Sravasti Dasgupta 
Ladwa/Kaithal/Yamunanagar/Shambhu Border (Haryana): For Mahesh, a farmer in poll-bound Haryana’s Kaithal, going to vote on October 5, is not an option. He has spent six sleepless nights at the mandi in Kaithal amid heaps of paddy that he has grown over the last six months, keeping a check on his grains to ensure that they are not damaged under the open skies.
“How will I go to vote unless my grains are procured? I cannot just leave six months of hard work and go. They should realise that someone whose six months of hard toil is lying unsold in the mandi will think about why it is not being procured when he goes to vote,” he said.
Mahesh is not alone. Across Haryana, heaps of paddy are lying around across mandis, roads, unsold as farmers remain distressed that their grains are slowly getting damaged as procurement and lifting remains slow. The paddy procurement by the government which was earlier scheduled for September 23 was changed to October 1, and was then brought forward to September 27. However procurement has been slow with the ongoing strike by rice millers.
If farmers’ anger cost the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) five of the total ten seats in Haryana in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections where it had registered a cleansweep in 2019, the resentment has shown no signs of abating in the four months since. With the delay in paddy procurement in the midst of the assembly elections, the anti-incumbency sentiment has only intensified as the BJP seeks a third term in the state.
“The biggest issue in this election is that of farmers. First they beat up farmers at the borders. Even now farmers are still sitting there but no one is listening to their demands. Now the paddy is lying in the mandis and no one is buying. Ab bus badlav chahie. (There is a need for change now). Governments should change every five years, only then they are held accountable and work for the people,” said Jaswinder Singh, a farmer in Yamunanagar district’s Jubbal.
The post-poll survey by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)’s Lokniti revealed that over 61% of farmers voted for the Congress-led INDIA bloc in Haryana while 35% voted for the BJP.
‘Exercise vote to defeat BJP’
Demanding a legal guarantee for MSP among other demands, farmers from Punjab and Haryana renewed their Delhi Chalo programme in February – an extension of their 2020-21 agitation which resulted in the centre’s rollback of the three contentious farm laws.
But the farmers were stopped at Shambhu and Khanauri borders between Haryana and Punjab, where the BJP-led Haryana government then under chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar (who has since been replaced by Nayab Singh Saini) used barricades, tear gas shells and blocked national highways to stop them from moving to Delhi.
Young farmer Shubhkaran Singh, was also allegedly shot dead by security forces at Khanauri border on February 21. Eight months on, farmers are still camping at both Shambhu and Khanauri borders. In the runup to the assembly elections, farmer unions have also held mahapanchayats and urged the public to not vote for the BJP in the Haryana assembly elections.
At Shambhu border, rows of tractor-trolleys remain lined as far as the eye can see behind concrete barricades, concertina wire blocking the national highway and the farmers’ access to proceed towards the national capital. Posts of paramilitary forces and Haryana police keep watch at all times.
Security check posts, concrete barrier. and concertina wires block farmers at Shambhu border from proceeding. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta
“Farmers have got an opportunity to exercise their vote and defeat the BJP. Farmers in Haryana are not just Jat but from all communities. They remember well what happened in February and how Haryana was made into a jail and 70,000 paramilitary forces were deployed to stop farmers from going to Delhi, and how Shubhkaran Singh was shot dead. They also remember that gallantry awards were recommended for the police who stopped farmers at Shambhu border,” said Tejveer Singh of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Shaheed Bhagat Singh) who continues to camp at Shambhu border.
Apart from the legal guarantee of MSP, farmers at the borders are also demanding 200 days work under MGNREGA, increasing daily labourers wages to Rs 700 from Rs 350, and pension for farmers.
Competing promises for farmers’ vote
Amid the ongoing protest, the Congress and the BJP have made competing promises on MSP to woo farmers’ votes. While the Congress has reiterated its Lok Sabha election promise of a legal guarantee for MSP if voted to power, the BJP in a bid to course correct from the parliamentary election has promised to provide MSP on 24 crops.
Just prior to the announcement of the elections, chief minister Nayab Singh Saini had also promised to provide MSP on all crops in the state.
