The document summarizes discussions that took place at two conferences in Srinagar, Kashmir. At one conference focused on democracy and rights, young Kashmiris expressed concerns about corruption, education, and infrastructure but did not support becoming like a former Pakistani military dictator. Meanwhile, at another conference on media, separatists heckled journalists who defended Indian unity. The separatists used emotional arguments and ignored issues like large turnout for Indian Army recruitment. Some national media representatives also sided with the hecklers. The conferences highlighted a growing sense of alienation among Kashmiri youth and that the separatists are now trying to influence youth through illogical but emotional arguments rather than violence. However, there was also interest among

1. E:107D6D=0
:6BDA4B7
W
hen nationally cele-
brated young IAS offi-
cerShahFaesalaskeda
group of young Kashmiris how
many of them wanted to be like
former Pakistan military dicta-
tor General Pervez Musharraf,
notonehandwasraised.Hewas
addressing a round table on
RighttoInformationandpartic-
ipatory democracy, organised
byaGermanNGOandothersin
Srinagar recently.
Most of the young partici-
pants were concerned over cor-
ruption, quality of education,
condition of roads etc.
Participants from Srinagar’s
downtown, notorious for stone
peltingincidentsandprojectedas
thehubofseparatists,wereseek-
ing more developmental activi-
ties including smart classes in
their area.
Few kilometres away, at the
Sher-i-Kashmir International
Conference Centre, the picture
wasintotalcontrast.Separatists,
backed by some students from
media schools in the Valley,
were heckling senior journalists
from other parts of the country
whoweredefendingtheunityof
India at the media summit in
Srinagar organised by a local
NGO, Lehar.
Amongthetargetswerevet-
eranjournalistMrKuldipNayar,
whostatedthatanyresolutionto
the Kashmir problem has to be
within India, and also academ-
icMadhuKishwar,whotoldthe
hecklers not to expect media in
therestofIndiatobe“pamphele-
teers for (their) azaadi call”.
President of the Press Club
ofIndiaRahulJalalitoofacedthe
wrath of the aggressive sections
when he questioned the source
offundingofmanyofthemedia
housesintheValley.Somespeak-
ers were constantly interrupted
by activists, some of them from
the Chambers of Commerce,
taking over the podium and
delivering sermons.
Moreonrhetoricandlesson
substance,thereferencesofthese
hecklers were replete with wild
chargesagainsttheIndianArmy
and Government. One critic
evendismissedtheArmy’sgood-
will operation as “violence of
compassion”. Most of the argu-
ments put forward were emo-
tional,one-sidedandmotivated.
The critics slammed the Indian
media for not covering rape
casesadequatelyandignoringthe
participationofthousandsinthe
funeral procession of a militant
while conveniently not men-
tioning the massive response to
the Indian Army’s recruitment
drive in the Valley, forcing the
police to resort to a lathi charge.
What was more disturbing
was the manner in which some
representativesfromthenation-
al media, particularly from the
minority community, joined
ranks with the hecklers in high-
lighting the atrocities on Indian
Muslims, including riots and
denial of houses in Mumbai, in
the process strengthening the
separatists’argumentthatIndian
secularism was a façade and
Hindu majoritarianism made it
impossible for minorities to
remain secure in the country.
Thesanerelementsfromthe
rest of the country did make a
futile attempt to project the cor-
rectpicturesayingifthehoisting
of Islamic State flags by a hand-
ful of youth in the valley did not
reflect that all Kashmiris were
militants, similarly the denial of
flats to a handful of Muslims in
Mumbai,forreasonsincludinga
stress on vegetarianism, did not
reflectthetruepictureofhowthe
minority community was treat-
ed in India.
They also unmasked the
plebiscite argument saying it
envisaged the holding of such a
referendum in the whole of
Jammu Kashmir, including
Pakistan-occupied territories
after total demilitarisation on
bothparts,andthatmuchwater
hasfloweddowntheJhelumafter
the UN resolution including
successfulpollswhichwitnessed
mass participation.
