 I'm Salvatore Begonas, this week on India Outside In, India's farm protests are actually among its richest farmers, not its poorest. For the last six months, big news out of India hasn't been to send off in Ladakh, the emergence of the government, or even Indian vaccines saving the world from coronavirus. Instead, it's been the Indian government's treatment of, quote unquote, for farmers. The entire international press corps has bought into the farmer's narrative, and no wonder India has lots of farmers, most of them are poor, what can be wrong with that message? Well anyone who needs solid analysis, all you have to do is turn to the celebrities, of course Rihanna, Greta Thunberg, Meena Harris, all tweeting the truth on technical agricultural issues, that will return, right? Well, to be honest, I think it's a bit over the top for some in India to be burning a teenage girl in FG because they're angry about her tweets, but nonetheless all poor farmers narrative does need some cleaning up. The problem is that although India does have many poor farmers, it's not the poor farmers who are actually out protesting in Delhi. In fact, the people who are riding your tractor into Delhi are a mom in his richest farmer. The key is right there in all the photos, it's the tractors. Statistically speaking, a typical Indian farmer is 10 times as likely to put a bullock than to own a tractor. When Delhi's roads get clogged by farm animals who've been put into stage of protest, a government is about to come tumbling down. But tractors, that's the Indian farm equivalent of an American Tesla parade. I mean, it's great visuals, but it's not much of a threat at the polling booths. The second tip-off threat at the polling booths. The second tip-off is in those polling numbers. Roughly half of India is tied to the farm gubernate depending on which statistics you use. But prime minister tied to the farm gubernate depending on which statistics you use. But prime minister Narendra Modi's disapproval rating, the percentage of people who actually disapproved his performance in office, is down to around 6%. Now, working on the very basic political theory that when people are out protesting against the government because they think it's going to destroy their very livelihood, well, it's a proof of that government. If you take that for granted, then the whole India's farmers of rebellions, Modi and the BJP narrative, just falls flat on its face. The fact is that the farmers' plug-ins of Delhi aren't India's poorest farmers. They're actually among India's richest farmers, or at least they are richer than the poor farmers we've been led to believe. They mainly hail from Punjab and Haryana, the richest farming states in India. And of course, they can afford to take time off work from farming to spend six months protesting. That is a rare luxury in rural India. If a bunch of local farmers had rural India, if a bunch of local farmers had burned down a Mundi in their local area, okay, that's a farm protest. If people can travel to Delhi, then you kind of know something is up here. Now, even the richest farmers in India are poor farmers by American and European standards, and full credit to Tuna Toonberg. In addition to tweeting her support for India's poor farmers, she's also tweeted in opposition to Europe's common agricultural policy. And if there's one policy that's keeping the farmers of the world poor, it's the European Union's C.A.P. That said, we're here to talk about Indian standards and by India's standards, the farmers of Haryana and Punjab burn roughly twice the natural average, three times as much as the poor farmer, where British consider the martial races of India. These are the yeomanry of India. The soldiers, the traditional military class, military agricultural class, are pretty much like in England's yeoman farmer tradition of olden days. They actually still form, Rajputs Jackson Sikhs still form the ceremonial bodyguard of the Indian president. Obviously, I have nothing against the protest, nothing against the Sikhs or Hindu, Muslim, others. On valid, I suspect that India's farmer forms are timely and necessary. I think they will help the poorest farmers in India, the actual poor farmers. The types of children have to go travel into the states to become migrant workers on the big farms of Haryana and Punjab because they have no opportunities back home. But that's why I'm so passionate about this issue. The big issue for me here is the ignorance and misreporting of Western media. It's like an old doctor who episodes every plant Tom Baker visited, had some rebellion or another going on, and the doctor always intervened to help the rebels. He didn't stop to ask, are the rebels really telling the truth? Are they the ones I should sympathize with or take Star Wars for example? No one stops to think maybe the empire had a point in suppressing the rebellion. You know, shed a tear for all those soldiers killed on those, I think it was, lost count death stars that were destroyed by the rebellion, the rebel terrorists in the Star Wars. My point is, the fact that people protesting doesn't necessarily make them happy. The media should take some time, put in some effort, dig up the facts, as journalists are supposed to do. When American farmers roll up to a protest wearing their MAGA hats, or when British farmers go for bread, Western journalists don't wax theoretical about the freedom struggles of the oppressed agriculturalists. The fact is that they loosen their standards of reporting on India, and that's a good credit to the profession. It's not so much rank Orientalism as it is simple self-indulgence. Thanks for watching. India outside in for Wednesday, March 31st, 2021. You can find the relevant links below in the description. Thanks for watching. Please do join me next week for another issue of India outside in.