According to a BJP worker in Radaur, while the farmers’ anger remains the biggest issue in the election, the government has done what it could.
“A lot of the anger calmed after Khattar was removed and Saini was brought in his place. The farmers’ issue remains the biggest issue but the government has done what it could with regard to MSP. Now if any additional promises are made, farmers will say that it is an electoral promise only and won’t accept it. Paddy procurement is separate, that is a central government issue,” the worker said.
Heaps of unsold paddy spill onto roads at Kaithal mandi. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta
In a statement on October 1, the Haryana government stated that paddy procurement is going smoothly.
“Till date, over 46,000 metric tons (MT) of paddy have been procured from 241 mandis and purchase centers across the state, benefiting more than 7,500 farmers,” it said in a statement, reported PTI.
“Today alone, approximately 1,200 MT of paddy was lifted.”
A report in The Tribune, however, said that of 15.43 lakh quintals of paddy brought to grain markets across the state, only 1.22 lakh quintals have been procured by government agencies.
According to farmers and arthiyas (middlemen who aid transactions between farmers and buyers) at the mandis who are waiting for the paddy to be procured, by not providing a resolution, the saffron party is only alienating the farming community further.
“It is on the government to resolve the issue with the rice millers so procurement can take place properly. Even if we sell they will not take. What is the point of the ruling party promising MSP on 24 crops? What is the need for a manifesto by the ruling party at all? If you want to do something, then do it you are already in the government,” said Subhash Mittal, an arthiya at Kaithal mandi
“Why are they stopping the farmers from going to Delhi? Open the barriers and let them go. But they will not do so because they want private players to come in and purchase at any cost so their responsibility ends.”
The Congress on the other hand, has sought to capitalise on the ongoing farmers’ distress. Not just the legal guarantee for MSP, they have also raked up the treatment meted out to farmers during their Delhi Chalo march in February. Congress candidates such as Vinesh Phogat have also met farmer unions at the borders ahead of the elections to show their solidarity.
Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who is being seen as the Congress’ frontrunner for the chief minister’s post if the party wins has also promised to open the borders if the party is voted to power,
“The BJP’s record in the last ten years is only of lathi and danda in every sector. Anyone who has raised their voice for their rights have only met with sticks. What wrong have farmers done?” said Harpal Singh, who has been part of the 2020-21 protest and is now working on the Congress’ campaign in Kaithal.
“This very BJP government had said that paddy procurement will begin on September 23. But now the kind of seeds that we get for paddy are hybrid and ripen quickly. But the government was adamant that they will start procurement on October 1. The crops are ready by September 15. The government has only given such seeds. So they should have brought forward procurement.”
“After announcing that procurement would start on September 23, they changed it to October 1. Then after farmers’ anger it was again brought forward to September 27. Now procurement has started but no one is buying. The sellers are on strike. Who will listen to their demands and end their strike? The government will do that, not the farmers. During the farmers’ protest in Delhi also they made us sit there and then after 1 year they took back their own laws,” he added.
Non political protest at borders
Despite the competing promises by the BJP and the Congress, the sit-in protest at the borders have chosen to stay non-political, with no political party allowed to come and make speeches.
“Punish the BJP, that is the goal in this election. It is not to vote for the Congress but it is to boycott the BJP,” said Surjeet Singh Phul, of the BKU Krantikari who is one of the leaders of the kisan unions organising the sit-in of Punjab and Haryana farmers at Shambhu border.
A trolley of a Haryana farmer at Shambhu border. Photo: Sravasti Dasgupta
“The Congress has promised to open the borders because that does not result in political losses for them. They just have to allow us to pass through Haryana to Delhi. But our message is the same message as the one before the parliamentary elections- defeat the BJP.”
With paddy lying in mandis and the legal guarantee for MSP not in sight from the BJP, the saffron party is fast losing ground even among those farmers who would have otherwise voted for them.
“They are not realising that by not solving this issue they are losing votes. The farmers who are sitting at Shambhu border are definitely not voting for BJP but farmers who has his whole 6 months yield sitting here, will not vote for a govt that is not solving their problem even if they were otherwise going to vote for the BJP,” said Mittal at the Kaithal mandi.