Will Modi Revive Farm Laws?

But it would be unwise on the government's part not to heed the suggestions made by the experts group, set up by the Supreme Court, in particular the one on involving the states and giving them the flexibility in designing and implementing the farm laws, observes A K Bhattacharya.

Amidst the excitement and jubilation in the Bharatiya Janata Party over its victory in four of the five recent assembly elections, the role of two major governance-related developments does not appear to have received the kind of attention they deserved.

These developments pertain to the government's management of the Covid pandemic and the Centre's initiatives on farm-sector reforms.

During the pre-election campaign, it was widely believed that these issues would have a decisive impact on the electoral fortunes of both the ruling and challenger parties.

This had made the assembly elections, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, a little different.

Assembly elections in India are fought usually on local issues.

The final choice of the electorate is influenced largely by how the government in a state manages the local development or governance matters and to what extent the challenger political party makes promises that are more attractive.

Thus, tariffs for water or electricity, the efficacy of education and health-delivery systems, and the enforcement of law and order enjoy special salience in assembly elections.

But given the way the recent campaign was conducted by the main political parties, it became clear that the elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab were also expected to deliver the electorate's verdict on how it rated the government's management of the pandemic and whether the Centre had succeeded in containing the adverse fallout of the three farm laws that it had got passed by Parliament in September 2020, and later had them repealed in December 2021 in the face of a stiff year-long agitation launched by sections of farmers.

Remember that both the issues had made the BJP a little defensive in the run-up to the elections.

Its government at the Centre made efforts to overcome those disadvantages but the odds seemed to have been stacked against it.

The central leadership had declared in January-February 2021 that the pandemic had been tamed and vanquished.

But the second wave of the pandemic in April-May 2021 turned out to be devastating and the Centre had to eat crow.

On top of that, the initial roll-out of the Covid vaccination programme suffered from delays and disruptions.

Things improved in the second half of 2021, but the BJP government's reputation had already taken a knock.

Similarly, the three farm laws (giving farmers the freedom to sell their produce outside the agriculture markets, allowing them to engage with corporations for farming, and relaxing the rigours of the Essential Commodities Act) became controversial with farmers, mostly from Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh, launching an agitation just outside Delhi.

The Supreme Court's intervention to suspend the laws made no impact on the agitating farmers, forcing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to repeal the laws just months before the five assembly elections were due to be held.

It was natural for the Opposition political parties to tap into this vast reservoir of discontent among people on account of both the issues -- the poor handling of the pandemic in the early days and the way far-reaching changes in the farming laws were pushed through.

But the electoral outcome shows that the BJP did not have to pay any price either for its Covid mishandling during the second wave or for the farm laws.

It is possible to argue that there were many other factors that were responsible for the BJP's victory.

But that the controversy around the farm laws did not adversely affect the BJP's electoral prospects is not an unreasonable conclusion.

In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party won the elections, but its election manifesto was quite ambivalent on the farm laws.

All it promised was to address the problems of Punjab's agriculture and seek solutions to them after consultations with the Centre.

So, what lessons do the assembly election results have for the BJP government at the Centre for its Covid strategy and farm sector laws?

Clearly, it cannot afford to be complacent about the need to remain prepared to manage the next wave of the infection.

Such preparedness will mean no relaxation in the vaccination drive, including the administration of booster doses.

On the farm laws, the Centre should draw comfort from recent reports that almost 86 per cent of the organisations, representing over 30 million farmers, had supported the laws that the Centre had approved in September 2020 and repealed in December 2021 in view of the agitation by farmers.

These findings are contained in the report of the panel of experts that the Supreme Court had set up in January 2021.

The Centre must revisit these farm sector laws and consider reviving them after drawing the right lessons and applying the necessary correctives.

The experts panel, appointed by the apex court, has many important suggestions on how to address the legitimate concerns of farmers arising out of the three laws.

These suggestions include creating a market intelligence system to facilitate efficient price discovery to help farmers, expanding the role of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices so that it could collate and analyse such price data, converting the existing agriculture produce marketing committees into revenue-generating entities and, as agri-business hubs, undertaking communication exercises to increase awareness among farmers about farming contract agreements, formulating a model farm-contract agreement to address the concerns of farmers, abolishing the essential commodities law, and discontinuing the open-ended procurement of crops.

All these suggestions deserve to be examined by the government even as it considers reviving the three farm laws.

But the most important suggestion the government must bear in mind is about the involvement of the states in their framing and implementation.

The experts panel has suggested that the states should be given the flexibility in designing and implementing these laws after consultation with and approval from the Centre.

In sum, the BJP government at the Centre may be justified in interpreting the assembly election results as a vote of confidence in its overall handling of the Covid pandemic, in particular the vaccination roll-out programme, and the farm-sector reforms, which, however, it had to roll back under pressure.

Indeed, it should consider reviving those farm laws.

But it would be unwise on its part not to heed the suggestions made by the experts group, set up by the Supreme Court, in particular the one on involving the states and giving them the flexibility in designing and implementing the farm laws.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com