Feb 10, 2021
Largest Protest in History Led By India’s Farmers Against Modi Corporate Hegemony Laws
The Farmers Protest in India contains more than 250 million citizens and farmers who have camped out in the streets of New Dehli since the beginning of December 2020 in what is being called the largest sustained protest in worlds history. Are the 250 million farmers who have camped out in the streets of New Dehli really terrorists as the major media outlets suggest? And if not, what have they been fighting against for months on end?
India’s Green Revolution that started in the 60’s guaranteed farmers a set price for certain crops, called the MSP (minimum support price). This had helped India move from widespread hunger when India was dependent on other nations for such things as wheat to now a successful self dependent country establishing large annual food surplus’s. The main arguments the farmers have with the three new bills are that the MSP will be removed stripping them of their security and replacing new business agricultural pratices in the hands of food corporations who will now be able to set new prices and gain more control on farmers and the market. These big corporations will control the pricing in the market and whoever controls the pricing in the market, controls the market itself. The farmers are opposed to this system. These corporations will create a hegemony stripping off the small farmers, small business owners, and traders whereby the corporations will be able to bypass the smaller farmers who now sell their products and goods at mandi’s which had established a good balance in business for all farmers large and small. “Pawar said the new laws will adversely impact the MSP procurement infrastructure thereby weakening the mandi system. MSP mechanism has to be ensured and strengthened further, he added.”
On Republic Day in India, January 26th 2021, many of the TV channels on the TV set in India went into a fuzzy blank gray static outage because of the intense movement of the ongoing Farmers Protest in New Dehli. The media that does report the protest, frame the freedom fighting farmers as being “the terrorists”, a well known strategy of governments and media outlets around the world have been using to blacklist real social movements.
What we see today are desperate efforts from corporate television and social media giants to omit the voice of the people depending on what the people are striving for and on the other hand these same media giants will promote and financially support certain social movements for political persuasion. This, as I see it, is an effort from mega corporations to silence the opposing views and voices of the people and keep the social historical records and narratives controlled. Social engineering is orchestrated by governments, media outlets, and social media giants to quell the momentum the of citizen dissent by censoring and removing or arresting indiviuals who can steer the ship for a better future. In the US, president Trumps twitter account was taken down just before Biden took over office in January 2021.
If social media giants can censor presidents of nations, they can censor anyone without explanation, justice, or accountability as to why they did so. When these social media giants censor the freedom and heartbeat of the people, just who are they taking orders from? What greater agenda and repercussion is at hand for citizens around the world who rise up under the survellient eye in the sky?
The farmers of India contend they do not accept the three laws passed through by the Modi Administration and they will not accept the three laws until they are 100% repealed and any modification of the bills will not be acceptable according to farmers of India protesting in New Dehli. The Farmers Protest has been tied together very well because of “farmers unions”, organizations comprised of hard working farmers that defend the voice and efforts of one another.
The farmers of India mention that they know clearly what is to become of their future if farmers should ignore these new bills. Corporations are impossible to hold to account should they make unsavory and unethical business practices against the farmers. These three bills will replace the comfort and ease of food subsidies and farming business’s practices that the government of India has provided for decades that make the farmers way of life productive and fair. Just why are the farmers angry about the insurgence of corporate take over of their farming business practices and way of life?
The new farms bill made under the Modi administration and why the farmers are opposing the bills are as follows:
- Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement Price Assurance & Farm services — Farmers dislike this because the farmers worry that direct business with corporations may open doors to where corporates may introduce certain clauses, wording, law, and trickery during negotiations that the farmers may not be privy to essentially creating a scheme where corporates will begin to dominate over the farmers in time.
2. The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (promotion & facilitation) Bill — this bill is designed to “liberate” farmers whereby they may sell outside the traditional mandi system. The farmers worry that mandi’s and cold storages where the farmers sell produce, goods, and tools directly will be possibly bypassed by corporates where the purchasing power will go straight to larger sellers and bigger farmers which will squeeze the middle and smalller business’s out of existence much like what has taken place in the American farming business of the last few decades.
3. The Essential Commodities Amendment Bill — certain commodities, goods, and produce are considered essential and provided to the people in times of emergency or unforeseen price surges. When certain essential commodities are removed, the prices can go up. The government of India is now saying that certain commodities will only go back on the essentials list in times of war, famine, natural calamities, or there is a super high price surge. The farmers worry that there is a very real risk of hoarding that may take place where financially well established organizations or buyers/sellers may come in and buy a large amount of any said good and hoard it leading to high profit gains for those with lots of money to buy in. In a setting where corporations have freedom to buy and sell as they please, corporates will often have the most stock in products bringing them into a position of more control on goods and prices.
