2
There are 36K licensed commission agents in Punjab + many more sub agents. These license agents are called Arhtiyas.
These gents earned ₹16K crore commission fee last yr as over the line income. This translates to about 4.5 lacs per agent. That's only frm wht Govt pays them.
3
They also lend money to farmers and others. Their rate, AT its lowest, is 1.5% per month (or 18% per year). Thus, most of the political money is parked with them because they get the best return on investment. This income is manifold of the official income.
Contd ...
4.
- They therefore are the new zamindars, as they have direct control over farmers and their livelihood.
- There are many farmers who are also Arhtiyas and vice versa. They are all the BIG players.
Contd ...
5.
Post demonetization Arhtiyas cycled money of pol parties by channeling cashdeposits to farmers as payment of loan & interest in books & allowed farmers to payback real loan with softer credit ovr 2 yrs. Hence he converted money made 18% + circulated principle twice in 2 yrs.
6
Theyre the ones who own the guns in Punjab. Ostensibly for security. But guns are guns. They are also the most landed of the gentry.
They act as land tract managers for the NRIs & manage thr farms by giving them a %ge return. Essentially they control rural income of Punjab.
7
- They are also biggest contributors to Gurdwaras. As Gurdwaras are under control of Nihangs, theyre now the ones closest to the Nihangs.
8.
Due to their proximity to Gurdwara as also NRI Sikhs (land is mostly owned by Sikhs, Hindus were forced out of rural Punjab since troubles of Khalistan movt) they also approve who goes abroad. Here they act as body shoppers + placement agency.
Thus they retain hold over NRIs
9
- The current pattern of farming and APMC purchase provides them with the primary control towards all nodes of their other business and the assured income on the basis of which they can plan out their other secondary incomes.
10.
- Once Bills were passed, they realised that thr primary source of income is gone. Because now, instead of selling through them, farmers could sell directly. Not just that Govt was withdrawing from procurement business in itself. Now, if they op, they will have to compete.
11
- Secondly, they have no role to play in Contract farming, because the contractors will directly pay to the farmer/farmer group. They would also advance them credit, provide them with seeds, monitor them, etc. Thus, their secondary incomes are all jeopardised.
12.
- The grand role they played of Mai Baap is also gone, cos now there will be others incl online players. Say, you hv land in Punjab, now sitting in London, you can hire out your land & invite bids for tcultivation for the year OR yourself bid for contract farming projects.
13
Not just that, all reqmts for which you counted on Arhtyias can now be solved by a farming-uber or similar facilitator/aggregator soln.
Yet even Arhtiyas can't have a role. They are facilitators with grnd knowledge, they could easily facilitate, BUT for that, they hv to work.
14
To maint status quo, they started rising a hue & cry. They first created panic amongst workers & labourers of the Mandi. Arnd 3 lakh workers are engaged in loading & unloading at the Mandis. Their income was Rs 1,100 crore last yr. Now thr are ~3.5 lacs who raising hue & cry!
15
Cong, which was kept out of APMC was on lookout for a foothold, decided to fan the flames As APMCs are mostly cont by Akali Dal,
Akali Dal, who coauthored the Bill with BJP, realised they cant afford to ruffle Arhtiyas in election yr stepped out of NDA, to secure Arhtiyas.
16
- By now, Arhtiyas had started mobilising their Gurdwara contacts. Remember, they are the largest donors to Gurdwara. The Gurdwaras started to raise voices. BUT instead of stating that let's support Arhtiyas, they went 'The Bill is anti-Farmers'!
17
The Arhtiyas, meanwhile, were already fanning the flames that Bill is Anti-Farmer. The farmers, themselves were keeping away & mostly paying lipservice. That is educated farmers. The non-educated were already in the sway. As mob started assembling, fencesitters joined in.
18
By now NRI contacts were also mobilised. These are nurseries of Khalistan/India hate. The urban legend of Tyrannical Modi's anti-farmer Bill was born narrative was Modi wants to fix farmers of Punjab. Nobody asked how or why!
Sikhs love to hate Modi any way. Why? No one knows!
19
- By now Khalistani agents who had been trying to spark something off in Punjab, & hadn't gotten adequate traction till now got a 'cause celebre', & they decided to maximise it. This sparked a huge funding campaign. They were in anyway trying to 'internationalise' the issue.
20
The Arhtiyas, themselves decided to pool in money to organise the protest & pay the people to protest. It's said that they collected 2 lacs per head min. That, for 36,000 is about 700 Crs. The richer gave even more. Some in Crores. Plus there were also 'community collections'
21
That 700 Crs was tip of the iceberg. By now, foreign funds were flowing in dwarfing thr corpus.
The 'Farmers Protest' swung into action.
