Political Mistakes in India’s Agriculture

• The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 48 out of 90 seats in the Haryana Assembly elections, contrary to predictions.
• The BJP’s victory was attributed to farmers’ protests against three farm laws aimed at liberalising India’s agricultural sector.
• Despite the protests, the BJP returned to power in Haryana for the third time.
• The party’s performance in western Uttar Pradesh was surprisingly good, securing 85 out of 126 Assembly seats.
• In the 2024 parliamentary elections, the BJP secured 13 out of 26 seats in Uttar Pradesh, indicating that the Opposition parties were not able to gain from the farmers’ protests.
• The complexities of India’s agricultural system and their entanglement with caste realities remain missing.
• The agricultural system is going through a transition, with the configuration of agro-food sectors changing over the last few decades.
• The roles of farmers and traders are changing, and the relationship between them is changing.
• Political representations of the farmers’ protest did not capture this complexity and ongoing churning in India’s agricultural system.
• The Opposition mostly engaged with farmers, predominantly belonging to the Jat community, and did not hold enough deliberations with other stakeholders belonging to different castes.
• Political parties need to follow a systemic approach by engaging meaningfully with other stakeholders in the system.
• Farmers’ issues are at the centre of politics even in developed countries like the Netherlands, which focus on enhancing the capacity of involved stakeholders and learning among them.
• India’s political parties should lead the debate on how to protect farmers and enhance the capacities of other stakeholders through policy interventions.