We might feel that what Bacchu Kadu has said is indecent but, think how farmers must have felt when political leaders are making insensitive comments on them? This time, its politician contending another politician. Taking a wacky take on farmers’ suicide, independent MLA from Achalpur, Amravati Bacchu Kadu sparked hullabaloo by dragging BJP MP from Meerut and actress Hema Malini into the row. On the occasion of Holi, Hema Malini made rude comments on Vrindavan’s widows and also was in headlines for her land allotment scam for dancing academy.
Denying the reasoning of alcoholism behind farmers’ suicide, Kadu said Hema Malini drinks everyday but she does not commit suicide. Continuing the same tone, Kadu aforesaid that even the notion that farmers commit suicide due to burden of excess expenditure in marriage is also incorrect. Describing the same, the MLA further delved into a bizarre explanation saying that should they wait and see if Union Minister Nitin Gadkari commits suicide after spending Rs. 4 crore on his son’s wedding. Kadu further said that the real cause behind these suicides is lack of money. He expressed his displeasure over farmers’ suicide.
If we look back and take account of BJP leaders’ statements, then in 2014 BJP MP from Akola, Sanjay Dhotre kicked-off a debate after saying, let these farmers fend for themselves. If crops fail, they will figure out what to do. And, if they are dying, let them die…Those who can afford farming will do it, others will not do it.”
In 2015 Madhya Pradesh Minister, who is now a general secretary of BJP, Kailash Vijayvargiya said, “Nobody is committing suicide because of crop damage. Farmers in Madhya Pradesh are committing suicide because of personal problems. Haryana’s Agriculture Minister, Om Prakash Dhankar reportedly said the farmers who committed suicides were cowards and criminals… because according to Indian law, suicide is a crime. In a rare advice to the farmers on irrigation, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had said in Nagpur that he watered his plants in his Delhi bungalow with his own urine—which was a free fertilizer that could help farmers grow bigger plants.
Maharashtra’s then Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse said his government had no solution to stop farmers’ suicides. There was no concrete solution to completely stop the suicides.” These are thoughtless remarks on serious issue of farmers’ suicides. Actually, these leaders have no idea about what farmers are really going through.
Prime Minister Modi’s main poll promise was to implement Swaminathan Committee’s recommendation and ensure that the crop prices were remunerative. However, immediately after coming to power they went back on it. What the BJP president Amit Shah had termed as ‘Chunavi Jumla’, is now falling apart. The BJP government is trivializing and insulting the farmers, who feed the country yet a majority of them remain without food themselves.
The BJP government instead of effectively addressing the agrarian crisis and providing relief to farmers is resorting to diversionary tactics and insulting the farmers who by their toil and sacrifice are feeding the nation under precarious conditions. All these while they have made insensitive remark, the Union Agriculture Minister, Radha Mohan Singh has claimed that farmers are committing suicides due to failed love affairs. Different BJP ministers in the central government as well as in states like Maharashtra and Haryana have made such unjustified comments and wanted to belittle a human tragedy of such a great level.
Maharashtra has recorded 20,504 farmer suicides since 2001. Data obtained from the government shows Vidarbha, the region Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis hails from, was the worst hit last year, with around 1,541 farmers from Amaravati and Nagpur division committing suicides. As many as 1,130 farmers ended their lives in the Aurangabad and Nashik district in Northern Maharashtra witnessed 459 cases of farmers’ suicides.
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