ABSTRACT
An extraordinary situation faced by Harkishanpura village of Bathinda district led the village panchayat and elders of the village to put up, in front of the village, a notice board ‘Village on Sale’ in January 2001 (Sharma 2008). 2 This was the consequence of the long-standing agrarian distress, which remained unattended and unheard by the state government and local administration. A resolution was passed by the village panchayat, prodding the chief minister of Punjab to purchase the village land and allow them to work as labourers so that they can eke out a living. The burden of debt is rising, and due to crop failure they had been unable to repay the loans. However, the Akali Dal-BJP coalition government for fi ve years (1997-2002) at the helm of affairs has completely neglected the crisis faced by the village in particular and agrarian crisis in general (Jaura, Narpinder and Rishi 2002). During the assembly election of 2002, the Congress party was elected to power and replaced the Akali Dal-BJP government. Then agriculture minister of the Congress-led state government, Ms. Rajinder Kaur Bhathal, visited the village on 21 July 2002, and announced several initiatives with a promise to help the village to remove distressing factors. 3 During
the fi eld visit, the minister has announced to establish manufacturing industries where the villagers will be able to get remunerative employment (TNS 2002). The promises made by the minister to the villagers as usual remained empty promises without any follow-up action on the ground. This has dampened the faith of the villagers in the state’s political leadership and high hopes from the government.
