The Political Economy of Agricultural Policy Reform in India

144 CHAPTER 10

regional party in Punjab points out: “Fertilizer prices have increased but minimum support prices have not increased. 24,000 crores is the debt of the farmers to the financial institutions, moneylenders and cooperative banks. This is the reason why most of the farmers are committing suicide. The actual condition of the farmer is miserable. . . . Farmers should get remunerative prices otherwise there is no hope.”5 The personal website of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, describes the introduction of the free-electricity policy as a major achievement: “Another feather on Dr. YSR’s cap is winning the hearts of the hardcore advocates against the Free Power Supply to the favour of farmers of our State.”6 Another interviewee stated that “there are some things you want as a society to subsidize or to spend on because these are part of your social goal. . . . You need food sub- sidies because you want to make food available relatively cheaply to most of your population. At the same time, you don’t want farmers to suffer.” This interviewee also referred to the crisis as a reason why power-sector reforms should not be pursued at this time: “Just two days ago, all these ministers met in Andhra Pradesh to talk about the suicides. And . . . despite [the best efforts of the GoAP], there are still suicides. The crisis is not going away. This, I would say is a very bad time to be talking about things which are really longer- term issues. Because right now is an emergency, you have to deal with this emergency. So to talk about power-sector reforms . . . is very unrealistic.”7 The Congress Party at the national level, which typically follows a more market-oriented discourse than the state branches of the party, echoed this theme when defending the free-electricity policy in Andhra Pradesh as an “emergency response” to an “emergency crisis” in which 3,000 farmers had committed suicide (Hindu Business Line 2004a). Pointing to external factors as reasons for the agrarian crisis is also common in the welfare-state-oriented discourse. As one respondent pointed out: “Earlier, in Punjab, I remember, in 1999, people used to say that the WTO and all that would give us a market outside. But what has happened with the WTO? The developed countries have not lessened their subsidies. So, the Punjabi farmers, they have lost out. They have lost out as a result of WTO.”8

These interpretations of the role of subsidies reflect an important differ- ence between the two discourse coalitions with regard to their causal beliefs about the current agricultural situation. Likewise, disagreement about the

5 Interview with party representative, Chandigarh, March 16, 2006. 6 See http://en.allexperts.com/e/y/y/y.s._rajasekhara_reddy.htm, accessed November 2, 2008. 7 Interview with academic, New Delhi, April 13, 2006. 8 Interview with academic, New Delhi, May 29, 2006.

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