India, March 20 -- Protests are an important component of democracy. but sometimes they can lose salience and appear bereft of logic. The mobilisation by some farmers' organisations in Punjab, which has achieved next to nothing except a quasi-closure of the national highway section that connects Punjab and Haryana for more than a year, fall in this category. The protesting farmers are now being forcibly removed by the Punjab government.

Indian agriculture faces a serious viability crisis. This is true in even the relatively more prosperous states such as Punjab and Haryana. In fact, the crisis in these regions is more complicated because of sustainability concerns, which have become worse because of counter-productive policy nudge. This ...