Farming excuses over the Punjab defeat

Rise in prices, the neglect of the rural sector and the new emphasis on reform — many in the Congress were quick to list these as the reasons for the party’s defeat in Punjab. To understand whether this is true, one needs to examine two questions: one, how has the rural population, particularly those sections who have become participants in the new economy, responded to the Congress? Two, is there any other factor that may have contributed to the party’s ouster?

The Congress did extremely well in the Malwa region, which has always been considered an Akali stronghold, with the party getting 37 of 65 seats, compared to 29 in 2002. The region also happens to an area where large sections of the rural population have been profitably integrated into the global market under the earlier Congress regime. For instance, Pepsi introduced contract farming on a commercial scale for the tomato crop in the early 1990s in Punjab. In 2002, soon after coming to power, the Congress Government began to actively promote contract farming, and by 2007, many farmers were happily integrated into the new system. Pepsi, Hindustan Lever and Chambal Agritech have entered into direct contracts with farmers for procuring basmati rice, chillies, ginger, garlic, mango, guava, orange, potato chips, and medicinal plants.

Farmers in the region have been quick to appreciate the benefits inherent in contract farming, new technologies and crops such as Bt cotton and horticulture. While Bt cotton may not have been very successful in many other regions, Punjab’s farmers — having crossed the threshold through the Green Revolution and blessed with irrigation facilities — were in a position to profit from it. Farmers in Malwa, particularly those linked to the new economy, have become decidedly more prosperous. The Amarinder Singh government had definitely played a major role in creating a policy environment for these changes, including the controversial step of the abrogation of the tripartite water treaty. While not discounting the influence of the Sacha Sauda and the Jat Sikh sentiments for Amarinder Singh, one has to acknowledge that Malwa’s farmers, who are more linked to the market economy than their counterparts in other states, voted positively for the Congress.

The reasons for the Congress’s failure could be elsewhere. The focus Jat Sikhs got under Amarinder Singh won the party support from that section and simultaneously alienated several others. That is one reason for the party’s bad performance overall — particularly in the urban centres that voted for the BJP, which won 19 seats in 2007 compared to three in 2002.

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