Gujarat poll results a wake-up call for Modi govt

The BJP has been saved by the skin of its teeth in the recently-concluded Gujarat election. By securing a face-saving win, the BJP has managed to form the government in the state, but in the backdrop of the tall talk of bagging ‘more than 150 seats’ by both the Prime Minister and the BJP President, the two-digit tally of 99 presents a sorry picture. So, what went wrong?

Firstly, the plight of farmers in the country has deteriorated over the last few years due to erratic monsoons and unremunerative prices of agriculture produce. Due to crop failures, unremunerative prices and rising debt burden, farmers suicides have increased during the last three years, but the Modi government does not seem to be doing much to provide relief to the distraught farmers or to resolve the burning issues of the distressed agrarian economy. In fact, the agrarian economy has been almost ignored during the last three-and-half years of the Modi regime. No wonder, the farmers have got back with a vengeance by voting against the BJP government in Gujarat.

In 2014, before coming to power, the BJP leadership had announced that it will implement the recommendation of the MS Swaminathan Commission to provide minimum support price (MSP) set above 50% of the cost of production. After coming to power, the BJP and its leadership appear to have completely forgotten about this promise, leaving the farmers in the lurch. As a result, the farmers have to fend for themselves and bear the loss due to crop failures on account of draught and loss of crops due to floods or erratic monsoons, low prices of agriculture produce and, consequently, they have become debt-ridden. The BJP governments in various states have announced farm loan waivers and compensation for crop failures, but these are tentative solutions which do not address the root cause of the agrarian problem. The Gujarat poll verdict should be a wake-up call to the BJP leadership and should hopefully remind the Modi government about its pre-poll promise of implementing the Swaminathan Commission recommendations.

If the BJP leadership does not heed the warning and address the agrarian distress on a war footing, it will have to face the wrath of the farmers of the entire country in the 2019 general elections, with consequences that are not hard to predict.