MP CM begins,fast; oppn, allies slam BJP Chouhan

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday began his indefinite fast “until peace is restored” and said that he will give his life also for the farmers.

“We will help the farmers in any way we can, decisions will be taken and if need be, I will lay down my life for them,” he said.

“The state government has taken many important decisions in the past years. We have made provisions for the farmers to get loans at zero interest rates and even to deposit Rs 90,000 over a loan of Rs one lakh for fertilisers and seeds," Chouhan said during his fast at BHEL’s Dussehra Maidan here.

“We have always stood with the farmers during distressful times. When soya bean crop was destroyed, we distributed compensation amounting to Rs 4,800 crore while Rs 4,400 crore was distributed as insurance. Due to a good yield of onion, we bought it at Rs 6 per kg last year and Rs 8 per kg this year. Tur and moong dal (pulses) are being bought at agreed upon prices," he added.

Expressing grief over the escalating farmers’ agitation, the chief minister said he is open to discussions with them and is sitting on the ground as he understands their pain. Farmers' protests that started in the state on June 1, demanding better prices for their produce and debt relief, turned violent on June 6 when five farmers were killed in police firing in Mandsaur.

However, many political parties, including some of its allies, have criticized the BJP government at the Centre and the MP CM.

Opposition Congress chided Chauhan and told him and his party to prepare for a political “vanvaas” (asylum), saying such “bogus acts” won’t help the farmers.

The party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the CM and the BJP should first answer about the most pitiable condition of the potato growers in the state. “Why are the growers compelled to sell their potatoes at Rs 2 to Rs 5 a kilo, far below their production cost,” he asked.

Surjewala said after bloodying his hands with the lives of six farmers, has gone on a “bogus fast to pretend how serious they were about the farmers’ plight but doing nothing to help them”.

Another Congress leader dubbed the CM’s fast as “nautanki,” and theatrics.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, known to have a good political and personal equation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also hit out at the NDA government at the Centre and said the government had failed on all fronts, particularly on the agriculture front.

Delivering his inaugural address on the 19th foundation day function of his party at the Constitution Club here on Saturday morning, Pawar who was also the former Union agriculture minister, went hammer and tongs against the BJP government.