In a sudden but under a well-designed move Nitish Kumar on Saturday announced the revival of bazaar samitis in Bihar. Modi personally has been against revival and invigorating of the bazar samitis or mandis. It is one of the three black laws which the farmers have been resisting and demanding its repeal. There is no doubt to believe that this U-turn of Kumar would have enraged Modi. The farmers agitating in several states against three new farm laws would have every reason to feel delighted at this development but they too would have been feeling intrigued at this move of Kumar.

Like an ordinary Bihari farmer, the farmers sitting on Satyagrah for last nine months would have been trying to figure out what made him to confront Modi and challenge his authority. During their eleven round of discussions with the farmers the ministers of the Modi government continued to hold their ground that abolition of mandis was their prime agenda and they would not concede to the farmers’ demand to scrap it. On their part the farmers are scared of this law as this would facilitate the big companies that buy farm produce to exploit them.

Bazaar samitis are government-regulated markets where farmers sell their produce to middlemen. The mandis are expected to ensure that they are not exploited. Incidentally these markets had shut down after the Nitish government repealed the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act in 2006, deciding that reining in the middlemen was a hopeless task.

However, some of the middlemen retained their stalls at the erstwhile bazaar samitis and some farmers continued to sell there, but without government infrastructure or supervision.

“Agriculture bazaar samitis will be revived, renovated and developed in a phased manner in the state to provide a market to the farmers for their produce,” Nitish said in an Independence Day announcement. “We shall spend Rs 2,700 crore on this. Separate market and cold storage facilities will be provided at the bazaar samitis for food grains, fruits, vegetables and fish.”

It is hard to believe whether Bihar government would spend this huge fund on reviving the mandi infrastructure and its operation, but this decision has more political implication than the economic inference. This will act as a major morale booster for the farmers, though the participation of the farmers from Bihar in the current agitation has been quite negligible. It is really a sad commentary that baring a very small section of the farmers, the overall participation of the farmers in the agitation from Bihar has not been encouraging.

Even their protest at the state level has been insignificant. Farmers are agitating in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and a few other states apart from conducting a nine-month-old sit-in at Delhi’s borders. One of their demands is an assurance that mandis will continue to function. The primary reason for lack of enthusiasm and response to the agitation has been in recent years the state has not witnessed a strong and enriched farmers’ collective effort. There are some self-styled farmers’ leaders but they are members of one or other political party. They neither represent the rich farmers nor the small and marginal farmers. Till some years back the left parties were involved in organising the small and marginal farmers. At present only the CPI(ML)-Liberation has been actively involved in organising the agricultural labour and poor peasants.

Yet another factor for non-emergence of a strong farmers’ leadership in the state has been the un remunerative farm produce. Most of the big farmers are absentee landlord and have leased out their lands to the sharecroppers. Otherwise too farming in the state has been of subsistence character. In fact the abolition of the mandis by Nitish in 2006 had severely affected the farming. In absence of mandis they were forced to sale their produce at throw away prices to the local traders. This led to the severe crunch in recycling of the fund to the farming sector.

It is quite noticeable that Bihar has been the highest producer of farm labourers in the country. The labour market of almost all the states are overflowing with the labourers from Bihar. In absence of a viable farming proposition, they have no alternative but to migrate to other states. While they find agriculture related work in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and to some extent in Kerala, they will be found engaged as daily labourers in construction or other trades in other states. If the mandis were not disbanded in Bihar the situation might not have deteriorated to such an extent.

Nitish announcement ought to be not perceived as a symbol of his love for the farmers. His announcement reflects the deepening strain in relations between his Janata Dal United and the BJP since the October-November Assembly elections last year.

The JDU with 43 seats has to play second fiddle to the BJP, which won 74 seats. At that time close aides of Nitish had publically alleged that the BJP sabotaged their party’s electoral prospects by supporting Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party candidates against the JDU. After the death of father Ram Vilas Paswan, he had dissociated from the NDA, but continued to support Modi who used this occasion to show Nitish his place in the state politics though on the surface level he continued to maintain a harmonious relation with him.

Modi had inflicted a major insult to Nitish by inducting one rebel LJP MP, Pashupati Paswan, brother of Ram Bilas much against the desire of Nitish and even ironically against the wishes of Chirag. As if this was not enough BJP has been trying to engineer a defection in his party by projecting RCP Sinha, once a close aide of Nitish as his potential rival. It was to counter this move of BJP, Nitish installed his confidant Lalan Singh as national president of the party. Lalan is known to be close to L K Advani.

In recent times a number of differences had cropped up between the two leaders. Nitish demanded a caste census and also a probe into the Pegasus snooping allegations. He even opposed the new citizenship regime, two-child norms propounded by UP chief minister Yogi for elections, the amendment to Article 370 and talk about a uniform civil code. He has started challenging the leadership of Modi but the BJP leadership has been finding it a tough proposition to take him head on. Modi nursed apprehensions that he would lose the crucial state like Bihar in case Nitish walked out of the alliance. Modi cannot dare to commit this hara-kiri. He must have NDA government till 2024, till the elections to the Lok Sabha are held.

During last couple of months the political contour of Bihar has started witnessing a significant change. If the sources are to be believed Nitish is no more averse joining hands with the allies of mahagathbandhan. He is also ready to dispel any kind of wrong notion the leaders might be nursing about him and his loyalty. It is said that Lalu Yadav is also not averse to accept him as a partner. For both the biggest enemy at present is Modi. Close aides also confide that he is agreeable to work for the defeat of the BJP in UP election. His stand on two child issue ought to be seen in that backdrop.

Bihar will also have an eco-tourism wing under the department of environment and forests. Nitish announced an increase in the dearness allowance from 17 per cent to 28 per cent with effect from July 1 this year. The Centre had recently hiked dearness allowance for its employees. (IPA Service)