The sad part was that most
oftheparticipantsincludingstu-
dents, mainly girls, who had
come for some healthy interac-
tion with the senior journalists
from Delhi were silenced by the
hardliners. They were either
forcedtobeatahastyretreatfrom
the venue or keep quiet.
The forum which could
have facilitated an exchange of
ideas between journalists from
the State and Delhi but was
hijacked by separatists who had
little to do with media. In fact,
some of the journalists from
Delhi clarified that they neither
represented the Army or the
Government,hadcometostudy
the issues, and that media in
otherpartsofthecountrytoohad
many grievances of neglect
against the so-called Delhi-cen-
tric national media and the
issuesitraised.Therewereatroc-
ities in the rest of the country as
well which weren’t adequately
covered by the national media.
Butintheabsenceofreasonand
objectivity, chaos prevailed.
Nevertheless, there were
takeaways from both confer-
ences. First, there is a growing
sense of alienation among the
Kashmiriyouth.Second,having
failedtopushtheircausethrough
stone-pelting and militancy, the
new strategy is to capture the
minds and hearts of the intelli-
gentsiathroughillogicalyetemo-
tional arguments. Third,
Kashmiriyouthhavecareerand
lifestyle aspirations beyond the
rhetoric of azaadi. Fourth, the
ever-widening communication
gap has to be bridged across the
PirPanjalandnationalmediahas
to be more sensitive in its treat-
ment of the Valley.
(The author is a senior jour-
nalist based in Delhi)
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I
n the midst of a lurking fear of a
drought-like situation this mon-
soon, many experts have been
expressing their views on the out-
come of food grain production.
A strong monsoon this year has
ensured an increase in the sowing area
of Kharif crops — it was over 60 per
cent, compared to last year. The Indian
economy had been dependent upon
agriculture for a long time until the sec-
ondary and tertiary sectors — partic-
ularly the manufacturing and service
sector took over.
Despite this, more than 60 per cent
of the Indian labour force is still
dependent on agriculture, even though
its contribution towards the gross
domestic product has gone down to
around 15 to 16 per cent. Agriculture
depends upon two factors — a good
monsoon and pragmatic farmer-cen-
tric Government policy.
Out of the total 143 million
hectare of cultivated land, only 85 mil-
lion hectare is rain-fed. Rain-fed land
is important to ensure food security
and its diversity as most of the lentils,
spices and oil seeds and other coarse
grains are produced in rain-fed agri-
culture. India had so far recorded the
highest productivity of 247 million
tonne of food grains, two years
ago.While our leaders are very satis-
fied, the farmers are not happy.
The Indian agriculture suffers
from many problems. Food security in
paticular is affected due to four rea-
sons. First, is poor and stagnating pro-
ductivity of the farm lands due to poor
technology and investments.
Second, is the fragmentation of
land holding as 85 per cent of the
farmers in the country are small and
marginal farmers and as the day pass-
es, their number is increasing and
returns from the farm land are getting
depleted. The situation gets accentu-
ated with more and more diversion of
good productive agricultural land for
developmental purposes. Most of the
small and marginal farmers do not get
credit as only 27 per cent get from for-
mal sources and around 22 per cent of
the farmers depend on the exploitative
informal credit system.
Third, is the deteriorating quali-
ty of farm land due to excessive use of
fertilisers, pesticides and ground water
and consequent reduction in the
income of farmers.
Fourth, is the dependency of
Indian agriculture on monsoon and
the severe depletion of groundwater in
States like Rajasthan, Punjab and
Haryana as a result of massive
exploitation of ground water for irri-
gation. If the water table continues to
go down as it is happening presently,
there will be a time in the next decade
or so when food grain production will
go down rather drastically and Indian
food security scenario will stare at us
as it did before the green revolution.
It is not a distant reality but a fact
which will be true if the policymak-
ers dither in taking drastic steps.
