across the state. The BJP candidates in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur, Sushil Rinku and Anita Parkash, respectively, faced intense protests from farmer groups while campaigning. Ravneet Singh Bittu, the party’s candidate from Ludhiana, also faced a similar ordeal. A group of farmers stopped Bittu from campaigning at Mukandpur village in Dehlon.
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“The BJP may be able to garner votes from the urban Hindu population (in Punjab), but the entire rural population, dominated by the farmer community, may pose a challenge,’’ a Ludhiana resident said.
While farmers at Chabbewal and Mukerian in Hoshiarpur opposed Parkash, Rinku had to face farmers’ ire at Phillaur last week. The protests at both Mukerian and Phillaur were held after a call by the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, which had announced that they would protest against the BJP candidates.
Farmers gathered at Jandwal village in Mukerian against Parkash, raising slogans against the BJP. Meanwhile, Rinku had to leave a campaign venue in just 30 minutes after farmers of various unions began protesting outside his campaign venue at Phillaur. The party had lodged a complaint with the ECI regarding these protests on May 6.
“The only thing that we want the government (Centre or state) to do is to help and support farmers,” says Gurinder Pal Singh, another resident of Jaspalon village.
According to Singh and other farmers in the village, one of the biggest issues has been the inadequate supply of fertilisers.
During the peak season, often there’s demand-supply mismatch of fertilisers such as urea and DAP (diammonium phosphate), resulting in shortages of supplies. As a result, farmers end up turning to the black market and end up paying exorbitant prices for their supplies.
That apart, often the cooperative societies -- responsible for disbursing subsidised fertiliser -- force farmers to buy other farm-related products, along with urea, Singh said.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, though, provides subsidies on fertiliser.
Minimum support price (MSP) is another issue. This, in fact, was one of the main reasons for the 15-month farmers’ agitation on the borders of Delhi, which finally forced the Centre to repeal the farm laws.
Meanwhile, the Congress has promised it would bring in legislation on MSP if it comes to power.
“Some of us realise that MSP on the 22 crops isn’t possible. If tomorrow, dairy farmers start seeking MSP on everything they produce, what will the government do? Their products are much more expensive. But we need to come to a consensus on some things,” said a farmer.
Other than the BJP, farmers’ angst is also directed towards other parties contesting in the state. The main concern among them is the setting up of factories and the pollution it causes.
