Balancing one vote bank against the other. Not easy.

"India's economy left cratered by the pandemic is drawing energy from one of its invisible and often neglected engines: farmers," wrote Kotoky and Alfonso. "Business leaders, policy makers and politicians alike are pinning hope on the rural sector as bountiful rains have set the stage for another year of record crops. Higher disposable incomes with farmers are expected to boost demand from automobiles to cement to gold jewellery." If farmers are buying cars and gold why are they protesting on the outskirts of Delhi, with women and children joining the men in sleeping out in the cold weather? After talks, lasting 7 hours between Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and farmers' unions yesterday, ended without an agreement, the minister hinted that the government might amend the 3 farming laws. Earlier in the year there were protests at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, led mainly by women, against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) which was broken up with the lockdown to control the coronavirus from spreading. "If the laws really are as beneficial for farmers as the Center claims, why were they rushed through parliament in such a sneaky manner?" asked advocate Uday Pratap Singh. "How can we trust the government's very late reassurances about the farm laws when it openly favors big corporates?" "When the method of voice voting was resorted to on September 20," "MPs demanded division. This was voiced at 1.09 pm on Rajya Sabha TV. But it never reached the public ear because footage was doctored to such an extent that it was muted," wrote Tulis and Puri. "This was the most anti-democratic moment in the history of the Indian Parliament." Can't expect trust after such low down tricks. "Shaheen Bagh had this pressure of being a civics and moral science lesson all at once," said Simranjeet Singh. "The right wing will have to work harder at villainising us." Over 50% of India's workforce are engaged in farming but agriculture contributes only 17.5% of GDP which means farmers are not sharing in the growth of the economy. This makes farmers a huge vote bank. Farmers are demanding the minimum support price to be written into law. "The most immediate impact of such a law will be higher inflation. MSPs prima facie lead to higher overall prices," wrote Zia Haq. Retail inflation jumped to 7.61% in October, with food inflation at 11.1% year-on-year. Inflation hurts the poor, so the government banned export of onions in September. The poor are a bigger vote bank than farmers. If the government depresses prices, the promise of riches from private sector is merely jumla. Farmers are right to call the government's bluff. What if it's all jumla.