BJP leaders making tactless remarks on farmers’ suicides have no idea of the ground situation

Consider the following: 31 December, 2014: BJP MP from Akola in Maharashtra, Sanjay Dhotre kicked-off a controversy after he said, “Let these farmers fend for themselves. If crops fail, they will figure out what to do. And, if they are dying, let them die…Those who can afford farming will do it, others will not do it.” 8 April, 2015: Madhya Pradesh Minister (now BJP general secretary) Kailash Vijayvargiya sparked off a row by saying, “Nobody is committing suicide because of crop damage. Farmers in Madhya Pradesh are committing suicide because of personal problems.” 29 April, 2015: Haryana’s agriculture minister, Om Prakash Dhankar reportedly said the farmers who committed suicides were cowards and criminals… because according to Indian law, suicide is a crime. 5 May, 2015: In an unusual advice to the farmers on irrigation, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had said in Nagpur that he watered his plants in his Delhi bungalow with his own urine—which was a free fertilizer that could help farmers grow bigger plants. 9 May, 2015: Maharashtra’s agriculture minister Eknath Khadse said his government had no solution to stop farmers’ suicides. There was no concrete solution to completely stop the suicides. [caption id=“attachment_2325256” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of BJP supporters. PTI[/caption] These are not just insensitive remarks on an issue as grave as farmers’ suicides. Another important point to note is that all these tactless statements have been made by BJP leaders, who clearly have no idea of the ground situation. And, the latest addition to this list of bizarre statements is the written reply of Union Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh in the Parliament on Friday that mentioned, “According to NCRB, causes of suicides include family problems, illness, drug abuse/addiction, unemployment, property dispute, professional/career problems, love affairs, barrenness/impotency, cancellation/non-settlement of marriage, dowry dispute, fall in social reputation and unknown causes. Causes of suicide by farmers due to agrarian reasons inter-alia, include indebtedness, crop failure, drought, socio-economic and personal.” What makes the BJP leaders so insensitive towards farmers? Vijoo Krishnan, joint secretary of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) remarked, “These BJP leaders are drunk on power due to the unprecedented majority they got in the Lok Sabha election. They are under a misplaced notion that they are indispensible for the next 20 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s main poll promise was to implement Swaminathan Committee’s recommendation and ensure that the crop prices were remunerative. But, immediately after coming to power they went back on it. What the BJP president Amit Shah had termed as Chunavi Jumla (electoral rhetoric), is now falling apart. The BJP government is trivializing and insulting the farmers, who feed the country yet a majority of them remain without food themselves.” Former eight-time Member of Parliament of CPI (M), Hannan Mollah added, “In an extremely insensitive remark, the Agriculture minister, Radha Mohan Singh has claimed that farmers are committing suicides due to failed love affairs. Different BJP ministers in the central government as well as in states like Maharashtra and Haryana have made such unwarranted comments and sought to trivialise a human tragedy of such a great magnitude. The BJP government instead of effectively addressing the agrarian crisis and providing relief to farmers is resorting to diversionary tactics and insulting the farmers who by their toil and sacrifice are feeding the nation under precarious conditions.” Lack of any other official statistics on farmers’ suicides has also given political parties –whether in power or in opposition, to use National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data based on FIRs lodged, to its advantage. Whenever, these political leaders face a foot in mouth situation, they blame it on media, claiming that their views have been misrepresented. Taking U-turn is nothing uncommon. However, in a rally in October 2014 in Jalgaon district, the same Eknath Khadse had held the previous Maharashtra government responsible for farmer suicides. “It’s now time to remove the Congress-NCP as during its rule, more than 50,000 debt-ridden farmers ended their lives.” But, after coming to power, he said, suicides couldn’t be stopped. Noted agriculture expert, Sompal Shastri opined, “First of all, there is no other scientifically collected and collated database on farmers’ suicides. The single source of information on farmers’ suicide is based on NCRB record. It can’t be dismissed that majority of farmers’ suicides are due to farm stress, but there are other reasons as well. Police registers a suicide committed by a farmer due to some other reason under the category of a ‘farmer’. There’s a strong need of proper field survey on one-on-one basis to get the right figure on farmers’ suicide. However, oblique remarks by some of the leaders on farmers’ suicide are unwarranted and insensitive.” Added Prabhakar Kelkar, general secretary of RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, “There is no doubt that a large number of farmers is committing suicide due to various farm related issues, but there is also a need for a proper and honest field survey. The minister’s reply in the Parliament is based on the answer prepared by the officials, many a times who are unaware of ground realities.”