The Poisonous Seeds of Political Rhetoric
Will the Indian farmers be able to break out from the rhetoric trap of politicians?
In the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, India witnessed a significantly lower turnout of urban voters than their rural counterparts. The bulk of the Indian rural population consists of farmers, our Annadata (the one who provides food) — who have over the years consistently turned up in numbers to support their representatives to the Parliament. A lingering question that is rarely raised is that what could be the reason that the farmers keep falling prey to the politicians’ rhetoric, and is there a way they can escape this trap? A possible answer to this lies in the numerous studies that prove how poverty affects the psychological lives of the poor by retarding their cognitive development and consequently their decision-making capacities. It’s important for everyone who wishes to help them, to follow a multi-pronged approach as this problem might seem easy on paper but is very complex in its basic structure.
To begin with, let us first take a look at the various strategies that our political leaders undertake to win the good faith of the poor farmers. During the 2018 Assembly Election campaigns, at a rally in Mandsaur, Rahul Gandhi announced a loan waiver of upto 2 lakhs in 10 days, if Congress was voted to power (The Economic Times). But Rahul was only following the footsteps of the Prime Minister, who in a Kisaan rally in Bareilly on 28th Feb 2016, talked about his dream of doubling farmer’s income by 2022 (NITI Aayog 3). On 72nd Independence Day, in his speech regarding this scheme, he said, “Hum Lakshyay le kar ke chalein hain. Aur hum makkhan par lakeer karne ki aadat wale nahi hain, hum patthar par lakeer karne ki swabhav waale log hain (We have started with an aim. Decisions taken by us are cast in stone and not on butter)” (Hindustan Times). What we see is that many more promises like these by political figures lay hold of farmers’ votes by appealing to their sentiments and their drained socio-political agency.
As pointed out before, poverty is shown to have adverse effects on the cognitive capacity of an individual which in turn compromises their ability to perform functions that involve higher-order thinking and decision-making. Indian farmers are always under constant stress to managing the limited money they have in hand to meet their daily economical needs. According to research on the relationship between poverty and cognitive bandwidth, “The poor must manage sporadic income, juggling expenses, and make difficult trade-offs. Even when the poor are not actually making financial decisions, these preoccupations can be distracting. Consequently, these mental distractions lead to significant retardation in their cognitive capacity and a further increase in their stress levels and have a detrimental effect on their ability to diffuse attention to relevant issues” (Martoncik & Adamkovic 3). Therefore, when a political figure makes a spellbinding speech about pro-farmer policies, there is a possibility that the farmers instantly decide their future representatives without drilling down on the rhetoric or comparing it to their performance in previous election cycles.
In the end its the farmer who is stuck in the poverty trap and consequently the vicious cycle of political rhetoric too. So is there any respite from this endless cycle of hope and delusion? This issue of lack of political literacy amongst farmers is complex and requires a multi-pronged approach to move forward towards a lasting solution.
Perhaps one way is to build a sustainable agricultural model for Indian farmers that strengthens them financially and subsequently helps reduce their cognitive load. According to Sathya Raghu Mokkapati V., farmers often find overall socio-economic stability if they are provided throughout their agricultural venture (Stanford Social Innovation Review). The government should provide access to 360-degree agricultural services to farmers. There cannot be a one size fits all approach to this. Instead, there must be financial products designed for the specific needs of the farmers based on the crops they grow or the size of land they own (Srinivasan 16). Governments should also create more spaces like Agri Udaan, NITI Aayog’s initiative with SatSure, and Karnataka government’s initiative with CropIn that encourage Agri-tech startups that have knowledge and technology to cater to the specific needs of the farmers, which can gradually lead to a decrease in their cognitive load.
Furthermore, NGOs can laterally work towards enabling political literacy among the rural population, particularly agricultural communities. Currently, there is not even a handful of organizations that are working towards it. Two amongst these are Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) that works with various stakeholders to make the farmers aware of their rights and to voice out their opinions on government and policymaking platforms and Mazdoor Kisaan Shakti Sangathan that works with peasants in Rajasthan to strengthen their participation in democratic processes. Farmer unions at the panchayat level can also play a big role in making the farmers active members of the democratic dialogues with the government.
The need of the hour is for organizations to step forward and help facilitate ways of political as well as financial literacy to empower their critical consciousness so that they are able to identify empty promises, used to beguile them for political self-interest.
Read Fighting the Fake News Pandemic by Sathes Kanagaraj
Works Cited
Schilbach Frank, Schofield Heather, and Mullainathan Sendhil. The Psychological Lives of the Poor. American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings, 2016.
Adamkovic, Matus and Martoncik, Marcel. A Review of Consequences of Poverty on Economic Decision-Making: A Hypothesized Model of a Cognitive Mechanism. Frontiers in Psychology. 2017.
Mokkapati Sathya Raghu V. A Permanent Path Out of Poverty for Small-Scale Farmers. Stanford Social Innovation Review. 2016.
Srinivasan N. Indian Experiences of Application of Agricultural Value Chain Finance. Workshop on Enhancing Exports’ Competitiveness Through Value Chain Finance. 2012.
Chand Ramesh. Doubling Farmers’ Income Rationale, Strategy, Prospects and Action Plan. NITI Aayog. 2017.
Hindustan Times. 72nd Independence Day: Will double farmer incomes by 75th Independence Day. YouTube. 2018.
Economic Times. Congress will waive farm loan in 10 days, if voted to power in MP: Rahul Gandhi in Mandsaur. The Economic Times. 2018.
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