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Perhaps the Indian agitating farmers, protesting for more than 60 days, made two strategic mistakes at two crucial junctures. First when the Supreme Court of India stayed the Farm Laws till further orders and constituted a panel to carry forward the discussion. The farmers rejected this saying that all the four members of the panel were in support of the three Farm Laws, and that they wanted to talk with the Government only and wanted solutions through this. Perhaps, they could have perceived the stay on the implementation of the laws as a moral victory, and felt the opportunity in this, because the opinions of the panelists were not going to be the final say with the Supreme Court observing.   Second when the Government of India proposed what they had termed as the best offer: willing to stay the three laws for a period 18 months and carrying on the process of discussion, looking for required amendments of some provisions and so on. The farmers rejected this too saying that they w

It is extremely ironical that the only Indian sector largely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic should get embroiled in a seemingly endless crisis. The Farmers’ agitation, some people detest calling it that, has entered the 12 th day with the farmers still camping in the Delhi-Haryana border, braving the unusually cold winter this time and blocking most of the highways leading to the capital. Three rounds of talks with the Government of India have failed to yield solutions that the farmers wanted, and the fourth round of talks has been scheduled on December 9. With the Union Agriculture minister still adhering to the government line of argument that the reforms as promised by the Farm Laws would be beneficial for the farmers in the long run, the distressed and tired farmers want a repeal of the laws, and demand an answer of ‘yes or no’ to that. Therefore, despite the government’s promise of presenting a set of concrete proposals on the 9 th the farmers are going ahead with their pla

The watery ordeal of the Khandwa farmers was supposed to have finally ended on the 17 th day today after the government of Madhya Pradesh agreed to their basic demands. The state Chief Minister assured the traumatized farmers that the water level of the Omkareshwar Dam will be lowered from 196 to 189 meters and the affected farmers would be given ‘land for land’ compensation. Media attention, though belated, finally brought the issue into national or even international focus and the authorities were forced to bow down to the demands. But the farmers who stood in neck deep water for 17 days claimed only a partial victory as they felt that delaying tactics would be applied considering their present weary condition and therefore as per some reports they refused to come out of the water. They said that with the increased water level of the dam to 196 meters the expanding reservoirs had already submerged many low lying areas, and they actually wanted to see if water receded af

Fifty one farmers including old women had been staying immersed in neck deep water for the last fifteen days. Crabs and fishes were biting them and the limbs of many of them, particularly the old ladies, were deteriorating fast. They could not call it a day because they wanted their demands met first. The farmers had been protesting against what they considered wrong moves by the government. They say it is Jal Satyagraha (Water Movement for truth)-their final struggle even if it means death. Even the media did not pay them attention for ten days, busy as usual covering the insane politicking going on all around. The state government finally thought of examining their demands and meeting them only on the 13 th day. A group of observers from the Central Government is likely to visit the agitating farmers today. The agitating farmers were from the Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh, a central state of India. They cultivated in the low-lying areas surrounding the Omkaresh