Poll Outcome: Haryana farmers move on, leaving protest issues behind

NEW DELHI: The farmer protests , billed as the catalyst behind AAP’s win in Punjab, failed to yield similar output for Congress in Haryana where even a prominent farm agitation leader Gurnam Singh Charuni , who could garner only 1,170 votes, lost his deposit from Pehoba assembly seat.

While state agriculture minister Kanwar Pal was among the eight ministerial casualties despite BJP surprising even pollsters, after western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana poll outcome indicates that farmers haven’t rejected government's farm policies.

Though the Congress candidate Mandeep Chatha won from the Pehoba seat defeating his BJP rival by over 6500 votes, Charuni’s performance shows the year-long agitation during 2020-21 was a thing of the past in Haryana. The farmers seem to have moved on after the government repealed the three farm laws — the key demand of protesters — without being carried away by the change of goalpost by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) that spearheaded the agitation.

Legal guarantee on procurement of all crops at minimum support price (MSP) became the key demand of SKM, something that Congress promised to implement if voted to power after a decade in opposition. But with the BJP government in the state offering MSP for crops other than wheat and paddy, the pre-poll proposal in the manifesto had less appeal as procurement during the last season broke previous records.

Besides, Haryana farmers have diversified enough towards horticulture crops — non-MSP produce — to become less dependent on government-assisted procurement unlike Punjab where much larger sown area under paddy and wheat makes the state more dependent on the government’s intervention.

Haryana is also more industrialised than Punjab through industrial clusters in several parts of the state as well as rice mills, offering people employment opportunities that go beyond tilling farms. Faridabad, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Hissar and Gurgaon-Manesar belt absorb a large number of workers unlike Punjab where industrialists have fled the state due to high power tariffs, poor policies as well as safety concerns in recent months.

BJP’s victory in Haryana may, however, see continuation of deadlock between government and protesting farmers as the latter continue to press for legal guarantee to MSP. Although no fresh agitation is expected in the state, protesting farmers may continue the blockade at Shambhu Border along Punjab-Haryana unless the Supreme Court steps in to resolve the crisis by ordering removal of protesters from the current site.