The good news is that farmers are at the centre of national discourse. The sad fact is that this is for a wrong reason. For decades farmers have lived in distress, suffering the apathy of the political class besides the fury of nature and insensitivity of administrators. Now on an unfathomable reason, political class has started to champion the cause of the farmers. Desperate to shed the tag of a reluctant politician Rahul Gandhi has embraced the issue of farmers affected by the new Land Bill of the NDA government.

Ill-equipped and ill-informed, Rahul Gandhi has been trying to grab headlines by trying to champion the plight of affected farmers, not realizing that he is only championing the cause of elite farmers, and doing great disservice to million of hapless farmers - for their worries are far more glaring than those seemingly caused by the Land Bill! From Parliament to a Punjab train, the young Gandhi has been trying hard to fictionalize the problems of the Indian farmers. All across, he has been either distorting facts, hiding glaring misdeeds of his own government, and even lying. This is disgraceful. And here is why.

First and foremost, unlike what he wants us to believe - the new Land Bill will not take away livelihood of farmers or unsettle them or force them into distress. India is full of small and marginal farmers - about 28% of farmers have land holdings which are less than 0.5 ha. Only about 0.5% of farmers have landholdings which are larger than 10 ha and in the vicinity of urban centers and they are likely to be impacted by this legislation. In all, the new legislation is likely to affect less than 10% of rural households. 

Second, the continued neglect of the farmers issues over the years - and Rahul Gandhi should know this - has ensured that many farmers and farm laborers are wanting to move away from it. Centre for Studies of Developing Societies (CSDS) carried out a survey of 5,480 farmers in late 2013 and the results revealed that 62% farmers were willing to leave farming if they had an alternate job; 37% did not want next generation to continue with farming; about 22% had started to consider other options for earning as they found agriculture was not sustainable. With an average outstanding debt of Rs 47,000 per farmer household the apathy is understandable. So Rahul Gandhi is lying. 

Third, Rahul Gandhi has also been trying hard to link farmers suicides with the “policies” of the NDA government - little realizing that the truth could be hard for him to swallow. Rahul Gandhi should know farmers suicides is an age old phenomenon and sociologists and historians have recorded how farmers committed suicides in 1870s when they were made to pay very high land taxes regardless of the effects of frequent famines then on farm output or productivity. Rural mortality rate were very high in agrarian British India, especially between 1850 to 1940. So suicides by farmers, though a very tragic affair, are not new. 

Fourth, Rahul Gandhi needs to mildly scratch history to understand that the sad incidence of farmers suicides took place possibly with larger intensity than today. In 2012 and 2011, according to National Crime Records Bureau - 13,754 and 14,207 - cases of suicides were reported respectively. In 2012, when Congress ruled Maharashtra, 3786 farmers committed suicides in the state, which accounted for about a quarter of the total suicides. It is also distressing to note that rather than constructively participating in debates and contributing meaningfully to the discourse on farmers, Rahul Gandhi has been cooking up stories for proverbial 15 minutes of fame. 

And lastly, nothing could be more glaring than the bizarre claims Rahul Gandhi made in Parliament on April 28, and this was exposed by noted columnist Mr Surjit S Bhalla. Rahul Gandhi had said, “the farmer gave us the Green Revolution. And the Green Revolution happened because the farmer was given abundant credit and because the farmer was provided with the idea of an MSP so that he could sell his crops.” Mr Bhalla rightly pointed out, “that neither the Congress government, nor the abundant credit, nor the Indian farmer, had much to do with the Green Revolution - or with the later adoption of the hugely profitable genetically modified cotton.” Mr Bhall went on to add, “The technological advances were brought about by scientists like Norman Borlaug and funding from Rockfeller Foundation and Food Foundation. Regarding minimum support prices (MSP), they came into being at a national level in 1974-75, about seven years after the advent of the Green Revolution in India. And if ever there was a suited-booted scheme for farmers, it is the MSP, which disproportionately helps the large farmer and hurts the more numerous landless workers.”

Rahul has done it in the past. This time, he may be desperate than ever before in past, to emerge as a thinking and acting politician. Unfortunately, the means, and cause he has embraced will do more harm to farmers. We need serious, long-term structural interventions to address the woes of farmers. Rahul Gandhi has missed it all the while Dr Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister. It may be too late for him now.