The Hindu Business Line : Vidarbha — a model farmers' State?

Vidarbha could be an ideal pilot for the kind of economic and political system that the mainstream farmers' movement in India has been demanding and agitating for. The movement for a separate Vidarbha was so far led bypoliticians who treated it as a flag of convenience whenever they were in the doldrums, says Sharad Joshi.

THE winter session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, that began on Decmber 8, in Nagpur this year to be more boisterous than usual. The Vidarbha region, consisting of 11 districts that formed the Central Provinces and Berar under the British Rule, should have been constituted as a separate State, according to the recommendations of the Fazal Ali Commission for Reorganisation of States.

Circumstances, however, so developed, particularly on account of the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement, that the Vidarbha leaders had no alternative but to accede to Maharashtra on the basis of the covenant called "Nagpur Pact'' which, inter alia, provided that the city of Nagpur, which had been the capital of then Madhya Pradesh, would have the status of a second capital of Maharashtra.

Thus, every winter, the Maharashtra Assembly meets in this second capital in early December, which coincidently marks the beginning of the harvesting season for cotton — the principal crop of the region. Soon after the formation of the State, the Maharashtra government enacted the Maharashtra Cotton Monopoly Procurement Act, which forces farmers to sell the cotton they produce to a state agency at a price that is announced by the State government at the beginning of the harvest, unlike the Minimum Support Price that is supposed to be announced by the Centre before the commencement of the sowing season. In most years, the price announced by the State government is lower than the free market prices ruling in the adjoining States of Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

The opening of the winter session at Nagpur has been marked, year after year, by farmers' agitations in the State and unruly protests within the Assembly. For the Vidarbha people, the winter session offers an annual occasion for giving vent to their grievances. The premises of the Assembly are surrounded by agitators and protesters, while the Opposition parties do their best to block the proceedings of the House. In 1994, a demonstration by the Gowari community ended in 113 deaths by stampede caused by panic, after police action and the ensuing confusion.

Year after year, the winter session is wrapped up in a week or ten days. For the people of Vidarbha and, particularly Nagpur city, the session is more like a noisy rambunctious country fair! This year, the session started on even more unfavourable auspices. For, a large hoarding put up right in front of the Assembly premises in Nagpur depicts a crow (read `Maharashtra Legislative Assembly') ready to bite a luscious juicy orange (read `Vidarbha') and carries a caption: "Let this be the last session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly at Nagpur."

Mr Sushilkumar Shinde, the newly-elected Chief Minister who is from Western Maharashtra, has announced that there will be no resolution on the issue of separation of Vidarbha on the agenda of the winter session. Mr Vasant Sathe, veteran Congress leader and a former Union Cabinet Minister, had threatened to go on a hunger strike unless a resolution on a separate state of Vidarbha is tabled by the Shinde Government; Mr Sathe, "persuaded by Mr Shinde, has deferred the hunger strike.

The `semi-final' elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajastan and Chhattisgarh have shocked the Nationalist Congress Party alliance and the Congress. The Maharashtra Government that is at the end of its tenure has de facto wound up the Cotton Monopoly Procurement Scheme while keeping it alive on paper. It has taken advantage of the favourable market situation to announce a price of Rs 2,500 per quintal without specifying grade and variety, with the result that most farmers barely get the Minimum Support Price of Rs 1,850 per quintal, and that too subject to various deductions.

The farmers have voted by their feet and simply deserted the Monopoly Procurement Scheme. They are offering their `white gold' to private traders at the farmgate at prices much higher than the maximum government prices sans any deductions whatsoever. The Government's monopoly procurement scheme has barely received a few hundred quintals so far. The farmers are celebrating their victory in bringing to an end the Cotton Monopoly Procurement Scheme that worked in the interest of textile mills and is said to be the cause for many farmers committing suicide.

Mr Vasant Sathe and others like him in various parties and organisations, have been demanding a separate state of Vidarbha on the ground that the terms of the Nagpur Pact were not implemented correctly and that the Vidarbha region receives step-motherly treatment, resulting in development backlog that is estimated at several thousand crore rupees that encompasses irrigation, education, infrastructure and industry.

They had invoked Article 370 of the Constitution to have separate board under direct control of the Governor to monitor the relative treatment meted out to the three regions in Maharashtra.

The regional development boards have been a remedy worse than the disease. The system has weakened the authority of the elected government and vested powers in the hands of the Governor. Recently, the vacillation in the Governor's orders that put brakes on irrigation projects in the Krishna valley (southern Maharashtra) until the backlog in Vidarbha is cleared brought the government to the brink of Constitutional crisis.

In brief, the movement for separate Vidarbha was so far led by politicians who sought a budgetary remedy for the problem of development backlog of Vidarbha. They were seen as opportunists who treated the issue for a separate Vidarbha as a flag of convenience whenever they were in political doldrums. Most people nurse a grievance that opportunism of these leaders has harmed the cause of separate Vidarbha beyond remedy.

The farmers' movement in Maharashtra has now practically seized the mantle of leadership on the issue of a separate Vidarbha. The argument of farmers' movement is more cogent and rational. It is as follows: "The affairs of the state should be conducted in the language of the people as pronounced by the mentor of the farmers' movement — Mahatma Jotiba Phule. The size of the state should be governed by considerations of administrative efficiency and people's convenience. Smaller states are more likely to be effectively administered at lower costs than the larger ones. There can be more than one state for the Marathi speaking people.

Experience since 1960 has shown that the accession of Vidarbha, primarily a raw material producing region (cotton, minerals and electricity), to the industrially-advanced Western Maharashtra, has worsened the terms of trade for the Vidarbha. This is the principal cause of the celebrated Vidarbha backlog.

The end of the Maharashtra Cotton Monopoly Procurement Scheme marks the beginning of the end of the era of Western Maharashtra hegemony over the Vidarbha region. The monopoly procurement of paddy in tribal area and unfair distribution of power generated in Vidarbha will follow soon.

A separate state of Vidarbha that embraces full-scale economic reforms, abjures all licence-permit-quota mechanisms renouncing all bureaucratic structures alone can promote the lot of the common man in Vidarbha. Vidarbha could be an ideal pilot for the kind of economic and political system that the mainstream farmers' movement in India has been demanding and agitating for.

A resolution on a separate Vidarbha will come sooner or later irrespective of whether or not Mr Vasant Sathe goes on hunger strike. The Vidarbha region has been the bastion of Congress power in Maharashtra, and Ms Sonia Gandhi, the party president, is expected to make concession to the demand for a separate Vidarbha as a damage-restricting operation after the party's recent fiasco in Rajastan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In this, the Congress will only follow the example of the Shetkari Sanghatana.

The only outfit holding out against the separation of Vidarbha is Shiv Sena. But its supremo has given a public assurance to review his position if there was no progress in reducing Vidarbha's development backlog.

Maharashtra seems set for a restructuring. The socialists and Leftists, who attributed the backwardness of the Vidarbha to the failures of the government, are now being supported by the farmers who stand for free trade without state interventions of the kind that have plagued Vidarbha — monopoly procurement of cotton and paddy. So far, the linguistic States formed in 1950-1960 were vivisected on grounds of caste.

Maharashtra has more contemporary reasons for reviewing its political map. It may be the first State to go for reorganisation for reasons of economic liberalisation and reforms.

(The author, founder of the Shetkari Sanghatana, can be reached at sharad@mah.nic.in)

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Naresh Chandra flight plan

Vidarbha — a model farmers' State?

Has democracy arrived?

The strategies that win elections

Opening up the aviation sector