Ripening of a Big reform

The fire against the farm bills has not doused yet. Elements of politics are also involved which will not let the matter fade away. The recent update about the mixing of political color and farmers concern is when the chief minister of West Bengal Mamta Banerjee and Bhartiya Kisan union leader Rakesh Tikait met. Sometimes politics can give an extra push to a movement, especially when it is dying. The people were not the only ones affected by the pandemic. It seems the movements also caught the flu.

Background
In 2020 farm acts were Legislated by the centre. The three laws that were passed as a package include-
1) Farmers produce trade and commerce promotion and facilitation act 2020
2) The Essential commodities amendment act
3) Farmers empowerment and protection agreement on price assurance and farm services act 2020

Entry 33(b) in the concurrent list was invoked to enact the law. The subject that 33(b) talks about is trade and commerce in, and production, supply and distribution of, “foodstuffs”. Many states, most notably Punjab, accused the centre of extending the meaning of the subject to include agriculture although it is under the state list.
Usually when parliament passes a law on matter enumerated in concurrent list and states are against the law then
1) States can amend it, subject to the condition that provisions that contradict the parliamentary act will have to get president’s assent, without which they cannot be enforced
2) The aggrieved states can challenge the validity of the law in the Supreme Court
It remains to be seen what impact will the states legislating against the law have on the centre.

Apart from the disagreement between the centre and the state that did not attract much attention, there was a tussle between the farmers and the union government. The mobilisation of farmers against the laws in Delhi and the voice raised by them were heard overseas as well. A series of fight between the soft powers made many headlines within India as well as between Indian and foreign celebrities.

The contradiction
In laymen terms, the bone of contention between farmers and the centre was that the involvement of private companies will throw the poor farmers at mercy of big businessmen. Minimum support price (MSP) might soon be removed as the next strategy of privatisation.

The flaws and a suggestion
A big policy reform can be successful only if people are convinced that it will benefit them. Public needs proof that the reforms will be in their favour. If the government wants to introduce reforms then they need to take people into confidence. All the stakeholders must be on board. Therefore a big policy reform needs time. Since proof lies in eating the pudding, small pilot projects to observe the impact of the reform on society should be conducted. The success of such small projects can build confidence in people. If the project is not successful then there is a scope for improving and modifying the policy.
India is a vast and diverse country cannot be exposed to a big reform all at once. Take demonetisation for instance. The pan India exercise did not give the expected outcome. It dented the economy. Lesson from the past can help build a better future. So, the bottom line is that a big transition is not easy because it affects everyone- few benefit while few are at the receiving end. Giving it time to ripe while taking one step at a time can be an option that helps people accept the change.