This is a country of farmers, yet it is not for the farmers, as proved again by the unabated farmer suicides and the latest police firing on farmers in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh (“Rajnath asks M.P. govt. to crack down on instigators,” June 8). Things have now come to such a pass that farmers can be shot dead for fighting for their rights. It is ironic that they have become expendable under a supposedly ‘pro-farmer’ and ‘farmer-friendly’ BJP administration. The protests — a desperate cry for distress mitigation — should persuade it to address the problems of crippling debts and price crash and accede to the just demands for loan waiver and fair price for agricultural produce. As M.S. Swaminathan said, “If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will go right.” The promise of enhancing the minimum support price (MSP) must be fulfilled by fixing the price of agricultural produce at 50% above the input cost. Farmer-centric schemes have not yet made farming remunerative and sustainable or given farmers an assured basic income. Now, the government has to do more than appeal to voters’ religious sentiments to avoid erosion of support.
G. David Milton,
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu
Five farmers were shot dead and many others severely injured in Mandsaur while, around the same time, the government was on a celebratory mode touting its achievements in agriculture. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of “doubling the farmers’ income by 2022” sounds hollow when one considers the recurring reality of suicides by farmers who have lost trust in the government. To take state insensitivity one step further, farmers are now getting killed for demanding their rights.
My questions are: Who gave the right to law enforcers to fire at the protesters? Were the farmers armed? Can they no longer take to the streets to call attention to their problems? The tyrannical attitude of the government and its agencies is frightening.
Ngurang Reena,
Itanagar
