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Over 30,000 Indian farmers marched 180 kilometers to Mumbai on 12 March to have their demands heard by the state government – a movement that has been called ‘historic’ by many newspapers and media channels.
However, some have pondered over the outcome of the movement. While the state government seems to have placated the farmers for the moment, accepting their demands, several of the mainstream national publications have posed a few pressing questions on the apparent ‘prompt’ and almost ‘knee-jerk’ response of the state government to the agitation.
In an opinion piece by Jaideep Hardikar titled Why Devendra Fadnavis Govt is Struggling to Placate the Farmers This Time, published on News18, the author discusses in detail the many ways by which the state government has broken its promises to the farming population and overlooked the slow but steady decline in India’s agricultural economy.
In 2017-18, the farm economy contracted 8.3 percent due to weak monsoon, causing more distress to the farmers, with the government making promises they couldn’t keep.
It goes on to say:
An editorial in Times of India, titled Bitter harvest: Maharashtra’s restive farmers represent a larger crisis that must be addressed, speaks about how the government has in fact been adhering to all the outdated and ineffective measures to help improve the farm economy.
It also adds that along with investing, the Centre should enhance agricultural technology and should help provide young people with jobs in other sectors, so they get more stable returns.
In an opinion piece Why Maharashtra Farmers Today Commanded Such A Following, author Mihir Swarup Sharma commends the smooth way the farmers and the government reached a deal by the end of the day, but suggests that the latter’s agenda is less to do with their desire to change the former’s social situation, and more to do with winning the votes from certain sections within them.
In the piece, he mentions that a significant percentage of the protesting farmers hailed from minority groups categorised as scheduled castes and tribes. He says:
Adding to this, an article headlined “Maharashtra farmers’ march: No piecemeal solutions to the farm crisis” in Hindustan Times says that the government seceding to accept the demands of the protesting farmers, will only benefit a certain class of them.
In another opinion piece by Pratap Bhanu Mehta published in the Indian Express, titled A claim for dignity, Mehta has seemed to view the farmer’s march in a completely different tangent.
The article also mentions that this protest went beyond the surface demands of loan waivers and increase in MSP. It was a unified movement, in the sense, that unlike most socio-political movements, it was open to everyone, confirming a common goal for all.
Stating that the movement should be looked at as something more than a “populist gesture,” the article also said:
(With inputs from News18, Times of India, NDTV, Indian Express and Hindustan Times)
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