The article “And yet another pro-farmer budget” (March 1) exposes how farmers are fooled by successive governments. The annual budget doles out huge concessions to the corporate sector year after year. Media experts, as the article points out, peddle the interests of corporates and pay little attention to the actual sufferers.
As soon as it is known that corporates have gained over the public sector, the market buoys and the sensitive index gains. Even though everybody agrees that a strong public sector saved India from the adverse impact of recession, we tread the beaten path of selling the public sector for a song. This year's disinvestment target is Rs. 40,000 crore. We have to wait and see which industries are going to be offered to the private sector on a platter.
M.S.R.A. Srihari,
Khammam
Year after year, our Finance Ministers cater to the wish-list of people who matter in the agricultural sector, industry, banking or infrastructure. The real agriculturist is neither the owner of vast farm lands nor the producer of fertilizers or farm equipment. He is one who tills the soil and whose voice is ever unheard. When will a budget cater to his needs?
Sunil P. Shenoy,
Mangalore
Gone are the days when agriculture was an honourable service — of feeding the people. Today it is agri-business, in which investments are huge. P. Sainath is quite right in saying that you can get fresh produce much cheaper from the petty vendor on the street. Unlike the corporates, the “middleman” who commits suicide, thanks to the government's policies, is not the aam aadmi the government is looking to for support. I have never been able to make sense of the media's commentary on the budget. Even after listening to the Finance Minister's speech and the media experts, we find that we are smoke-screened from the reality.
S. Krishnan,
Chennai
Mr. Sainath's in-depth analysis of the budget proposals demolishes in one stroke the government's claim that it is building castles for farmers. Thanks to the continued stranglehold of corporate India, even subsidies and credit facilities intended for farmers are usurped by it. The cosmetic robustness slated for the farm sector exposes the bloated underbelly of India Inc. Until we face a serious food security crisis, we are unlikely to learn any lesson.
Chandran Dharmalingam,
The Nilgiris
There is no doubt that the country is being systematically robbed by corporates. The aam aadmi is the worst hit. We can even rescue the victims of bomb blasts but there is no one to rescue our farmers who are suffering in silence. The words “Budget time is when the Big media are seen for what they are: stenographers to the powerful” will ring in my ears for a long time to come.
B.R. Kumar,
Chennai
The article has brought to light how the budget favours corporate farmers and agri-business, leaving millions of small and marginal farmers high and dry. The media lobby for the corporates to ensure their survival in these days of cut-throat competition.
S. Sridharan,
Coimbatore
The small and marginal farmers have no wherewithal to start any corporate venture for farming activities. The corporate sector has to play the role of a facilitator by collecting the farm produce and selling it over a period based on budget proposals, by which the farmers will be benefited. It is like a sugar mill operating with the cane grown by farmers.
We have milk co-operatives for collecting and selling milk and they have been successful in many places. Like-wise, we need cold storage facilities at every district headquarters so that perishable items can be stored instead of being sold for throwaway prices. Farmers do not have lobbies like corporates. Till we develop an alternative system along the co-operative model, the government can only be an enabler. It cannot deliver anything to the farmers directly.
S. Balasubramanian,
Chennai
