It is really unfortunate that farmers, to whom we owe our daily food have to suffer from low prices, high costs and the fury of the climate. More unfortunate is that the state police, which was supposed to uphold the law – opened fire that resulted in loss of precious lives. No doubt, what happened in Madhya Pradesh was something that should never have happened.
What was the reason for the current crisis? It was not that farmers have suffered from a poor harvest and so farmers could not repay their loans. It was actually the opposite. Agriculture produce of Madhya Pradesh has in fact increased in the last one decade.
Few facts, cited in Business-Standard are given here:
Production of cereals has increased in the state. More than that rise in output of horticulture and livestock too increased. Vegetable production has increased from 3.6 million MT in 2010-11 to 14.2 million MT in 2013-14. Area under horticulture cultivation has increased from 2% of total farming land in 2005-06 to 6% in 2014-15. Milk production has increased 6.4 million MT in 2006-07 to 10.8 million MT in 2014-15, a growth of 69%.
However, who will consume the produce? All consuming habitats are far from the producing districts. The concept of cold storage never took off in India on a bigger scale. On the other hand, price rise was too controlled and so the profit margins of farmers are affected. State government has failed to revise the requirements of the increased production and take necessary actions. In other words, they still stuck in time warp, just a decade ago.
The state government shall be responsible for two failures, or is it three.
First, the lack of vision that was discussed till now.
Second was the failure to handle the situation in a better way. Loss of even a single life is a failure of local administration.
The third point was accepting demands in part after the deaths only can be described as a knee-jerk reaction. Crisis managers are needed in the government to precipitate the situation and don’t let it go out of hands.
Though we are talking of Madhya Pradesh, the case is applicable for all farmers in all states.
Waiving loans was never a solution to the perennial problems of farmers and mostly the rich farmers get the benefits out of the scheme leaving the smaller ones dry. It is easier for lenders to pressure small farmers and force them to pay back, while the rich wait till the government announces the waiver. This was the reason cited even by Devendra Fadnavis too and was based on reports of study conducted on the effect of earlier loan waivers.
Coming to the dead, a report in Indian Express has clarified that none of the five who were dead are farmers. Perhaps the headline was not truthful to the content. At least one of them, Poonamchand Patidar was a farmer, though he doesn’t own a land. One was a student and another wanted to join Army. Another one was simply an onlooker. Family of one of them lost their big chunk of land when the government took it in 1970s. Compensation received was so less they couldn’t buy land elsewhere. Of course, all are some of them were part of protests. Father of one of the dead doesn’t have an Aadhar card to open a bank account, so he can’t receive the compensation of ₹1CR announced by the government to the deceased.
But, any public death in India is an opportunity to politicians. Whether it is the death of a Dalit in a college, a riot between two religions or castes, killing of a separatist or a Naxalite – a bunch of leaders are always ready to tour the victims condemning the both state and central governments. Well, it is their right to condemn the government. After all, what has happened was condemnable incident. They can even visit the areas and console victims too. But, can’t they wait till the situation is normalised? Why the urgency in exploiting the situation?
Rahul Gandhi, playing his ideal role of Chhota Bheem pushed aside police trying to enter the state of Madhya Pradesh.
Which law stops him from visiting the farmers, he asked. Well, it is of no use explaining him about the government orders to prohibit people from other places during disturbances.
Well, a bunch of intellectuals compared this with Modi’s visiting Mumbai post 26/11 attacks. I only hope they apply their sane mind while comparing, as both cases are not similar. The attack on Mumbai was an attack planned and executed by people from an enemy country and the victims, including NSG personnel who got killed during the operation. In fact, it would have been better had Rahul Gandhi shown interest in meeting victims of the Mumbai attacks, inspect the place and encourage the commandos. Alas, he was partying hard till 5 AM with his aristocratic friends at a farm house on outskirts of Delhi. I don’t think Congress has the courage to dispute an old news report stating this fact, as it was them who were running the show from New Delhi back then.
Those comparing these two incidents shall clarify whether they are comparing Indian Police to Pakistani Terrorists. What Rahul Gandhi is trying to prove or achieve by visiting the farmers now, when the situation is still critical? If he could really contribute something, why he had chosen to party and not visited Mumbai, back in 2008. In 2008, it was Congress that was ruling both Maharashtra and India, so none could stop the prince from visiting any place in the country he wanted to go. If this is not vulture politics, what it is?
If Rahul Gandhi feels he would get mileage from such vulture tourism, he should check his past record. Why Rahul claims Modi is anti-poor and pro-rich, when it was during Congress rule that all the industrialists including Ambani and Adani have established themselves. If they are doing business by doling out favours to politicians now, they must have grown the same way by greasing the palms of Congress leaders. Is it not so? Was it not a regular sight to sight an industrialist carrying suitcase to Delhi offices of Congressmen? To say the least, a person like Rahul Gandhi, who lives on the leftover wealth of his ancestors has no right to talk about working hard and facing the problems of real life. He lived a dream life and continues to remain in one such dream.
Finally, it is time to remind Rahul Gandhi about the killing of 18 farmers protesting against the then Madhya Pradesh government led by his mentor Digvijay Singh. Then too farmers were protesting for loan waivers. The irony is the same Digvijay Singh, has the audacity to complain Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Can Rahul Gandhi explain why farmers were killed during the rule of Congress and whom the Congress was helping at that time instead of farmers? Standing with farmers is not the problem. Standing with them only to use for self-interests and throw them in dust bin like a used tissue paper is. How Rahul Gandhi treats his own party men was displayed to the world when present CM of Puducherry, Narayana Swamy carried his chappals last year, only to get promoted as CM pushing the real workers of the party.
Image Courtesy: TOI
To state the facts, it was not the first time police fired on Indian civilians. Time and again, civilians have been killed in police firing and they vary from students to farmers to industrial workers to tribals and even regular villagers. Unfortunately, as a nation, we have not got so far matured enough so these protests and killings would not recur. What we need is a government that would ensure no pilferage from its spending and an opposition that ensures government would work in a better way and point out lacunae so the government remains on straight track.
Unfortunately, Indian politics remained so muddling an affair, cleaning Ganga looks easier than cleaning politics. It is not that politics in other countries are any better, yet we are not affected by them. It is time for the governments to have a long term vision so these problems would not occur forever. System should be developed into a dynamic one so the response to current actions are envisaged and corrective actions are taken before the need arises.