Bhopal: It seems farmer committing suicide in Madhya Pradesh do not move Shivraj Singh Chouhan government at all, as it is continues like never before. In a single day, on Tuesday, three more farmers had committed suicide, the lives of fifty farmer ended, since the Mandsaur firing took place. And among them, ten belong to chief minister’s hometown.
A month ago, right after the police fired on protesting farmers in Mandsaur which had killed five farmers, Shivraj had observed an extravagant fast to send across a message of peace to the agitating ones, and that he is always there for them.
Madhya Pradesh Farmers
The farmer, who hanged himself from a tree, was identified as Suraj Singh Gurjar, a resident of Pathoria village, Sehore. The town is only 50 kilometers away from state capital Bhopal. The 50-year-old farmer had reportedly had a 2.5 lakhs loan on him, which he was being unable to repay.
Besides Gurjar, 65-year-old Parsaram Sahu, a resident of Sagar district had consumed poison to bring an end to his misery. He wasn’t being able to take on the pressure of being unable to repay his loan. Sahu, at present is in a critical condition.
The third incident took place at Shivpuri. Both Sagar and Shivpuri are hometowns of Shivraj’s cabinet ministers.
Official figure tabled in the State Assembly, itself says that between July 1 to December 15, 2016, 531 farmers have committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh.
It means, more than three farmers commit suicide in the heartland of India everyday. While Shivraj not only claims himself of being son of a farmer, but he is the longest serving chief minister of Madhya Pradesh too.
And the state also boats of having India’s first Happiness Department. Ironically, all these distinctions could not change the fate of farmers in state.
But where is the opposition parties, does it only follows Shivraj’s action and statements or doing something concrete? Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh Rahul claims to eNewsroom that they are, pushing hard to make government accountable, “All these suicide, dents the claim of chief minister (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) of being the son of a farmer. In fact, it also proves that his government’s policies are not right for the farmers.”
After Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s fast, another Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia had sat on 3-day long Satyagraha in support of farmers.
On being asked about the policies of Shivraj’s government that according to him are not farmer friendly, he said, “Private companies charge very high interest to farmers but government has no monitoring system for it.”
“There is a bill already drafted for many years to rein control on the money lenders, but it is yet to be passed. Also, earlier corporate companies used to help farmers, but now there is no such activity by the government to use corporate sector for the benefit of the farmers. And it’s an open secret, as to how demonetization has broken the rib of the farmers. We all know that farmers are not getting fair price for their crops,” he added.
The senior Congress leader also mentioned that in the coming Monsoon session, the party will make farmer suicide a major issue inside the assembly.
