Lal Bahadur Shastri was the only Congress prime minister party the BJP would, albeit reluctantly, admit to having enhanced the stature of his office.

Yet the ruling NDA government would be capable of emulating only half of that “small giant’s” clarion call that inspired the people as never before. In keeping with its own belligerence the BJP/NDA would hail the ‘Jai Jawan’ part of Shastri’s message, exploit it politically ~ witness the cashing-in on surgical strikes, retributive fireassaults across the LOC, even making of a hero of the Army officer who invited scorn for use of a human-shield… Still, this government would hesitate to focus on the ‘Jai Kisan’ element of that iconic exhortation.

For ground realities confirm growing distress in the agricultural sector and an inability to manage that distress ~ as evident from five agitating farmers falling victims to police firing in Madhya Pradesh.

It is admitted that agrarian distress and farmers committing suicide when unable to repay loans preceded the advent of Narendra Modi on Raisina Hill, but after three years in office the alibi of “inherited problems” ceases to retain relevance.

It is no mere “accident” that the most severe stress is witnessed in states with BJP governments. Also no accident is the absence of a concerted effort by New Delhi to address the malaise.

That despite a decent monsoon and enhanced production the agricultural sector is in a mess points to gross mismanagement. Knee-jerk moves on import of food items, gross failure to contain the impact of a glut in certain items, onions for instance, and non-fixation of remunerative support prices tell one part of the story.

The thrill over a fall in food-inflation that brings cheers to North Block translates into tears for Krishi Bhawan ~ but there is no one in the latter with the political clout to have corrective action initiated.

The attempt at political-pampering through farmloan waivers has opened its own can of worms, sparking a mini-revolt in the banking sector that caused the finance minister to assert the Centre will not pick up the tab for such populism.

Again for narrow political reasons, the livestock economy has been disrupted by the underhand attempt to deny the minority communities the bovine flesh from which they have traditionally secured their proteins. More telling than those unpleasant realities is that the slogan-thriving government has yet to come up with a catch-line for the agriculture sector ~ an index of priorities.

What is overlooked is the core of ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’: the bulk of our soldiers hail from rustic stock, it is the bond with the soil that leads them to defend it even at the cost of their lives.