CandleLight Vigils - Mohan Dharia

The sheer logic of Indian democracy becomes evident, when the politician is forced to go back to the electorate at least every five years. The electorate also knows very well, that next time, they will see the politicians emerge, from the corridors of the various Sabhas - Lok, Vidhan, Rajya, etc, will be about four and half years later, unless of course there is a court decision or some such toppling of the cart.
There is no doubt that after the whirlwind tours of Shri Man Mohan Singh, and Maharashtra Chief Minister to the Indian killing fields - farming lands - the politicians lower down in the pecking order, would all feel they have been pardoned from making a beeline for the rural countryside and spoiling their white linen kurtas and designer goggles.
The Indian Finance Minister, of course thinks that, when there exists an Agriculture Ministry, and a Planning Commission, for super annuated politicians and retired farm leaders like Sharad Joshi, Ajit Singh and Tikait, there is no need for him to even open his mouth, on Indian countryside and farm issues. His remit is basically stock markets, and the tax system, pulling the strings of the IRS bureaucracy.
The countryside, ah, the votes are still there. Of course, the politicians might do so a bit sooner, if Sonia Ji decides to jolt them, bolt them, or scold them.
Some people are surely now playing a wait and watch game. Where this issue of Indian farmer suicides will now go, and how much of an impact it will have on election prospects for Congress in the next elections ? These calcualtions will soon begin in earnest.
As always, with the loyalties and royalties, well known inside Congress, people are wondering when Mrs Sonia Gandhi, will take on the image and role of Mrs Indira Gandhi vis a vis the Indian farmers and the Second Green Revolution. Mrs Indira Gandhi created an entire infrastructure of institutions to solidly underpin the first Green Revolution.
This Mrs Gandhi is only talking of Second Green Revolution, lulled by the Leopold and Oxbridge awards.
It is only when she decides to take note of the farmer suicides, that the scramble for farmer votes will be activated by push button, within Indian Congress party. Till then, it is wait and watch, apart from cursory suicide figures, being read out from a note prepared by an IAS bureaucrat, by Shri Sharad Pawar in Lok Sabha. Till then, business as usual for Mr Chidambaram, RBI Governor and Congress politicians.

Mohan Dharia - Farm Debt Campaign

Farmer organizations of India need a two pronged strategy, to make the campaign on farm debt successful. At one level, they have to seriously consider the strategy of leaving their fields fallow for one year, growing only food grain crops for their family consumption, rather than the domestic or export market. This will assist the politicians like Shri Sharad Pawar and economists like ManMohan Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, in importing foodgrains, from global markets, to their heart's content. This would also help in India, making a rapid entry into the good books of USA and Europe, and in lieu, getting their support on the nuclear and Security Council issues.
Secondly, farmer organizations must convince farmers that agricultural land is by no means a boon in modern India, rather, it is a liability for themselves and for their next generation. The sooner they discard their precious land and move en masse to cities, the better off they will be. If at all the Indian politicians, want them to remain chained to agriculture, the Government should take over ownership of all their agricultural lands, reorganize it into large profitable holdings, retrain farmers on how to adopt modern agricultural practices, and employ farmers, on a fixed salary, that is enshrined in the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. This will be the correct way, of ushering in the Second Green Revolution in India, rather than just exhorting ignorant and bewildered farmers to stop taking their lives, and linking up with private sector and contract farming. Modern modes of production riding on the back of reorganized agricultural land, American agricultural practices, B-school management and marketing talents, snipping the farm dependant population of India to 10% of India's population is the only way forward.