The Panthic Committee (Sohan Singh) has issued a call to farmers of Punjab to progressively bring down the cereal production in Punjab beginning 1991. It has issued a set of instructions Farmers owning 7 acres or less have been exempted from effecting any cut in their production programmes. Those who own between 7-10 acres will have to reduce rice cultivation by half an acre and the wheat by one acre. Those who have 10-15 acres are required to slash the rice and wheat acreage by one and two acres respectively. The 15-20 acres category have to cut production by two and four acres each those in 20-30 bracket will be required to cultivate cereals on 4 and 8 acres less and those who own more than 30 acres have been asked to bring down their acreage to 15 for paddy and 20 for wheat.
The committees call is highly commendable. It shows the welcome realisation on the part of Sikh militants of the fact that the liberation movement in Punjab has to be multipronged and not limited to the use of arms alone. Sikh farmers of Punjab supply to India’s food kitty as much as 60% of grains procured by government agencies all over the country. This contribution by any reckoning is significant. Its withdrawal at any rate a progressive curtailment is capable of wrecking the Brahamanic outfit far more speedily than the use of arms alone. Coupled with a monsoon failure in the country the militant’s programme of action on the economic front could mean a major blow to Delhi and its arrogant Punjab policy. When India’s food deficit was just 5% in the late fifties it had to take to the begging bowl with the U.S.A. obliging with the P.L. 480 supplies to bail out the Brazil rulers. Before these supplies were made India had to contend with many food riots it had to live with great uncertainty.
India faces tremendous financial pressures. It has to pay off staggering international debts. The interest burden alone is backbreaking. The country’s foreign exchange position is precarious. Its performance on the export front is dismal. To cap it all the country has saddled itself with one of the biggest standing armies in the world it has an internal security force as large in size as its standing army. The Gulf war will make further inroads into the country’s tottering finances. The militant’s programme of economic boycott thus is likely to prove to be the last straw. Only its real economic and political importance needs to be realised. Fortunately the Panthic Committee has done it.
However WSN would like to make two additional points. One the scale of acreage cuts is likely to make the entire program ineffective. The ground reality is that a vast number of farm households in Punjab fall in 0-7 acre category. Certainly these owning 0-10 acres constitute more than 80% of the cultivated area. In addition the actual units of cultivation are higher than the owner-units. Besides the reduction in the cultivated area may not necessarily lead to a fall in production pro rata Thus a higher percentage of no cereal acreage will have to be prescribed without any exemption whatsoever second the program must get going immediately and not wait for about six months. At the moment the farmers could be advised to cultivate sugarcane on fallow lands. Already a move is on in Punjab’s militant controlled areas to cultivate sugarcane. This requires to be given an institutional shape and vigor. The program deserves a wider publicity than it has received so far. Here is an opportunity for the unemployed Akalis to employ themselves gainfully to work for the glory of the Panth and in a little bit of struggle against Delhi. Let Simranjit Singh Mann too be requested to lead the Sikh peasantry in pursuit of this most important program of action.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 25, 1991
