Protests over farm laws: Why do we (still) fear a free market?

But an analogous development is taking place in today’s India where farmers in Punjab and Haryana, instigated by politicians with vested interests, are protesting against the agrarian reforms initiated by the BJP-led government.

Synopsis

So, what’s all the ruckus about? The new laws seek to do away with the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) system by which farmers are constrained by law to sell what they grow in officially approved mandis run by politically connected middlemen.

By Jug SuraiyaImagine a scenario in which, following the American Civil War between the slave-owning South and the industrialised North, the freed slaves were to stage an agitation demanding that the chains from which they had been released be put back on them.Sounds daft. But an analogous development is taking place in today’s India where farmers in Punjab and Haryana, instigated by politicians with vested interests, are protesting against the

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