Farmers in Bihar are facing the double whammy of an acute scarcity of fertilisers at the beginning of the rabi (winter) crop season and FIRs by the state government if they protest over their predicament. This is leading to a situation where the farmers are seething with anger and planning to intensify their agitation.

Sample this: A large number of farmers blocked the Grand Trunk Road (National Highway 2) at Sasaram in Bihar on December 31 to protest the continuous non-availability of fertilisers.

The same day the block agriculture officer there registered an FIR at Sasaram town police station in Rohtas district against 23 named and around 100 unnamed people.

IPC sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 353 (assault or use of criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty), and sections related to violation of the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 and Disaster Management Act 2005 being enforced to control Covid-19 pandemic were slapped against them.

Similarly, an FIR was registered against around 40 unnamed persons at Narpatganj police station in Araria district. Thousands of farmers had protested there by blocking National Highway 57 on December 30 after failing to get fertilisers from a government-run distribution centre. The police had lathicharged them and also fired in the air to disperse them.

“We are conducting investigations and trying to verify the persons who were involved in creating a ruckus. We have video footages and we are trying to identify the culprits. Further action will be taken against them,” Narpatganj station house officer (SHO) Shailesh Kumar Pandey told The Telegraph.

There have been several other such incidents and FIRs across the state over the past one month. The farmers are seeing them as the government’s intent to harass them, as well as, create an atmosphere of fear to cow them down.

“We will definitely demand fertilisers if we are unable to get them on time. It is a question of survival. The state government, instead of fulfilling their demands, is harassing us by registering FIRs. Are we just living to bear the brunt of everything right from nature and government to markets and middlemen,” Prashuram Singh, a farmer from Lerua village under the Sasaram Mufassil police station told this newspaper.

Parshuram added that the “police uses such FIRs to extort money from farmers by threatening to implicate them. We keep witnessing such things regularly”.

Bihar is going through an acute shortage of DAP (diammonium phosphate) and urea fertilisers for the past three months despite the Centre promising to provide adequate supply.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had asserted a month ago that the fertiliser crisis would be over in a week, however it too fell flat.

The state received just around 65 per cent of its share of fertilisers during October to December. Diversion of fertilisers to the black market to be sold on exorbitant rates adds to scarcity.

With the administration and the police engaged in enforcing prohibition in the state, very less time and energy is spared towards a crackdown on black marketing of fertilisers.

Political analyst, social activist and former Patna University professor N.K. Chaudhary hit out at the government for registering FIRs against farmers for protesting over fertiliser scarcity.

“The Nitish Kumar’s government is committing a serious mistake by registering cases against farmers with genuine grievances. It should have empathised with them and worked to remove the scarcity of fertilisers instead of trying to subdue them by the use of police,” Chaudhary said.

“Protest is the life-force of democracy. Nitish should know better about it. Has he forgotten politics? Even the BJP government at the Centre was forced to tolerate the farmers’ protest outside Delhi. Protests are acceptable even in the Parliament. The FIRs against farmers across Bihar are unwarranted because at times laws are mildly violated when the sufferers and victims become agitated,” Chaudhary added.

Sources in the state agriculture department said that the scarcity is going to continue through the rabi season and expressed worry that the agriculture productivity in the state may drop.

Meanwhile, various Opposition parties are gearing up to take up the issue of fertiliser crisis in the state and launch protests.