It was called a 'Farmers Protest' cos calling it a 'Arhtiyas Protest' would be akin to trying to sell sympathy for a Zamindar's protest.
22
They needed legitimacy. And that could have come only from a farmers body. It needed to be bought if necessary.
The agitation essentially largely consists of Arhtiyas, their employees, Mandi labours, some farmers & Gurdwara volunteers.
This had to change!
23
However, Arhtiyas are the largest spenders of their community economy, thus service providers to the economy also have pitched in as a token of their support. The blessings of Farm Bills are in the distant future. The Arhtiyas are there right now.
24
Also, given its winters in Canada & US, & low season for many selfowned Business many NRI Sikhs have come 'home' have joined the melee.
Celebrities have own reasons, compulsions motives to join.
When joining in is looked upon as hallowed & righteous, it's a winwin engagement!
25
Seeing the money flowing in, not to miss an opportunity to dip one's fingers into the motherlode, BKU joined in.
Now its converted itself into a jamboree. Winter crops are already sown in. They needn't return to thr fields before Feb. They might as well enjoy the fun.
26
Like all rural melas, there's also money to be made and business opportunities here.
Seeing the traction growing, the Congress and Akali had no other alternative than to also start contributing. Moreover, for Congress it would mean an opportunity to get BJP on the mat.
27
The issue was, they had only one demand, which was 'Repeal the Bill'. But no explanation as to WHY!
Afterall, farmers from all over India were wanting these changes implemented. So They sought help how they could flesh the demands, while they staved off.
28
AAP, thru their spl NRI Sikh contacts were apch. They too want to, given eye on elections
YoYO Yadav & Left gang to wanted own slice of pie. They also jumped in. All tried to flesh the demands. Led to 1st List of demands.
Everyone added own terms in combined ransom note!
29
- The note was so ridiculous that they could go nowhere with it. After all they have to work their demand document backwards from an objective which Arhtiyas want, but pass that off as farmers demand. These factors they are not being able to generate.
30
By now they realised that it is a very Sikh & Punjab protest. They needed to make it look more 'National'.
Nobody was coming, beyond Haryanvis whod been agitating on other grnds of reservation.
Thus, the call went out through Gurdwaras to callin participants frm other states.
31
Sikh farmers settled in Gujarat, Uttrakhand, Terai, MP, Rajasthan were marshalled to try & represent states & give a National colour. A part of tht colour being provided by parties who go against BJP, but very selectively, cos neither do they want to rile own farmers base.
32
The Left promised to sup thru thr Maharashtra union.
Agitators now realise they hv numbers, but NO strat, nor a viable objective. If real reason comes out, then it isn't farmers but Arhtiya project is exposed. Tweaking farm bill, addresses concerns of farmers not arhatiyas.
33
They also realise demands are very Punjab centric. Even if they succeed at repealing Bill, skew of APMC proc towards Punjab will come into scrutiny.
Therefore they are now trying to incl ALL crops & ALL produce which is ludicrous. Now they can neither move fwd nor retreat.
34
- The opposition has agreed to provide some support to keep the agitation up in a holding pattern so that they can generate noise and harass BJP.
- The Khalistanis want the agitation to continue cos they are getting that one chance to have a hot topic to push their cause.
35
- The money coming in from abroad has now called in investigation and Arhtiyas are now going into scrutiny.
- The agitation is taking up its own steam now, and can only get destructive, cos there is neither leadership nor objective.
36
Thus we have a circus which was started by opportunism is being pushed along with opportunism but can only meander along cos it can't withstand inspn or scrutiny.
End game : Punjab is gonna enter a dark spiral. One thats self created.
It's image will take a greater beating.
37
If you look at pre Jun 2020 writings youll find them scathing towards Arhtiyas.
P Sainath, selfstyled messiah of farmers who sells sob stories, whos now trying to drum up support for 'Farmers Andolan', was, few years back exposing these very Arhtiyas👇
https://t.co/fjPi5r5xXM
38
There is much more.
IF you ask ANY of the protestors for a diss of the bills and ills of tyranny they contain, lemme knw if you ever come across a cogent ppt. IF you ask ANYONE about Timeline/sequence of events which brought this on, notice number of gaps which are there.
39
Remember this agitation was handiwork of a few selfish parasites of sys & in a yr when Nation was down!
Do reflect over their real motives.
This agitation will only make Modi emerge stronger.
He'll achieve the biggest consolidation in 2024 - the Real Farmers of Rest of India!
Attribution & credit of above thread is claimed by
@Indusglyphs However let it be known tht i sourced it from an elder Veteran Colleague's FB post, who IMV has indepth knwldg on the topic.
Be that as it may, i have NO issue in according credit to whoever is the author.
Jai HIND!
