Indian Farmers Unhappy with Marginal Increase in MSP

On 10 Jun, the first file that Indian PM Narendra Modi signed was to issue the seventeenth installment of the Kisan Samman Nidhi (Farmer Honorarium) quadrimester payment of $24. On 19 Jun, the Indian govt. announced a hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) for fourteen kharif (summer) crops. Both these steps were projected as if the farmers are the PM’s major concern. But a look into details does not bear that. The Samman Nidhi is too small an amount. It cannot even buy a family ration for four months. The total MSP allocation is $24B, not an additional $120B as projected by naysayers. The real increment from the previous year is $4B. Lest it be seen as favor to farmers, the produce the govt. procures is towards their duty to fulfill Article 21 of the Indian Constitution – Protection of Life and Personal Liberty. The Indian Human Rights Commission defines food as a Fundamental Right. The BJP election manifesto promises free ration to 800M people for the next five years. The farmers’ demand is for a legal guarantee on MSP, which the govt. is unwilling to provide. On 21 Jun, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) says, ‘MSP hike declared by the BJP government for 14 crops is only 5-7% above last year. It is a complete mockery of the promise of granting MSP at C2+50 per cent.’ The BJP govt.’s third term begins with daggers drawn with farmers (SDW Vol 2 Issue 8, Story 5).