 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. The egregian crisis has become core agenda of various political parties, many of them promising lone waivers and this is one of the core issues on which this election is being fought. But we should not forget that the AIKS, All India Kisan Sabha, was one of the few organizations who has brought this issue to the front. If you see long marches in Maharashtra, the massive mobilization of farmers in Seeker and elsewhere in the country. To discuss about agriculture, its role in 2019 election and the AIKS itself, we are joined by Viju Krishnan, Joint Secretary of AIKS and the Central Committee member of the CPI. Welcome to NewsClick. So let's start with the Narendra Modi government. If you look at the manifesto that they have brought out in 2019, the points are almost similar. So how do you see the BJP manifesto and its role vis-à-vis agriculture in last 5 years? No actually you see 2014 itself, the kind of hopes it had raised through its manifesto and the speeches of the prime minister, that has been totally billiared. So this in 2019, once again talking about doubling farmers incomes, that the farmers are not going to buy. And this election very clearly as far as the rural masses are concerned, the agrarian crisis is the central issue which is going to determine which way they are going to decide in the elections. So I think it is the BJP is in for trouble, in 2014 they had managed to get a lot of support in some of the states which are more predominantly agrarian states, Haryana and Maharashtra being examples where they could form governments on their own and for the first time. So in all these areas they are going to face a huge setback and I have been going across the country for the election campaign and this issue comes again and again. So if you look at assembly elections which took place 3-4 months last month of 2018, the congress has won in 3 states and they claim that as soon as they have come to power they have done loan waivers and they are also saying in the 2019 manifesto they will bring a Kisan budget when they come to power. But do you think is it feasible if we look at the congress policies vis-a-vis agriculture in last 10 years when they were in power, UPA 1, UPA 2, especially UPA 1 because left was supporting it so they were on they couldn't pursue those policies but in UPA 2 and this deterioration has started even in the regime because if you look at the agricultural output and growth it is at 14 years lowest. So it has started long back so do you think congress manifesto is feasible when it comes to agriculture? No actually you see the last 5 years our allegation against the BJP has been that they have been carrying forward the neoliberal economic policies at a much faster pace. Plus cow. Yeah plus cow and so what we find is it has been promoting corporate profiteering and the market forces have been given a free hand. Now if you look at the congress manifesto it says the congress economic philosophy is guided by open market liberal economy it would be open market liberal economy and it accuses the BJP of actually reversing the clock of reforms and goes on to say that the congress is going to further remove the regulations it is over regulated now. In fact we have been saying that it is because of deregulation that the prices of inputs agricultural input seeds fertilizers pesticides all have been increasing also of other for instance the petrol and diesel and those things but the congress now says that they are going to further remove these regulations and as far as the trade policies free trade policies both have followed the same thing right ASEAN free trade now there is the regional comprehensive economic partnership there is no difference in their policies on these two issues right and also if you look at this say that if you are not able to pay back the loan it won't be a criminal offense it will be a civil offense as if that makes a difference because when it comes to the loans that are given to the farmers I mean there is no regulation on that as well the preharmony facility Bhima Yojna everybody knows what the amount that is going to the corporates so you think there would be any difference in terms of that also because the policies are going to be the same maybe renamed again it is just the same thing in a new package you could find and while BJP is talking about doubling farmers incomes it is sticking to the Pradhan Mantri, Fasal Bhima Yojna and so on and it towards the end it came with the Kisan Sambhan Nidhi right so which is talking about 6000 rupees for a farmer owning up to 2 hectares and that means entire year in a year so that would be about 500 rupees a month 17 rupees a day but let us see if both these manifestos are silent on this C2 plus 50 right it is only the CPIM which is very clear that it is it will legislate it will ensure enforce this C2 plus 50 as the MSP and in both these cases if you look at the C2 plus 50 if that was given in the case of Paddy in most parts of India farmers are getting between 800 to 1000 only though the MSP of Paddy is 1750 per quintal because there is no procurement in Kerala it is 2350 now it has been increased to 2650 so even if you take a hectare of land Bengal or Bihar the production is around 