Not 1 of them has the nerve 2 come out & say why the agri reforms are good b/c they will result in a fall in price cereals leading farmers to diversify 2 other crops. Not even @pbmehta.

This is not just politics. It has severe repercussions 4 the economy. Bear with me.

1/n https://twitter.com/Aakar__Patel/status/1332521240242778113

By not acknowledging that farmers will face a fall in income b/c the decline in cereal prices before they can diversify, we are not making an estimate of such losses, nor giving thought to why farmers alone should bear such losses.

Consider.

The present arrangements for support to agri prices & market stabilisation are born of the green revolution and have been in place for decades benefitting everybody, but most of all the well off with Indian food prices being among the cheapest in the world.

Modi’s reforms are necessary adjustments for the economy as African agricultural revolution takes off dropping long term agri-commodity prices. No question about that.

But why does the one-time cost of such structural adjustment have to be borne by farmers alone?

And that is the essence of my submission to @pbmehta and @ShekharGupta et al. By burying the debate in side issues & not addressing the real problems, you are leaving farmers in the lurch who intuitively realise they are being scapegoated 4 something not their fault at all.

This may cost lives. It has already disrupted lives. Going forward, by not accounting 4 cost of reform to farmers & working out the adjustments necessary to share the burden with the well off, we are risking a policy error.

Why are you contributing to policy making by stealth?