Mutiny On The Bounty

In poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, farmers’ anger grows despite a good harvest

- Lola Nayar

Tractor-trolleys laden with sacks of mostly soybean form a serpentine queue outside the foodgrain mandi in Mandsaur. Farmers make their way inside in ones and twos, unpack the bags and unload their produce among growing mounds of soybean in the wide mandi yard. a reasonably good monsoon has ensured a bountiful harvest for farmers in the Malwa region and the windfall is visible at the Mandsaur mandi. as far as the eye can see, it’s just mounds of soybean—in the open and under tin-roof platforms. there are other crops too, mostly pulses like urad and black bean, black channa, and spices such as fenugreek or garlic. on another day, in another time, auction day would have meant happy tiding for the peasants, the day of encashing months of hard work. But not today. Farmer after farmer share woes about falling prices and rising inputs. But mostly about insensitive governments, either in Delhi or Bhopal.

Mandsaur may not be a microcosm of Madhya Pradesh. But this place in the state’s Malwa region presents a pretty good picture of the growing farm unrest that appears to be brewing in other parts as well. For a state going to the polls this month—November 28—this is not good news for the ruling BJP, aiming to capture power for the fourth straight time. And it was in Mandsaur that five farmers were killed in June last year in police firing during protests against the government’s policies. Many allege the crackdown was a manifestation of the government’s “anti -farmer” policies.