For a farmer in India, life is a living hell. Waking up for a minimum 18-hour workday filled with back-breaking work. Getting paid crumbs of what's owed to them. Unable to provide for their family. When protesting to ask their leaders for a better life, teargas burns their lungs and eyes, COVID-19 infects their protesting family, and police batons shatter bones in their body. As they protest, the media labels them as terrorists. This is transpiring for two-thirds of the population in the "world's largest democracy."
My grandparents, cousins, and nearly every member of my Sikh faith in India are a part of the largest non-violent protest in human history. 250,000,000 of us in India and abroad are protesting agricultural bills passed by the Indian government, which steal from the impoverished and give to the wealthy. Twenty-eight Indian farmers die by suicide every day already to avoid debt. With 60-70% of India's population dependent on the agriculture sector, these three laws hammer the final nail in their coffins:
First, the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce Act eliminates all government subsidies for farmers and the minimum support price (MSP). The MSP was supposed to be a baseline for farmers to at least break even on farming costs. However, few receive the MSP due to corrupt intermediaries. Government subsidies were supposed to help, but instead of fixing the problem, farmers will spiral further into debt by eliminating those programs, with crop prices plummeting and no assistance to counter it.
Second, the Farmers Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act bans legal proceedings against government officials or "any other person." This law eliminates legal recourse for India's farmers when their rights are violated, with former Indian Supreme court justices calling this "Draconian."
Third, the Essential Commodities Act permits any entity to store an unlimited quantity of any commodity. 90-95% of farmers don't have the means to build their own storage, but corporations do. This law allows private entities to fix prices by hoarding crops they buy or import and then flooding the market with them, decreasing their value and coercing farmers to sell what little they have for even less.
I propose the following solutions the international community and protestors should demand:
First, the Indian Supreme Court ought to invalidate all three laws using a Suo Motu action, a South Asian law practice of striking down unconstitutional laws. Only states have the reserved power to make laws on agriculture, yet these laws were instituted at the central (federal) level, which is unconstitutional.
Second, following the MSP's reinstatement by eliminating the first law, Indian states must create a regulatory body with provisional sub-divisions to ensure all farmers receive the MSP by rooting out corrupt intermediaries via internal investigations. That regulatory body must annually index the MSP to adjust for inflation, global warming, and other exogenous factors that farmers have no control over.
Third, the Competition Commission of India should file anti-trust lawsuits against Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani. These billionaires control conglomerates with monopolistic influence over various industries and the government. They got Prime Minister Modi elected through massive contributions and ad campaigns, enjoying a 35% wealth increase during Modi's administration as compensation. Ambani and Adani, who also hope to monopolize the agriculture industry, got Modi to ram the aforementioned laws through Parliament with an unprecedented voice vote during the COVID-19 crisis to avoid protests. By breaking their monopolies, India can deter the rise of an oligarchical government, sustain market competition to decrease consumer prices, and allow small businesses to prosper.
Global democracy is backsliding, with the EIU democratic index displaying its lowest point since 2006. This movement is an inflection point for worldwide democratic governance. If the world's largest democracy falls, the spread of authoritarianism in Asia and across the planet is imminent. Why would citizens trust a system that is inefficient and fails to represent the populous? We must do everything possible to assist Indian farmers in their struggle for financial stability, civil rights, and freedom.
If we fail, it won't just be farmers who have to suffer through a living hell.
