On Thursday and Friday, one lakh farmers from around the country gathered in Delhi to raise awareness of their problems, all manifestations of the agricultural distress resulting from the boneheaded November 2016 demonetisation.

They demanded a three- week session of Parliament to discuss their issues, the two most pressing being the farm loans problem, whose repayment has driven many an unable farmer to suicide; and crop prices, where the government keeps tackling the symptom — by raising the Minimum Support Price ( MSP), applicable to 22 crops, which cures nothing, since much agricultural produce is sold in the open market, not subject to MSP — instead of the disease itself, which includes a heavily and unnecessarily regulated farm sector. ( Even crop insurance, announced with much fanfare, has turned out to be a scam that favours insurers.)