Saturday 4 June 2016

The Indian scene


The Jat agitation scheduled to revive in Haryana from 5th June indicates that the rich peasantry in parts of India is rising up in revolt against the establishment. This marks the beginning of a crack in the social structure.

 No doubt the ostensible demand is for reservation. But if we make a deeper analysis, it marks the deep dissatisfaction of the rich peasantry, which earlier rarely went on a path of confrontation with the authorities. with the state of affairs prevailing. One reason is that farming has largely become uneconomical, because of the high cost of inputs and low remunerative prices for foodstuffs sold by farmers, entry of foreign multinationals into our agricultural sector, and inability of our farmers to compete with them, etc. Also, unemployment has assumed massive proportions. No doubt there is unemployment in all sections of society, but the other sections are weak, and so do not have the strength to fight..

 The Jat community is relatively a better off community, and its members often have vehicles and weapons like guns. No doubt the authorities have claimed that they are geared up to deal with the situation, but I doubt that they can.

 Haryana is next to Delhi, so what happens there is bound to affect the situation in Delhi and elsewhere. The situation in Punjab is as bad. A lot of farmers have committed suicide there, and things are very bad in Punjab, as I noticed myself when I went there recently..

 In Indore farmers are throwing away onions, as they are not getting remunerative prices. http://seekingalpha.com/article/3967562-sure-feels-like-global-recession
 Elsewhere too such farmers agitations may start.

 On the international level, the dispute between USA, which is facing a recession,  and China, whose economy has slowed down considerably, for control over South Asia is spilling over into India.

Modi has taken India firmly into the American camp. So China is making its own counter moves. It is dominating Nepal, has come closer to Pakistan, and is arming the anti-Indian insurgency in Kashmir and the North East, in an attempt to carve out of India an area of its own influence and control.

  It seems we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder, which may explode anytime.

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