A lot is rotten in the statecraft of India. Long is the list of our woes. Often these are discussed and debated at various forums, but what has escaped everybody’s notice is a curious and dangerous industry: the industry of crying wolf. It is booming in the wake of the new farm laws, which are the best thing that the Narendra Modi government has done so far.
Whenever something new is on the horizon, especially when it is good, the stakeholders of the crying wolf sector start screaming about an imminent apocalypse. Left-liberals usually lead the charge; lately, sanskaris have also started spearheading campaigns against novelty.
Professional revolutionaries raised a stink when the Green Revolution was launched in the 1960s. The Green Revolution will turn red, they thundered. Blood will flow in the fields, they warned us. They indeed hoped for a Red Revolution. But what actually happened? The Green Revolution ended our food problem, thus rescuing us from the humiliating ship-to-mouth situation.
When former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi talked about computers in the 1980s, professional revolutionaries warned us of doom. Computers, they said, would kill jobs; unemployment would surge dramatically; the country would suffer grievously. In reality, however, information technology and IT-enabled services have created millions of jobs.
When economic reforms were announced in 1991, commies and their fellow travellers claimed that the decision would pave the path for multinational corporations or MNCs. These MNCs, we were told, are the contemporary versions of East India Company; they would gobble up domestic firms and end up enslaving India once again.
Were Indian companies eaten up by MNCs? Did they die? No, our own corporations became bigger and more competent; instead of getting swallowed by MNCs, they ventured overseas and acquired foreign companies. In general, economic growth accelerated, help tens of millions of people rise above the poverty line.
Then there are genetically modified (GM) crops to which the anti-science activists of both the Left and the Right oppose. The objections to GM crops are doctrinal rather than fact-based; but the Luddite groups, though microscopic in numbers, are loud, deceitful, and resourceful. Therefore, despite the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) under the Environment Ministry approving Bt brinjal for commercial cultivation, the then environment minister Jairam Ramesh did in 2010 what pusillanimous politicians usually do—succumb to the pressure of raucous activists. An indefinite moratorium was put on it. The Narendra Modi government too did not show much uprightness against the Luddites; it withdrew the approval of commercial cultivation of GM mustard in 2017.
Economic Survey 2018 emphasised “the need to embrace agricultural science and technology with renewed ardor.” It said, “Agricultural research will be vital in increasing yields but also in increasing reliance to all the pathologies that climate change threatens to bring in its wake…”
Expert after expert has laid stress on the greater use of technology; Survey after Economic Survey has talked about innovation, new methods in agriculture, and so on. Yet, the powers that be seem to become powerless in the face of activists’ rhetoric which is a blend of dogma, hearsay, and cantankerousness. Politicians tend to ignore evidence and agree with the activists.
Gujarat did exceptionally well in agriculture when Modi was chief minister, registering an average annual growth rate of 8 per cent. This, according to prominent agricultural economist Ashok Gulati, “was triggered and led by Bt cotton. And this was the famous Gujarat development model…”
Sensible representatives of farmers wanted Bt cotton. Sharad Joshi (1935-2015), perhaps the only farmer leader who advocated the end of regulations in agriculture, favoured Bt cotton. At the time of its introduction in India in 2002, Joshi had said in a lecture: “It was claimed [at the time of the Green Revolution] that if we had the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and high-yielding variety of seeds, the rich will become richer and the poor will become poorer, and the Green Revolution will produce a bloody red revolution. Pandit [Jawaharlal] Nehru took extra efforts to see that the Green Revolution did not come till the end of his days. The 1965 war with Pakistan made it necessary for [the then prime minister] Lal Bahadur Shastri to have recourse to that technology, and he was fortunate in getting Dr. C. Subramaniam as his minister for agriculture. The Green Revolution technology was introduced, and we saw the results immediately. India soon became self-sufficient in food.”
Now, when the new farm laws open up new vistas for farmers, some of them have been so thoroughly brainwashed by the mendacious alarmists that the intended beneficiaries are opposing the novelty tooth and nail. Such is the power and influence of the industry of crying wolf.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
Comments
0 comment