Farmers across Punjab and Haryana have took to streets to protest against 3 ordinances that the government intends to convert into Acts.
Two of the 3 bills which are drawing major protests from farmers are the
Farmers Produce Trade & Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Bill 2020 and
Farmers (Empowerment & Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance & Farm Services Bill, 2020
Let’s try to understand these with a simple analogy:
There is a town where all the residents are allowed to travel only through bicycle. No other superior mode of transport - bikes, trains, planes etc can be used by the residents to travel anywhere, however far. And the residents are already habitual of it. They know other means exist but have accepted that they can't use it.
Now one day, the king of the town decides to make it easy for the people to travel long distances. He now allows people to use other modes of transport. He allows residents to open showrooms for motorized transport vehicles and private companies to build railway stations and airports in the town.
So it's a good news for the kingdom, right?
Well, not as per the residents. They have been protesting this decision that allows them to use better modes of transport that will bring convenience to them. Why so? Because to secure their jobs and earnings, the big bicycle manufacturers, retailers, repairmen of the town have convinced the people that such vehicles are not safe. They said bikes have much higher rates of accidents as compared to cycles and there is always a chance of a train to collide or a plane to crash. Some even told them that once they hop on to a bike, they will never be able to use their cycles again.
People believed this and so are heavily protesting against the step.
Unfortunately, the gullible residents just need to understand that:
1. Whatever was said to them is just an exaggeration. Riding a bike doesn't always mean an accident and every plane doesn't crash.
2. The king has just ALLOWED them to pursue modern transport. Nothing has been made mandatory. If they feel comfortable in their bicycles, they can choose to ride it till death.
3. To say that they can’t use their cycles again is really illogical.
In reality,
the bicycles are APMC mandis where farmers need to give commission to middlemen and mandi taxes to state government
bikes and planes are new private mandis which must be established without any such commission or tax and also contract farming which allows farmers to fix prices before produce
the bicycle manufacturers are local politicians and arhatiyas (commision agents of the APMC) that do not want their shops to shut down
not being able to use cycle again relates to the fear of withdrawing Minimum Support Price (MSP) system of procurement
The reason that the protests are concentrated in Punjab and Haryana is because the arhatiya system is more prevalent over there and also, somebody guessed that election may be near :D
Hope it helps :)
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