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I am sorry but it is quite apparent that a lot of the folks who are showing solidarity with farmers in India do not really support their basic economic demands. The government in India is pushing for much-touted liberalization reforms in the agricultural sector. You guys want
the same reforms implemented in Pakistan as well.
The farmers there are fundamentally against any marketization of the agricultural economy. You probably dont see or refuse to acknowledge the various hammer and sickle flags that can be seen in the videos and images.
The farmers there are fundamentally against any marketization of the agricultural economy. You probably dont see or refuse to acknowledge the various hammer and sickle flags that can be seen in the videos and images.
Analysts, economists, researchers, and journalists, etc. on this side of the border who have sympathy with the cause in Eastern Punjab should at least rethink their approach towards the economics of support prices in Pakistan's agricultural supply chain.
A lot of us also say that the commodity purchasing system run by the govt should be abolished. That it is a rent-seeking mechanism designed to benefit the banks (??), etc. You might have good intentions but I dont think your arguments reflect the reality on the ground (the rural
workers and farmers, from what I have observed, heard and learned, do not want the abolishment of the commodity purchases, but an abolishment of the aarhti system cuz thats where most of the rent is going and isnt that quite obvious already?).
In some instances there is this vague sense of Punjabi solidarity as well but nothing on the actual class-based struggles of those farmers.
Yeah our neighbour is treating protesting farmers badly, and it should be condemned for that. But take your critique a little bit further
Yeah our neighbour is treating protesting farmers badly, and it should be condemned for that. But take your critique a little bit further
and try discussing the actual points of contention. I am sure when their SC issued a stay-order on those 3 farm bills, you had the same feeling as when our SC stopped the sale of PSM, that of dissatisfaction towards "judicial overreach into executive affairs hampering the cause
of productivity-enhancing reforms"; i am pretty sure I just wrote the title of a paper some political economist may have published somewhere or may be intending to publish.
Anyways, the solution, to me, is clear and it's politics. Work on making the government more and more
Anyways, the solution, to me, is clear and it's politics. Work on making the government more and more
answerable to popular political pressure and demands. You need actual mass political movements for that. Talk about reviving the political movements. Discuss the avenues for political participation for aam awaam. Think on expansion of those avenues. Work on politicizing the
masses. Discuss less policy and more tactics of political organizing, maybe even theory which might help in the politicization process; policy will come later and i am not denying its importance although in my idealized world there is no place for policy.
