Russia-Ukraine War Impact: India's growing involvement in global wheat supply justifies Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that India can provide food grains to the world. India is expected to export 10 million tons of wheat in the current year. Undoubtedly, one of the main reasons is Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Importantly, due to the Ukraine crisis, not only is the demand for Indian wheat increasing worldwide, but our farmers are also preferring to sell wheat to private companies. This is because private companies are paying them more than the MSP.
Farmers are also opting to sell wheat to private companies as they do not have to face the usual inconvenience in government markets. This situation should be looked at not only by the peasant leaders but also by the political parties and organizations which have created an atmosphere against the agricultural laws and misled the peasants and incited them to protest. At least now they should realize that the agriculture laws were for the benefit of the farmers and the farmers were harmed by their blind opposition.
If the agriculture laws had not been withdrawn, perhaps the farmers would be in a much better position today. One should not overlook the fact that the Government of India was ready to address the shortcomings in the three agricultural laws. Even after this soft stance of the government, the peasant leaders insisted that nothing less than acceptance of these laws was acceptable. Opposition parties preferred to persuade the peasant leaders and support their stubborn attitude instead of finding a middle ground.
This support was extended to such an extent that blockades by farmers' organizations were also justified. Ever since the Supreme Court refused to intervene in the matter, the message to the farmers' leaders was that whatever they were doing was right. This created a situation where the government was forced to withdraw the Agriculture Act.
