“Wealth Creation” Vs “Wealth Distribution”: In India, the left dominates the narrative setting and is very strong in every form of media, academia. Almost all educational institutions are left-leaning. The books taught are written by them and are heavily loaded towards the left. They themselves may not have been powerful directly, but they always control & dominate the political mind space in India. The left sets the agenda. I have seen these people everywhere, they normally have very good academic credentials, a bag hanging from the shoulder, very articulate, perfect English and the way they create posters in handwriting, I have always loved it and even today I read these posters from the images of their rallies and protests.
Interestingly these people are totally absent from Trade & Industry. They never build businesses. They are against it. They abuse and demonize businesses and businessmen. They will call them thieves. These people are normally in soft jobs like academia, journalism, the coffee shops people smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. The India international center types. They live good life trying to set things right for others, especially the poor. They themselves do not create wealth, they normally dip into the country’s wealth and sip from there through their contacts/ connections in government. They are basically Parasites. It seems that young graduates, who normally prepare for civil services, and are not selected, also join this bandwagon as they are good at story writing etc.
These people absent from wealth creation, they are masters in the theory of “Wealth Distribution”. Now to distribute wealth, you need to have the “Wealth” in the first place otherwise you simply distribute “Poverty” and this is what they have been doing all along, intentionally or unintentionally. I have seen a video of JNU student leader (34 Years, still student leader) Kanhaiya Kumar showing the poverty in his family and making a big case that “Government did not do anything for them”, whereas people like us worked hard, brought out our families and many others out of poverty when we reached the age of 34. We started working at 24 years of age and earned and created wealth for ourselves & for the country.
This left narrative of hatred for “Wealth Creation” and love for “Wealth Distribution” is very dangerous. You do not work and create wealth and you want “Government” to do everything for you. Does government have so much money? Answer is big NO. The narrative of government distributing wealth is not good for the country as the wealth for distribution is not there. The country and countrymen should focus on “Wealth Creation”. When there is wealth, only then distribution can happen and it will happen automatically.
Now this narrative of Wealth Creation does not fit in the scheme of things for these leftists, if I can call them so. They are used to life of a parasite. I have many people in my life who have been doing this. They themselves live extremely good life, enjoy money & status. Have lot of respect. What more you want from life? They will not work 14 -16 hours in factories & offices. They are not used to it. They will not build companies of 10 crores/ 100 crores themselves, they will always talk/ discuss in lakhs of crores, the government budget is so many lakhs of crores, it works for them.
Life is the best teacher and I have learnt my lessons on socialism and I agree with the saying that “If you are not a socialist at 20, you do not have heart, If you remain socialist at 30, you do not have brain”.
The protests against farm laws are driven by the same ideology as the government of the day is trying to change the status quo. I have been watching the protests from sidelines but I realize that people who do not agree with these protests should also raise their voices to be heard and noticed. The “Wealth Creation” Vs “Wealth Distribution” needs to be explained.
The protesting farmers and their left supporters are basically asking government to give them large part of taxes collected. It is all about “Wealth Distribution”. They want MSP (minimum support price) guarantee. Now where is wealth to be distributed and who is creating the wealth, which you want for yourself? These questions should be asked.
Now coming to three farm laws specifically, which are:
1- APMC Act- Ends the monopoly of “Mandis” and farm trade can happen anywhere, even online:
There is no logic and no reason to oppose this. Government has given farmers more platforms to sell their produce. More “Mandis” will open and farmers will get more options & better prices for their produce. It will surely lead to job creation and “Wealth Creation” in the rural economy.
2- Contract Farming:
I am myself a farmer, I mean my father was a farmer and we have land and do contract farming of some kind. Contract farming is already happening all over India. Government is trying to regularize it and bring in organized businesses in contract farming so that much needed investment comes into agriculture. This investment will be in technology, seeds, soil management and will improve farm productivity and will create more produce per acre. Farmers have land but they do not have working capital & access to machinery or technology. There is stagnation and status quo in Indian agriculture for several decades and it needs to change for the better. The contract farming will solve these problems. It will also encourage aggregation of small landholdings and per acre production will increase. It will lead to “Wealth Creation”.
3- Essential Commodities Act – Removal of sealing from stocking for grains:
In India, ~20% food grains get rotten due to lack of storage facilities. Government does not have resources to build these facilities and also government should not build them. The private businesses are as Indian as farmers are. Private businesses can create storage go downs and it will provide easy access to farmers for storage, will reduce wastage and will create jobs.
The leftists are very smart, well educated. They know that they do not have much against these three farm laws and will not be able to carry on for long so they have brought in “Guarantee for MSP” as new demand. What does MSP guarantee mean? It means they need bigger share in the cake, which is government handout. It is again a push for “Wealth Distribution” where as government is trying to push for “Wealth Creation”.
Why these Anti Farm Protests are Anti Poor:
The rural economy is in need of capital. It needs better management, technology & market linkages. If more capital flows into rural economy as envisioned in new Farm Laws, there will be more Jobs for the poor. The contract farming will create large number of small companies which will integrate with large companies and a chain of businesses will get created. There would be entrepreneurship development at village level. There is potential of creating large number of well paying/ consistent blue collar and even white collar jobs.
Many would say, why government itself does not do these things, the simple answer is “Governments can not do. They do not have resources”. Also why aversion to business. The rural people should get integrated in global supply chains. This is the way forward. You can not remain in bondage of 20th century traditional agriculture and cities alone can not absorb the entire working population. We need to create more jobs and opportunities in villages. Now with good connectivity, large number of highways, agricultural produce & food processing industries can be integrated with global demand centers.
More money into rural economy means, it will flow to the last man in the chain in some way or the other.
In the countryside there are more landless labourers than farmers. The condition of landless poor is much worse compared with farmers. They have a lot to gain with the new farm laws. Their incomes will rise, they will get more jobs.
With new laws, we are slowly moving towards giving “Industry” status to Farming. This should be appreciated, welcomed and not opposed.
READ ALSO –Sidhi (Madhya Pradesh): Around 32 bodies recovered from canal; Several feared