The Government takes 14 to 15
months to pay compensation for nat-
ural calamities. According to a report
prepared by the Confederation of
Indian Farmers Association, only 10
per cent of the farmers are benefitted
by the minimum support price.
While comparing the agricultural
productivity in India with other coun-
tries it was found that from the same
net sown area of 143 million hectare,
while China produced 500 million
tonne of food grain, India produced
about 230 to 240 million tonne of food
grain. The best productivity of paddy
is 9,421 kg per hectare in Egypt which
is highest in the world. Compared to
this, it is 6,548 kg per hectare in China
and 3,264 kg per hectare in India.
India needs to take a note of this
slump in agriculture and put in place
a system where the farmer feels proud
of being a farmer. The first thing that
needs to be done is to invite techno-
logical investments in the farm sector
both by the Government and the pri-
vate sector. For this, a regime of fair
play and equity is the need of the hour.
For increasing productivity, scientif-
ic innovations specially a well
designed foolproof mechanism for
implementation of genetically modi-
fied crops will have to be established
in the country.
Apart from this, the credit system
needs to be revamped and the
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
should be utilised. The private sector
agro-processing players should be
given incentive to provide credit to the
farmers. The experience of this writer
as the principle secretary, agriculture
and its allied sectors is such that the
Government of India needs to re-
think on the way in which guidelines
are framed and issued for the imple-
mentation of various schemes both
with regards to the cost norms as well
as the manner of implementation.
There is a need that State-specif-
ic problems and innovations be
allowed and flexibility and new
approach should be rewarded. For
example the cost norm for Manipur,
Tripura and Rajasthan and Uttar
Pradesh cannot be the same. Also, the
crop insurance scheme is almost a
total failure.
One of the biggest reform for the
sake of food security and farmers
livelihood should take place in adopt-
ing a holistic and integrated approach
in ensuring convergence in the man-
agement of animal husbandry, fish-
eries, agro-forestry, minor forest pro-
duce and agro-minor forest-based
micro and medium enterprise special-
ly in the rain-fed areas. A national
scheme on convergence mode
between these departments, a file pre-
pared by this author while he was in
the National Rainfed Area Authority,
is gathering dust since 2010. There is
need for immediate steps to create
brooder houses in each block for the
marginal farmers and landless agricul-
tural workers and tenet farmers to
augment their income and to increase
the production of eggs and protein.
Indian cows produce A2 milk
which is genetically and health wise
better but the hybridisation of Indian
cows with European and Australian
Jerseys and Holstein Friesian deliveres
A1 milk. The Government must
review its policy and revive the indige-
nous milk producing cow breeds like
Shahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi, Tharpakar,
Rathi, Kankrej, Ongole and Hariana
to name a few by taking up breed
improvement programmes. A network
of dairies should be set up for stepping
up milk production. Today the Indian
breeds in Brazil are giving 70 liter a
day. When it can be done by Brazil
why can’t India do this?
Further, fisheries has not been
accorded the desired level of invest-
ment to meet the deficiency of protein
in the country. Private sector players
should be invited to set up cold stor-
ages and silos to prevent damage of
food grains and vegetables and fruits.
One of the key sector to boost the
off-farm income is to promote pro-
ductivity and marketing of the minor
forest produce. More than 17 lakh
hectare of the forest land has been
vested under the Forest Rights Act
2006 among the tribal people and this
land is available for proper investment
for enhancing livelihood of the
tribal farmers.
There should be a separate Budget
for agriculture considering the situa-
tion of farming sector in the country
and its potential. The BJP
Government had laid emphasis on
agricultural reforms but all of this
should not just be lost in the eupho-
ria of tall talks. Solid actions with gen-
uine attempts to help the farmers who
are the food gods of this country is the
need of the hour.
(The author is former director gen-
eral, Indian Council of Forestry Research
and Education, and former Principal
Secretary, Agriculture, Horticulture,
Animal Resources and Forest
Department, Government of Tripura)
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