IDHAR UDHAR KI BAAT 90- KUTTI CHORAN NAAL MIL GAYI - Brig PS Gothra (Retd)

"Saab ji, kutti choraan naal mil gayi hai (Sir, the bitch has joined hands with the thieves)," said my retired soldier over the phone when I casually asked about his paddy crop this season.

According to him, every farmer had to shell out ₹200 to ₹300 per quintal of paddy— not to improve quality or logistics, but simply to get it procured. Extortion disguised as facilitation?

My family, though, hasn’t been into farming for generations. My grandfather, like Aunt Betsey of David Copperfield had his fixed ideas. He had sold off all our agricultural land, believing zamin makes the next generations lazy, keeps them away from studies, and eventually leads to brothers fighting. Since then, we haven’t produced a single grain ourselves. But the blood still boils when we hear of injustice in the fields.

So, I rang up an aardti  (commission agent) friend to make sense of it. His version? The state government didn’t coordinate with the Centre to get the godowns cleared in time. With no space for storage, procurement was delayed. Rice shellers and aardtis then demanded "a little extra" from farmers under connivence of the administration — just to store their grain safely.

His answer smelled like half-truths.

Next, I turned to a retired Subedar saab who now grows crops. He said inspectors were stalling procurement, citing high moisture content in the grain — a result of untimely rains. But since his crop was within limits, he pushed back and got the aardti  to reduce the bribe to ₹130 per quintal. The aardti , in turn, hinted the amount would go into party fund.

That made me suspicious. So, I spoke to another friend, a farmer tilling over 50 acres. “My grain was perfectly fine,” he said. “I didn’t pay a paisa. I told them I’d call for a protest — I’m an active union guy. They backed off.”

To cross-check, I spoke to a well-informed acquaintance. He confirmed: farmers with grain beyond the permissible moisture content were indeed paying bribes — to get full MSP. The system was already under stress because traders bringing cheaper grain from UP and Bihar were panicking due to late procurement. In their desperation, they began paying more for early lifting. The party saw the chaos and cashed in — turning it into a convenient party fund collection drive.

Going by these versions, I realized that probably:

• Some farmers with decent grain paid and lost.
• Some with substandard grain made more.
• The grain smugglers took a hit — but probably fleeced farmers back in UP and Bihar.
• Aardtis, rice shellers, officials, and the political party — everyone got their cut.
• And the only real loser? The central government, which paid for moisture that will soon evaporate into thin air.

It left me wondering — where were the central intelligence agencies? Why the eerie silence from opposition parties at the so called common knowledge? And how did the media miss the whole woods?

Maybe I’m overthinking. Maybe my non-farmer background clouds my understanding.

But one question eludes me —Who’s the kutti and who’s the chor? Aur Police kaun hai?

Jai Hind.  

 

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