Maharashtra Assembly Polls: Swatantra Bharat Paksha promises sops for farmers

Contesting the first state assembly elections after the demise of its founder and ideological preceptor, the Swatantra Bharat Paksha (SBP), the political arm of liberal farmer leader late Sharad Joshi's Shetkari Sanghatana (SS), has rolled out an agenda including a complete waiver of loans and power bills for farmers. The SBP, which is planning to contest from around 30 seats, largely in Vidarbha and Marathwada, has also promised to re-look laws that make it tough for people to buy and sell-off agricultural land and ensure that farmers get access to markets and technologies like BT and genetically modified (GM) cotton, maize and mustard.

"We will fight 30 assembly seats, including Rajura, Saoner, Katol, Ramtek, Hinganghat, Dhamangaon, Vani, Ralegaon, Jala and Ambad," said former MLA Wamanrao Chatap, who is a member of the high-power committee of the SBP and the Shetkari Sanghatana national executive. Chatap will fight from his traditional assembly seat of Rajura in Chandrapur, which he has represented for four-terms in the legislature.

"The bedrock of our ideology is personal liberty, access to markets and technology," explained Chatap.

He added that they would campaign on issues like complete loan waivers, writing off electricity bills for agricultural pumps, and access to technology.

"We farmers must be allowed to access the best global technologies in agriculture. One can buy and use the latest mobile phone models, cars and two-wheelers, but why don't we have the freedom to use the seeds that we want? We want to use herbicide-tolerant BT (HTBT) cotton, and GM seeds for mustard, maize, soya bean, brinjal and golden rice. Moreover, 24 of 36 districts have been affected by drought or excessive rainfall, and hence, farmers are not in a position to pay electricity bills. Hence, they must be written off," said Chatap.

The SBP has also promised to do away with market interventions by the government for agricultural commodities, which distorts the market for farmers and prevents them for getting remunerative pricing for their product. "There must be no restrictions on personal freedom and the right to property… while the landless cannot purchase agricultural land sans the government nod, same applies when a farmer wants to sell off his holding and exit agriculture. No such restrictions are in place for industry and trade. It must be easy for people to enter and exit farming," added Chatap.

The organisation, which moots the cause of smaller states like Vidarbha for better governance, is also tying up with pro-Vidarbha statehood parties for the elections.

Joshi, who expired in 2015, propounded theories like "Bharat vs India," (on the economic-cultural divide between India and exploited, agrarian Bharat) and the need for loan waivers and remunerative pricing for agriculture, which have found their way into the mainstream political lexicon. He espoused an alternative economic paradigm which held that lack of remuneration in dry-land farming lay at the roots of poverty.

However, despite getting five MLAs elected to the Maharashtra assembly in 1990, Joshi failed to make a mark in electoral politics, leading to a sentiment among his followers that farmers joined them seeking a rise in prices, but deserted them for established parties on lines of caste and religion.

The Shetkari Sanghatana, which is a liberal farmers' movement and its political arm - the SBP - broke from Marxist, socialist and Nehruvian thought and promoted a doctrine based on greater economic and technological freedom for farmers including access to markets and technologies. It seeks that the state reduces its overarching influence across the personal and economic lives of individuals.

Though the SS and SBP have seen their influence diminish, they fostered an alternate rung of leadership like Hatkanangale MP Raju Shetti, minister of state Sadabhau Khot, state agricultural prices commission chairman Pasha Patel and Shiv Sena leader Laxman Wadle.