Hiware Bazaar to Punjab: AAP’s story left untold

AFEW years ago, during the formative years of India Against Corruption, Arvind Kejriwal wanted me to watch a documentary made by his confidant Manish Sisodia on Hiware Bazaar, a nondescript village in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, which had suddenly sprung into the news because of the miraculous transformation it had undergone.Sisodia's film showed how a perennially drought-affected destitute village had metamorphosed into a vibrant model village of self-governance, relying on the collective decision-making in the gram sabha. From a mere Rs 8,000 per year as the average adult income in 1989, it had risen to Rs 28,000 by early 2012-13. The remarkable model of all-round growth, based primarily on people's participation, eventually produced 54 millionaires.No wonder that at one time, it became a village having the highest GDP. But what is more important to know is that it very successfully pushed far behind all the symbols associated with poverty and destitution — like growing alcoholism, disease proliferation, poor education. Rather, the village started witnessing reverse migration. When a village witnesses an economic turnaround, those who were forced out want to return.Around nine years ago, I was pleasantly surprised when Kejriwal eloquently narrated the story of Hiware Bazaar in another Youtube show, titled 'Story of Hiware Bazaar by Arvind Kejriwal'. He wanted the socio-economic thinking that backed the pathway led by the amazing sarpanch of the village, Popat Lal, to be followed in all the seven lakh villages across the country. Kejriwal had found a touchstone for ushering in rural prosperity.He even talked of creating a new Punjab, saying that the Hiware Bazaar story would be implemented in the agrarian state whenever the AAP got the opportunity. Alas, it turned out to be a forgotten story after the AAP government was formed in Punjab.With 92 of the 117 seats bagged by the AAP, the electoral mandate gave the party the opportunity and favourable circumstances to adopt Hiware Bazaar's unique blueprint of development and showcase the emergence of a new Punjab.Being an agricultural state, Punjab has the ingredients needed to sustainably transform a broken food economy into not only a climate-resilient but also an economically and environmentally viable and prosperous rural wonderland.If a drought-stricken village could boast of 54 millionaires, imagine the enormous number of millionaires that Punjab's 12,000-plus villages, with 98 per cent assured irrigation, could have thrown up.If water could be used as a core of village development, Punjab certainly is much ahead. It required a fresh and imaginative thinking, the master plan for which was available. But by conveniently putting it on the backburner, the AAP has squandered the opportunity. And listening to Sisodia's latest words of advice to his party workers: "2027 ka chunaav jitvaane ke liye, saam, daam, dand, bhed, sach, jhooth, question, answer, ladaai, jhagda jo karna padega karenge….Taiyyar hain josh ke saath?" says it all.It is now apparent that land pooling happened for no other reason.My disgust also stems from the failure of the political leadership to believe in what it has been repeatedly telling us. Punjab certainly needed crop diversification to replace the dominant wheat-paddy cropping pattern. But land pooling was not the kind of diversification that it was looking for.I understand that the land pooling policy in reality reflected the acute intellectual drought that prevails among policy planners, including both serving and influential retired bureaucrats. At a policy dialogue in Panjab University few months back, it wasn't surprising to hear retired bureaucrats batting for rapid industrialisation at the cost of agriculture.It is not just the AAP, political parties of all hues are engaged in land grab across the country. Haryana plans to acquire 35,000 acres for the upcoming six integrated multimodal townships. In Karnataka, after a prolonged three-and-a-half-year farmers' protest, the Chief Minister has dropped land acquisition of 1,777 acres of farmland in Devanahalli taluka, extending to 13 villages, around Bengaluru.Call it by any name, acquiring roughly 65,553 acres in 164 villages was nothing but land grab. Soon after the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the land pooling policy for four weeks, severe backlash coming from farmer groups, including tractor rallies and 'out of bound' notice boards and banners for AAP politicians in several villages, the Punjab government's withdrawal of the disastrous policy came as a relief.Remember, the court had also mentioned that the land being acquired is the most fertile and double-cropped, which means it can only be taken over in exceptional cases and, therefore, goes against the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013.Add to it the land being usurped for the Bharatmala highway project, with food courts coming up every 10 km, fertile land is being gobbled up at a fast pace.It makes me wonder — Why can't our political leaders and policymakers learn from China, which has drawn a 'red line' over 120 million hectares of fertile land that it needs to protect for ensuring food security in future. When will India have a crop of visionary leaders who can save Punjab for the role it can be asked to replay in future — provide food again for a hungry nation in times of climate uncertainties?Instead of promulgating saam, daam, dand, bhed as the way forward to somehow stay in power, Punjab expects the Bhagwant Mann government to sow the seeds of transforming its villages, allowing thousands of flowers to bloom. Punjab certainly needs a policy framework to save a dwindling civilisation from a virtual collapse; not selling off its precious land resource.Devinder Sharma is a food & agriculture specialist.

Hiware Bazaar to Punjab: AAP’s story left untold

Devinder Sharma

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