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A thread to debunk the idea that bihar has declined because of the reforms in agriculture...
Agriculture and gsdp growth rates in bihar from early 1970s to 2005 were way below the indian average and far below punjabs growth rate....
Punjab after the green revolution grew at a growth rate almost twice as much as indian average for 15 years and at a substantially high rate for 30 years whereas bihar lagged behind...
Agriculture and gsdp growth rates in bihar since the reforms have been phenomenal and the average farmer income has grown... Another disadvantage for bihar is its high population compared to punjab....
Bihar's agriculture has grown at almost double the rate of indian average....
Bihar faced many problems like it could not take full advantage of the green revolution, remained underdeveloped for decades and grew at below average rates while other states raced ahead, it is densely populated and could not attract infrastructure investments...
Despite all this friction since the reforms bihar has done extremely well relative to where they were before the reforms...
Comparing punjab and bihar's per capita income is like comparing a developin nation and a developed nations per capita income... The developing nation has not enjoyed growth for the same amount of time and has higher population....
But relative to where they were in 2005-6 bihar has outdone india and has the potential to become one of the most prosperous states in india and this is largely because of farm reforms...
So saying this with absolute certainty that these laws will be oppressive and will hurt the farmers is not the correct answer....
No one understands how policies will work before they are enacted but all of us can say this with certainty that the existing system fails people regularly and some reform is required...
But what is even worse is that we know that the extremist right are full of morally corrupt people but the left or the twitter left uses compassion and kindness as a guise to play divisive identity politics.
