by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Police patrolling the Mhow- Neemuch highway amid burning tyres of a truck in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh. (representational purpose only) (HT Photo)
By Saurabh Katkurwar,
New Delhi : Pavitra Singh of Punjab’s Mansa is representative of farmers across the country who were infuriated as agriculture prices collapsed for the second consecutive year, but their sufferings remained unnoticed until the June police firing in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district that killed five farmers.
The episode, which led to many subsequent protests across the country, provoked the aggrieved farmers to vent their anger over the agrarian distress, mostly caused by the November 8, 2016, demonetisation that crippled the rural economy.
Farmers were unhappy over the non-fulfillment of the 2014 campaign promise by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) that they would be able to make a 50 per cent profit over their input costs — especially as the situation got aggravated by the huge fall in prices to the extent that many couldn’t even recover their input costs.
“Leave alone the big promises, we did not even receive the MSP (minimum support price) for the grain we produced. We did not have funds for the next sowing after the demonetisation struck us. We are facing huge difficulties in repaying our loans,” Pavitra Singh lamented while speaking to IANS.
He said farmers in his area were forced to sell their rice at Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,250 per quintal as there were no takers for the MSP of Rs 1,510 fixed by the government.
Agricultural economist Devinder Sharma said the government’s farm polices, especially those related to imports and exports, went awry to a “large extent” and led to prices in the local markets dropping.
“There are two major reasons for farm distress — demonetisation and the crashing of the international market. The government imported pulses, wheat and coconut when the local production was, in fact, high. The volume of imports was more than the total agriculture budget,” he said.
Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh witnessed a number of protests this year over the slump in prices of pulses — mainly arhar (red gram) — after the government stopped their procurement.
Thus, while it had been smooth sailing on the agricultural front for the BJP government at the Centre for almost three years since it came to power in 2014, the Mandsaur firing could be seen as the turning point, with the negative cascading effects, including the consolidation of farm unions and opposition parties on the issue and some prominent allies quitting the ruling alliance.
The anger can also be gauged from the fact that the BJP suffered electoral losses in Gujarat’s cotton-belt in the assembly elections earlier this month.
Lok Sabha member and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raju Shetty left the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in July after the government did not entertain the farmers’ demand of a countrywide loan waiver and remunerative prices for their produce.
“I had pleaded with the government to provide financial help and assure remunerative prices for farm produce. However, the government did not act. So I had no option but to leave them to ensure justice for the farmers,” Shetty told IANS.
Another big jolt was when Nana Patole, BJP MP from Maharashtra, resigned from the Lok Sabha and left the party.
While farmers across the country were mourning the death of their brethren in Mandsaur, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had different priorities — he chose to participate in an yoga event the very next day after the incident.
This only added to the government’s image as anti-farmer, which was quite evident during farmers’ agitations.
“We held protests in Delhi for over 100 days for our demands and many supported us during the difficult time. However, Radha Mohan Singh neither visited us nor invited us to discuss our issues,” said P. Ayyakannu, leader of 100-odd Tamil Nadu farmers who attracted eyeballs with their strange and innovative protests.
Parts of Tamil Nadu and Southern Karnataka have been reeling under severe drought for some years owing to a shortfall in the monsoon.
Barring a few exceptions, Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav managed to bring almost all concerned organisations under one umbrella — 184 in the recent one — to hold nationwide protests and the government was seen struggling to cope up with them.
In the mega protest held last month, around 20,000 farmers across the country hit the national capital to press their demands.
Dharmalingam, a farmer from Karnataka’s Kolar district, said the government was seen in advertisement blitzes promoting new schemes for farmers, but their benefits hardly reach those for whom they are meant.
“A number of schemes have been launched so far in order to supposedly double our income. However, none of them has had any palpable impact so far,” Dharmalingam told IANS.
(Saurabh Katkurwar can be reached at saurabh.k@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi : Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “step-motherly treatment to farmers” saying that he has not waived off farm loans and not given proper market price for their produce.
This was Gandhi’s ninth question as part of a strategy wherein the Congress Vice President would put up one question daily to Modi ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls.
In a tweet, the Congress leader said: “Neither have you waived off farm loans, nor have you given the proper price of the crops. Farmers didn’t get the crop insurance amount and nor you arranged the tubewells for water.
“The ‘Gabbar Singh’ (Goods and Services Tax reference) whammy on farming. By snatching their lands you made the farmers workless. PM saheb please tell why step motherly treatment with farmers?” the Congress leader asked.
Gandhi has been putting one question every day in a bid to take on the Vijay Rupani-led government in Gujarat, where polling will take place on Saturday and December 14.
He previously put out posers on unemployment among youths, malnutrition in children, education, women safety, “undue benefit” to power selling companies, state debt and the Prime Minister’s flagship ‘Housing for All’ scheme.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Yogendra Yadav
New Delhi : Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav on Monday demanded that the central government should waive loans of all farmers across states, addressing a farmers’ rally in the national capital.
“We have two demands, one that the remunerative prices should be production cost plus 50 per cent, which was recommended by the Swaminathan Commission and promised by Mr. Modi,” Yadav said.
