Farmers in India have been striking
since November of last year and
they're not letting up, and
unfortunately, Narendra Modi,
the leader of India is
also not letting up in
his efforts to deregulate farming.
And unfortunately this deregulation
does hurt small farmers
in the country who are being
taken over by massive agriculture
corporations and conglomerates.
Now under the new policies that
were implemented by Narendra Modi,
farmers will now sell goods and
make contracts with independent
buyers outside of Government
sanctioned marketplaces,
which have long served as
the primary locations for
farmers to do business.
The Government says the reforms
will bring much needed investment
to the farm sector which accounts
for nearly 15% of India's
$2.9 trillion economy, and
about half it's worked place.
And so, people's livelihoods
are on the line as a result of this
deregulation.
We have a quick video providing
some more details, and
when we come back I'll tell you
just how much their livelihoods
are at stake here.
[MUSIC]
>> Protesters in India blocked
roads, squatted on railway tracks,
and protested on the streets after
a call for a nationwide protest by
Farmer's Union Tuesday.
Amidst the pandemic,
tens of thousands of farmers from
North India had made this highways
leading to India's power centered
Deli their makeshift homes.
The young and old braving the cold,
sleeping on roads and tractors.
They want new agricultural laws
introduced by the Indian government
in September to be repealed.
Farmer union said they won't budge
to the government relents and
rolls back on the contentious laws.
>> Until then highways Delhi
will stay blocked and
food supplies to the country's
capital remain largely cut off.
>> So again, the protesters are not
letting up, but
Narendra Modi is also not caving to
any of their demands.
And just to give you a sense of why
this is so disastrous for small
farmers in India, the government
has said that it will not drop
minimum support prices for
essential crops like grain, which
the Indian government has set and
guaranteed for decades.
The farmers are concerned
they will disappear.
Without them the farmers believe
they will be at the mercy of large
corporations that will pay
extremely low prices for
essential crops, plunging them into
debt and financial ruin.
So that's why you're seeing these
protests continue in India, and
Jank I'll tell you a little more
later about how the Government has
unfortunately responded to these
protesters with violence and
surveillance.
>> Yeah, so this's a really
interesting story with a lot of
complexity.
So first of all,
let me know that ironically,
you have something really simple
happening at the same time.
That's an old school siege.
But instead of sieging a castle,
they're seizing the capital.
Because in a siege what you do is
you cut off the food supply.
So that's what is the weakness of
the castle.
If they can't leave and
they can't get food in, at some
point they have to surrender.
So they're doing this on a mass
scale in a sense in India.
Well, you know what, the one thing
we have as farmers is the food,
you have the money, we have
the food, can we make a deal?
So that's using your power and
that's using it in a smart way and
a courageous way,
and I would argue the Indian way.
Remember Mahatma Gandhi led civil
disobedience and peaceful protests
in a way that was historic and
was a shining light for us here in
America, Martin Luther King copied
what Mahatma Gandhi was doing.
So now the complexity, so
the politics of it,
it's rural versus urban.
So 50% of the population are still
farmers and make their money from
farming in India.
So that's where the voters are, but
only 15% of the GDP comes from
farming.
So 85% is elsewhere and
that's where the money is.
So guess which side politicians
are going to be on?
Now, it doesn't really matter
almost which party or which
country, you know they're going to
be on the side of the money, right?
And so that's what's happening
here, and Modi's right wing, and
if you're right wing,
they're definitely on the side of
the money.
Now the only reason why there's
complexity on the substance,
is because sometimes you do have to
modernize.
But do you trust crony capitalists
to modernize fairly?
My answer is hell no.
I don't know how you do it
otherwise.
So that's really hard question.
But I know that saying, don't
worry, the people being funded by
big business will have the best
interest of the little guy and
the farmers.
[LAUGH] Is not the right strategy,
and almost certainly will not work,
will lead to bigger pain.
>> So, the New York Times noted
that around 60% of India's 1.3
billion people depend on this
farming in order to survive.
So, I hear you where you say
that modernizing makes sense, but
not in a way that gives into crony
capitalism and investment from
these multinational corporations.
Especially when you know that
literally millions of people,
hundreds of millions of people in
India could find themselves
deeper in poverty
through these deregulatory efforts.
And the way that the Narendra Modi
Government has responded to these
protests is exactly what you would
expect from, quite honestly someone
like Modi, who's been absolutely
vicious to the Kashmiris.
Who has been absolutely vicious to
Muslims in India, and in one case
at least one protester was killed
and 300 police officers were
injured after tens of thousands of
farmers, many driving tractors,
took to the streets of New Delhi to
call for the repeal of these new
agriculture laws.
The farmers though in that case,
upstage the city's national
Republic holidays storming the Red
Fort, a 400 year old landmark.
So to your point Jank,
they're being pretty strategic in
how they do these protests.
But what the government is also
doing, is they're closely
monitoring people's behavior
on social media, and
if they see anything posted that
is in any way supportive of these
farmers and the ongoing protests,
they're usually punished by it.
They'll deal with authorities
showing up and asking some
questions and intimidating them.
So there's an intimidation campaign
by Modi's regime,
there's no question about that.
And it doesn't matter for
the farmers, for
them this is a question of life or
death ,the ability to provide for
themselves or find
themselves even deeper in poverty.
So they're not bending to Modi's
will, but
what's troubling is that Modi has
absolutely no interest in listening
to anything that they want.
And he's pretty defiant about this
effort to deregulate
the agriculture industry.
>> Yeah, so, look,
there's also complexity and
what's right wing and left wing and
other countries too.
But the one thing that is uniform
is fake populace.
So there's real populist like
Bernie Sanders, and many others
throughout the world, right?
And sometimes like in Brazil,
they'll be put in jail.
And sometimes they'll have coups
done against them like in
Bolivia by us.
So they're real progressives in
the world and
real populist in the world, but
far more fake populist like Modi.
So Modi is a populist when it comes
to killing Muslims.
But when it comes to actually
helping 50 to 60% of the Indian
population, the average Indian, all
of a sudden he loses his populism.
All of a sudden he finds his
checkbook, but can't find the
populism, the murder I'm in, right?
You want my buddies to lose
one single dollar?
No, no, no.
I'm going to take away your ability
to make money on the farms, and
I'm going to share it with all
my rich friends instead.
Populist, my ass,
not anywhere near populist.
And finally, I said it was almost
like a siege of a castle.
And they even went into an almost
Castle in the Ford, the Red Fort.
So, these fake populist politicians
in India, maybe they should study
the history of India, they better
be careful what they wish for,
because no one leads better civil
disobedience than Indian population
does.
So watch out who you're
messing with.