4 tons per hectare so the farmer is getting about 40,000 if it was 1750 it should have been around 70,000 if it was even 2350 let us not take the 2650 2350 then the farmer in Bengal or Bihar would have got about 65,000 rupees more per crop and it is in such circumstances he is talking about 6000 rupees and all these manifestos you do not find a way to address issues of like procurement what is going to happen about it the storage part of it because all these things are also important issues even if the government announces MSP if it is not been procured in the market if it is not stored then it does not it is just notional it is just notional it is just on paper and the congress manifesto says it will allow more private players to enter into all these areas whereas we have been very clear that public investment is required cooperatives should play a role and also the panchayats in procurement because the network of procurement it has to be much more wider just like the Kerala government has been trying to implement in last few years right yeah yeah it is the Kerala government has that has helped in production of paddy and all that some of these policies and the and cooperatives play an important role truly because you see in most of the cases there is no other than procurement even where there is procurement there is nothing done by the government in terms of value addition and marketing it is totally again in the hands of the private sector so here cooperatives could play a role where the profits that accrue from it can be can be plowed back to the farmers. So let us come back to the CPIM manifesto that you were talking about what are the thing that CPIM is promising in its manifesto vis-a-vis revival of agriculture revival presentry firstly increase public investment that is a very important aspect because we are finding systematic withdrawal of the government from public investment in agriculture there is cuts in subsidies we are very clear that there would be increase in subsidies and that the inputs would be publicly provisioned to the farmers at cheap rates very importantly the demand of the farmers for a legislation for MSP C2 plus 50 that I think only the CPIM is the only party which has very clearly mentioned that it would be enforced and it would be legally binding to give this kind of a rate as the MSP and we have also taken a position on loan waivers keeping the interest rates very low that is something which we have mentioned loan waivers is unlike what is happening now it is more a palliative it is important in when farmers are in crisis that there is a loan waiver but the way it is implemented we have seen in Uttar Pradesh for instance farmers are getting 1 rupee or 5 yeah so you have the Kerala model where you have the debt relief commission which looks into each individuals what is the loan that they have to repay and how that could be waived in and that led to a fall in the number of suicides in Kerala why not had around 3000 suicides now you don't find suicides in that nature anymore so I mean there has been a argument that why should the loan waiver be given where will the money come from and the way you are suggesting how the Kerala government has implemented that relief commission so I think then this logic doesn't stand that money can be arranged if you can give corporate loan waivers then the farmers can obviously be yeah that is the only what who is your priority whether it is the corporate companies or is it the farmers and agriculture workers and if your priorities the farmers and agriculture workers surely there are ways and if you have a political will that can be implemented now we have seen how from Malia to Modi's how they have been fleeing the country and the Chaukidar has just been sleeping so the people know this so agricultural workers is an important point and no other manifesto seems to talk about it CPIM has put it as a special point in the manifesto what is your see our struggles wage has been a significant issue and we are very clear that it should be at least 600 rupees and even in a NREGA we are talking about increasing the number of days not just 100 increasing it as well as ensuring it is linked to the minimum wage which is linked to the inflation also so that is something which only the CPIM has mentioned very significantly for the small and marginal farmers there is also talk about a labor subsidy which the CPIM manifestos come up with we have been the only organizations which have been talking about comprehensive social security measures for the agriculture workers the landless labor their housing is an issue house sites is an issue which also we have been mentioning about so what would be your concluding note for this entire election you think that the bjp is on a losing turf because agrarian crisis has deepened in the rural areas and that is where the maximum amount of votes are being posed true the this is the agrarian crisis and the way the bjp has handled it is proving to be the Waterloo for Modi and his team and irrespective of different surveys which have been again projecting I think the farmers have decided and that is going to show in the elections also thanks a lot viju for giving us your time thanks a lot that was viju krishnam for you keep watching news click