“And second demand is one-time waiver of all agricultural loans. Most steps in the last few years have been taken by state governments, but the experience shows unless the central government steps in, loans cannot be waived,” he said.
“So we urge the central government to waive all agricultural loans in all states, not just election bound states,” he said.
Around 180 farmers organisations have come together at the Ramlila ground, and will be taking out a march to Parliament Street raising their demands. The protest is being organized under the banner of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC).
The farmers will walk from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament Street and hold a meeting there to highlight farm distress and farmer suicides.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New Delhi : To test Punjab’s claims of having supported 21 farmers to manage stubble in a sustainable manner without burning, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday directed the state to bring these farmers before it on Friday.
Earlier this month, the Tribunal had rapped the Punjab government for not incentivising the farmers or assisting them to manage the crop residue, which is estimated to be around 35 million tonnes, and is currently being set ablaze by farmers to make up for the short window between winter and summer crops.
On Wednesday, as the government informed the Tribunal that it had been helping the farmers to manage the residue without burning and has adopted Kalar Majri village in Patiala district where it has also provided assistance to 21 farmers, the NGT said: “Present those 21 farmers that you claim to have supported and incentivise to mange the residue without burning. Bring them here on Friday.”
The bench headed by NGT chief, Justice Swatanter Kumar also heard from accounts of the state’s farmers who rebuffed the state government’s claims as mere eyewash and alleged that it was not doing anything to to help or carried out an awareness campaign against stubble burning.
The farmers from Bhartiya Kisan Union-Rajwal added that the government rather approached them in the first week of September – the harvest season, with “warnings and threats” and not assistance.
They also claimed that the operational cost of this is too high and the state government is neither providing them with machinery nor any other kind of assistance.
On Wednesday, over 100 farmers had gathered here outside NGT. They also rebuffed the claims that reverse ploughing to mix the residue with lower layer of soil helps in managing it, as the NGT had suggested.
“This creates fungus and some farmers who had earlier taken this step met losses as the production dropped,” Balbeer Singh Rajewal, Bharatiya Kisan Union-Rajewal president, who apprised the Tribunal about the farmers’ issues, told IANS.
He said that to manage the stubble per acre requires at least Rs 6,500, which includes diesel and labour cost, and expensive machinery is also needed.
“Farmers neither have that kind of money nor they have time. From the first week of November, wheat sowing will begin and by October mid, fields are to be prepared for sowing potato by some farmers.
“We had been asking the government that the stubble is ready, come and collect it. No one comes to collect it, they rather showed up as the harvest began and warned us with penalties,” Rajewal said.
The NGT had earlier fixed the environment penalty amount per incident of crop burning to be paid by small land owners having less than two acres of land at Rs 2,500, medium land owners holding over two acres and less than five acres at Rs 5,000 and those owning over five acres at Rs 15,000.
With stubble burning in neighbouring states having direct impact on Delhi’s air quality, which is currently deteriorating on daily basis, the NGT had in 2015 asked Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to curb this practice and later asked them to incentivise the small farmers to manage the stubble.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Gandhinagar : Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Government treated every section of the society equally and was committed to minorities’ empowerment with dignity but “without appeasement”.
Addressing a cheque distribution programme of Gujarat Minorities Development Finance Corporation here, he said: “Minorities, Dalits, farmers, women and every other section of the country have played an equal role in nation building.”
“There is no place for any kind of discrimination against any religion, caste and community in this agenda. India’s uniqueness is its unity in diversity, ‘Sarva Dharm Sadbhav’. Secularism is in the DNA of India,” he said, adding that “some elements want to disturb this fabric”.
“We all need to come together to defeat such elements. The Modi government will not allow any destructive agenda to dominate our developmental narrative.
“Empowerment without appeasement, inclusive growth and antyodaya (commitment to take benefits of development to the last person of the society) is our agenda,” he said.
Naqvi urged people to be cautious of hostile forces trying to disturb an atmosphere of trust and development.
“We have to remain cautious against these elements. Every section/community of the country is feeling a sense of trust and development under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said, claiming these forces were trying to disturb the atmosphere by creating a “fabricated atmosphere of insecurity”.
“Like all others, minorities are safe and secure in India,” he said, accusing certain opposition parties and their allies of trying to give a “communal colour to criminal incidents” but “fail to understand that their acts will only provide a cover for persons involved in such incidents”.
Saying that India was much ahead of other democratic countries in ensuring freedom of expression to its people, Naqvi however cautioned that in the name of such freedom, one should not do anything that helps elements inimical to national interest.
He said those unable to digest the developmental works carried out by the Modi government had become disappointed and desperate since they failed to find even a single logical issue against it.
“In their desperation, they are misusing religion as well as community and caste issues for narrow political interests. Earlier, these people raised the issue of so-called intolerance and launched ‘award wapsi’ (return of awards) campaign. Now, they are trying to disturb peace through political propaganda by raising the baseless issue of a sense of insecurity among members of a particular community,” Naqvi added.
—IANS
