We don’t need more Mandsaurs
the growth reached 25% when it was around 4% in the rest of India. Despite such incredible agricultural growth, the farmers neither got the prices they deserved, nor the buyers.
If after every harvest the loan appears to increase rather than decrease, the farmers’ anger appears justified. Statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau say 3,18,528 farmers committed suicide in India between 1995 and 2015. Similarly, between 2001 and 2011, nine million farmers left their ancestral homes and migrated to cities. A study suggests more than 2,000 farmers head to cities every day to make a living. Why are human rights bodies and those who shed tears about terrorism blind to their plight?
Let us analyse the farmers’ fury now. The outbreak of violence in Mandsaur was coming. The agitation began in Maharashtra on June 1 and the very next day spread to Madhya Pradesh. The problem with governments is that instead of finding a long-term solution they treat farmers’ agitation as a law and order issue while taking decisions. If this wasn’t the case and people in responsible positions not reacted childishly, those killed in Mandsaur would not have become victims of police firing. Until when will they keep the truth concealed?
There was a time when Ram Manohar Lohia brought down his own government after farmers were shot at. Since then the manner in which the attitudes of politicians have changed is evident from the reactions in the aftermath of the Jantar Mantar and Mandsaur agitations.
No single politician or party but the entire power-hungry political establishment should be held accountable for this. That is why fires of dissatisfaction are raging in different parts of the country.
The time has come for New Delhi and state leaderships to think seriously about this isssue. The police or paramilitary forces of independent India don’t look good firing on their own people. We don’t need more Mandsaurs.