Islamabad diary
For all the attention and publicity it got, the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad need not have taken the trouble to arrange an All Parties Conference on the crisis facing agriculture in the serene surroundings of Islamabad’s Serena Hotel. The next morning when I scanned the papers there was hardly any reporting about it.
Agriculture is not a sexy subject as far as the media or the local ruling elites are concerned. Sprawling farm houses are sexy. Sunday brunch parties at the same locations are sexy occasions. But agriculture as an object of study and concern is not part of the Pakistani way of doing things. And this despite the claptrap that Pakistan is an agricultural country with 60 percent of the workforce toiling on the land. Far truer to say that Pakistan is now an urban-dominated country where agriculture is the mare or donkey which everyone rides…and keeps in line with a heavy stick.
Let the myth be laid to rest that agricultural interests dominate our assemblies…and therefore agriculture dominates the discussion debate. It does not. Economic decision-making revolves around the interests of the rich and the very rich and they live in cities not on rural estates.
And that part of the rural setup which goes into the assemblies has now diversified its resource base. It has a presence on the land but most of its wealth is in industry – sugar mills being the favourite – real estate and the stock market, and things like that. No political notable worth his salt can now live on agriculture alone.
Why I do talk thus? What is the occasion? Quite simply the occasion is a crisis to hit agriculture worse than anything – and I hope I am not exaggerating – since the country’s birth. The farmer, even the landowner who has nothing to rely on except his land, is being hit like never before. Agricultural prices have plummeted, input prices are exorbitantly high, and farmers are having a hard time making ends meet.
And farmers are crying but no one is listening to them. No one is interested in their plight because the national destiny is in the hands of a class alien to agriculture and all that it represents – except of course the extensive farm house, more mansion than anything to do with farming, which every sucker on the rise wishes to have, because having a farm house demonstrates that you have finally arrived. The frenetic climbing is over.
And we have a prime minister who takes pride in the fact that potatoes are now available at five rupees to the kilo. What is devastation for the farmer is complacency and satisfaction for him. This is because in the larger scheme of things the farmer just does not matter. Any kind of outcry in cities, any large-scale protest or demonstration, unnerves governments and puts them on their toes.
But farmers are a disorganised lot and it is easy to deploy the police against them. The way Haryana’s Jats rose up a few days ago in defence of their demands is something unknown to Pakistan. Farmers don’t have a voice and they have no muscle. Therefore urban-dominated governments can afford to ignore them. Call it the story of Pakistan.
The way we have gone about developing, if that is the right word, the Islamic Republic we now face a situation where bottled water is more expensive than buffalo milk. We have made this into a country where multinationals are given the advantage to produce milk at the cost of the domestic producer. Packed milk and then powdered milk are things which should not be promoted in a supposedly agricultural country like ours. Bottled fresh milk should be the desired aim. That’s what you get in Europe and elsewhere, but not here.
We have tried the piecemeal, step-by-step approach in everything for the last sixty odd years but it hasn’t worked. The only solution to Pakistan’s problems is the use of the hatchet and the battle-axe, with the occasional bayonet thrown in.
Want to improve public education? Then ban private schools altogether, without any ifs and buts, and compel everyone to send their kids to government-run schools. You’ll see how fast they allocate funds for education. Discourage private hospitals, put an end to the mushrooming growth of fake medical schools, and there will be a dramatic jump in the money allocated for public health.
The same holds true for bottled water and packed milk. Make legislators and babus and generals drink the same water as everyone else and by God in double quick time you’ll get potable water from your taps.
At the Kissan Ittehad meeting the president, Khalid Mehmood Khokar, made a very telling observation. He said when prices of vegetables rise district administrators are there early morning in sabzi mandis to bring prices down. But when prices crash and farmers look to the skies the same administrators are nowhere to be found.
Even though Indian farmers in their own context are getting a raw deal, and there are countless instances of farmers committing suicide because of harsh conditions, Indian agriculture, especially in Indian Punjab, is heavily subsidised. The Indian Punjab farmer gets free electricity for his tubewell, and cheaper diesel and fertilizer. And the Pakistani farmer, denied these advantages, is supposed to compete with him.
Cotton and rice farming have been badly hit because prices have crashed. And government has no policy to come to the rescue of these farmers. Anything happens to the sugar price and government at all levels goes into emergency and panic mode because across the political divide political heavyweights are sugar mill owners. They get all sorts of outrageous subsidies. But there is nothing for the farmer even though, at this juncture, this is a national crisis…if only someone could feel the pain.
The Kissan Ittehad is calling for the imposition of an agriculture emergency. A fat chance anyone will listen to its cry. Those who matter are more interested in other things: metros, fancy trains, visible mega-projects that are draining the public purse and leaving nothing for anything else. Health, education and agriculture are the great neglect stories of Pakistan. No one has time for them. They do not make a good show and they are not sexy. Out with the farmer, therefore, because he is only spoiling our fun. If the Kissan Ittehad thinks anyone will take its protestations seriously it is living in a world of illusion.
Farmers must, therefore, look out for themselves. The Kissan Ittehad is doing wonderful work but to make its voice heard and change the course of events it must do more. The tragedy of the Pakistani kissan is that he votes for parties – whether the PML-N or the PPP – which do not have his interests at heart. But are there any alternatives?
There is now a great discontent sweeping across the rural heartland of Punjab, and Sindh for that matter. This is an opportunity for the farmer to gather his strength and come into his own. But what will his methods be? In the old days they used to have peasant rallies, huge ones, in Toba Tek Singh.
But there was then a Bhashani and a Bhutto and the times were different. New tribunes of the people, new prophets of change: Pakistan direly stands in need of these. Are any out there waiting in the wings?
Email: bhagwal63gmail.com