Modi in Karnataka: River Waters, MSP and Prashadam

On 27 February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a farmers’ rally in Davangere, Karnataka. The occasion was ostensibly to mark the 75th birthday of BJP leader B.S.Yeddyurappa. Actually, the programme was another component of the election strategy being prepared by the BJP in Karnataka which will go to polls in April-May for electing a new Assembly. Yeddyurappa, a former chief minister, is the party’s chief ministerial face this time too.

Modi was wearing a green stole, popular among farmers in Karnataka. The rally was officially called to congratulate ‘Raitha Bandhu Yeddyurappa’ or ‘Farmers’ Friend Yeddyurappa’. And Modi’s speech was all about farmers. While Amit Shah has been visiting coastal Karnataka spreading communal propaganda, Modi revealed the other plank of BJP’s strategy – woo the farmers.

Why this desperation to woo farmers? Like any other state, Karnataka too has nearly 56% people mainly dependent on agriculture for making a living. So, it is natural for BJP to try and win them over. But there is more to this.

Karnataka has had 13 years of drought in the past 16 years. Some of these droughts have been severe as in 2011-12 to 2013-14 and 2015-16 with 70% to 90% talukas affected while in other years, 2008-09 and 2009-10 it was less widespread affecting 50% of talukas. Relentless drought has broken the backbone of farming in the state, especially because Karnataka is highly rain dependent.

It will come as a surprise to many that after Rajasthan, Karnataka is the most arid state. Over 58% of the state’s gross cultivated area is unirrigated, that is, it is at the mercy of the south-west monsoon. Small wonder then that the farmers have been very badly hit in the state, and they have been agitating over the years on various issues. There have been 3515 farmers’ suicides in the state between 2013 and 2017, of which, 2525 were directly attributed to drought and crop failure by the state agriculture department.

These dire conditions have also led to farmers’ agitation in northern Karnataka on sharing of Mahadayi/Mandovi river waters with Goa. One group of farmers sat on a 900-day dharna in north Karnataka demanding more water from Mahadayi.

One would think that all this would make fertile ground for the BJP to move in and get the support of farmers. But this is turning out to be difficult. Hence the Modi rally.

What happened was that Yeddyurappa claimed in December last year that Goa’s BJP chief minister Parrikar had assured that he would give the required river waters to Karnataka. Farmers were beginning to see hope and they shifted the dharna to the BJP state office in Bangalore. However, Yeddyurappa’s claims came to nought as Goa govt. denied any such deal. Farmers sitting on dharna turned hostile to Yeddyurappa and vowed to defeat BJP.

This is why Modi is wearing a green stole and talking about doubling farmers’ income, giving them crop insurance and raising Minimum Support Prices. However, even these promises are failing to cut ice with farmers. As everyone knows, the MSP+50% promise of the BJP has been turned into a sleight of hand by the Central govt. which has used lower estimates to calculate MSP, thus denying any actual increase in MSPs. Crop insurance too is dogged by delays, high premiums, and non-coverage, with big profits to insurance companies.

Meanwhile the past three and a half years’ record of the Modi govt. in dealing with farmers’ distress across the country is dismal. While farmers have been agitating in Rajasthan, MP, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and a dozen other states, the central govt. has been rebuffing their demands for debt write off and MSP+50%. Farmers’ discontent has been reflected in recent elections like in Gujarat.

It is still some time before elections are held in Karnataka. BJP will have to  do much more than wear green stoles and dole out promises. Its bankruptcy is visible from the “Musti Dhaanya Abhiyaan” (fistful of rice campaign)it announced after Modi’s rally. In this campaign BJP workers will collect fistfuls of rice from all farmers’ homes and use it to make prasadham (offering to deities and devotees) to be distributed to gram sabhas. This is nothing but a shameful attempt to divert attention from real problems of the real world to the Gods, in the barely hidden hope that farmers will vote for the BJP for showing this path.