‘Your govt guns down people, you sit on fast’
BHOPAL: Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday began a 72-hour satyagrah in Bhopal in support of farmers demanding a loan waiver and a higher price for their produce.
In a phone interview to Hindustan Times’s Ranjan from Indore, the MP from Guna, who was arrested briefly on Tuesday and prevented from visiting violence-hit Mandsaur where five farmers were killed in police firing, said his protest was aimed at finding a solution to the problems facing farmers. Edited excerpts:
Why this satyagrah?
We need a platform for deliberations when there are several streams of thoughts and ideologies. For instance, if I am talking about media and don’t invite mediapersons for deliberations then how will I get suggestions? This is for deliberations with stakeholders and preparing an action plan. Such a major incident has happened (in Mandsaur). A government should protect people’s life but here the protector has turned into perpetrator (rakshak hi bhakshak ban gaya).
The state government says it has done a lot for farmers in the last 14 years, particularly after Shivraj Singh Chouhan took over as CM. What’s your view?
If everything is fine, then why are farmers in Madhya Pradesh committing suicide, and why is there such a chaotic situation? Prices of everything that a farmer needs are spiraling, whether it is diesel, fertiliser or seeds. How long will it go on?
In UP and Maharashtra, farmers’ loans have been written off. Should MP do the same?
When Sonia ji and Manmohan ji waived the loans of ₹72,000 crore, there was no demand and demonstration. Still they did it in the interest of the farming community and the country… 12,000 farmers are committing suicide every year. There are an alarming number of farmer suicides in Madhya Pradesh, too, but the government doesn’t want to redress farmer grievances.
But farmers were killing themselves even when the Congress was in power at the Centre.
Should it be allowed to go on? I will appreciate if the central government tells us what it has really done for farmers in the last three years. I will appreciate it if the Madhya Pradesh government tells us what it has done for farmers. We needed answers from chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan but he launched a fast.
But the ruling party leaders claim peace was restored in the state after the CM’s fast.
The CM wasn’t sensitive enough to visit the families of those killed and apologise to them immediately after the incident. Instead he went on a fast. Apki sarkar logon ko goliyon se bhoon de, apki sarkar logon ko hospital pahuncha de aur aap upwaas par baith rahe ho...Ye kya ho raha hai? Mazak? (Your government is gunning down people, it is sending people to hospitals and you [Chouhan] sit on a fast...What is happening? Is it a joke?)
Congress gets issues to raise but it fails to cash in on the situation.
Just see what will happen.
Did the state try to persuade you to call off the satyagrah?
Do you think I am a man who can consider such things?