In PM’s home district, Patidar farmers are an unhappy lot
Low returns in agriculture push youngsters of the community out of farms but anger against BJP stems from police excesses
In Panchot village, just five kilometres from Mehsana town in the home district of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a large banner lowered from the village’s clock tower announces a ban on the entry of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the village premises.
Panchot is one among the several Patidar-dominated villages in Mehsana district, where many local residents have hardened their stance against the BJP ahead of state assembly polls next month.
Their biggest complaint is not about the economy, or the state of agriculture, but the violence during the community’s protests for quotas two years ago.
“We have voted for BJP for over two decades but today, it is time to signal to the party that Patidars have voted them to power and the same community can bring them down.
The government hasn’t bettered our lot in any way and instead of quelling the Patidar agitation, they sent police into our homes. Majority from our village will not vote for BJP,’’ said 25-year-old Jigar Patel, an unemployed science graduate who claims to lead the youngsters.
In this village, the rebellion is led by young Patidars, who are mostly unemployed or semi-employed and the sons of marginal farmers with land holdings less than 2.5 acres.
Patidars are angry over the police firing during the protests for quotas two years ago, which resulted in the deaths of 14 youngsters. Mehsana district has seven assembly seats where the BJP has usually dominated but the party is expected to face a tough fight this time.
“I am not in favour of reservation for anyone. I also can understand that the BJP government cannot promise reservation when it is legally untenable. But why did you beat up our youngsters? Tear gas was lobbed in villages and Patidar colonies were harassed,’’ said Bharatbhai Patel, a Patidar farmer and local fabrics unit owner from Buttapaldi village.
Kanu Patel from Panchot echoes this sentiment. “If BJP thinks it will get our votes even after it enters our homes to beat our children, they are in some sort of dreamland.’’
Panchot, like many other villages in Mehsana, grows a wide range of crops from wheat to cotton, oil seeds such as castor and spices such as cumin.
But Jigar, much like the rest of his friends, has no intention of tilling the land. Fragmented land holdings and increased costs of cultivation have reduced farm incomes, even a surbanisation has wooed a majority of the rural Patel youth into the services and business sector. HT witnessed this across villages in Mehsana in Panchot, Ballol, Karsanpura, Lakhwad, Buttapaldi, Assanjol, where most youngsters were studying away from home or looking for opportunities outside their villages.
“Why should our children even get into agriculture ? It’s not paying for our generation. In my one acre of land, I grow cotton and wheat but income from the land is enough for basic subsistence not even for paying for medicines or fees,’’ said Haribhai Patel, Jigar’s uncle.
Haribhai also runs a local clothes shop to make ends meet.
Nearly 157,000 Mehsana farmers are marginal — with land holding of less than two acres — or small with land holding less than five acres.
The market prices of crops have remained volatile for the last three years though input costs have increased.
The next generation of Patels has moved out of agriculture into the service sector but says both the education system and job market is rigged against them. This spurred the reservation demand in 2015.
“My father’s 10 bigha of land was divided between my brother and myself. In my five bigha (two acres), I try and grow two crops like wheat, castor and sometimes cotton. But profitability is too low,’’ Bharatbhai said.
He said this year, he earned ₹68,000 from 16 quintals of castor seeds grown on his one acre of land but spent more than half of this amount (₹37,500) in cultivating the crop.
“The cost of cultivation, from hiring a tractor and paying for its diesel to labour, seeds, pesticides, fertilisers is high. If we want better yields, we need to invest more money in better quality fertilisers or natural manure and pesticides. I haven’t put manure in my fields for years because its cost is ₹2000 for one basket. One bigha of land requires 10 such baskets. You do the maths of whether this is viable,’’ he said. Bharatbhai says his vote will go to the Congress this year for the first time since he started voting.
But not everyone agrees that the BJP is on a poor footing and notes that the saffron party has excellent organisation on the ground — in many of the villages in the region, the sarpanch has ties to the party.
“The Patidar vote is split this year. But many of us continue to be BJP supporters. The government has intervened with higher minimum support prices for crops.
Irrigation facilities have improved in a big way. The youngsters may not have seen Congress regime but we have. Given the history, we believe BJP is far better,” said Jayeshbhai Patel from Ballol.
“Even we know that BJP will ultimately come to power but its seats will be reduced and a message will be sent politically that Patidars are not to be messed with,’’ said Jignesh Patel from Ballol village, which had also displayed anti-BJP banners recently and lined up to see Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.