Let's think of our farmers !
Humra Quraishi
We have been very
unfair to our
farmers. Political
rulers haven't
bothered to look
at their plight,
even when farmers took to taking
the extreme step - killing themselves
in sheer desperation.
The spotlight on them came only
recently when farmers came out
with details of their dismal survival
conditions and together with that
activists took to highlighting the
ground realities.
The most articulate of them all, is
Swaraj India's Yogendra Yadav. He
is, as always, armed with facts and
figures; hitting out at the sarkar of
the day – "It may seem that the
Budget aims to improve the
conditions of the farmers, but it is all
a hoax…The only solution to the
grievances of the farmers is an
increase in their income, which is
directly related to the price."
Yadav focuses on some startling
facts: the budgetary allocation to
agriculture, has come down to
2.36% from 2.38% last year .Also, a
survey conducted by the
government found that the farmers'
income has been stagnant for the
last four years, with it being the
lowest in 25 years. Also, the
government has not been fulfilling
its promise on the MNREGS.
According to the requirements of
the States, an estimated ₹ 80,000
crore is required, whereas the
government is providing only
₹ 55,000 crore, which is the same as
last year.
Farmers are not impressed with
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's latest Budget announcement that
the MSPs in the next kharif season
— for crops to be harvested after
September 2018 — would be fixed
at 1.5 times the production costs.
Why? Because existing MSPs are not
getting implemented so what to talk
of the so-called upcoming ones!
Just about a hyped repeat of
promises of some more schemes
getting launched. Announcements
but nothing really happening on the
marker front. Dismal reality on the
selling front –unsold stocks lying
with the government from last
year's record procurement.
The much flaunted and more
than hyped government's Minimum
Support Price ( MSP) carries nil
hope, simply because it is not
reaching out to the farmer and is
not lessening his plight. Though
initially Minimum Support Price
(MSP) was looked at, as a form of
market intervention by the Government of India to insure
agricultural producers against any
sharp fall in farm prices; some sort
of a governmental support to the
farmers from distress sales and to
procure food grains for public
distribution when market price for
the commodity falls below the
announced minimum price due to
bumper production and glut in the
market…It was expected by the
farmers that the governmental
agencies purchase the entire
quantity offered by the farmers at
the announced minimum price, but
then the ground reality bared
another picture. A dark, gloomy
picture. As its often said: hearing or
giving political speeches is one thing
but what's actually delivered out
there, on the ground, to the hapless,
is another thing!
And this time the hapless is the
farmer of our country. The man who
feeds us with his produce. Look how we are treating him! Hell bent on
destroying him. Forcing and
compelling him to kill hang himself.
Reducing him to becoming a pauper
or a labourer on daily wages…One
news report after another of
farmers sitting ruined overnight,
cheated by the bunch of promises
made by the sarkar of the day.
The situation is grave. News
reports bare these grim facts
and figures: The government is
unable to enforce MSP even in
sugarcane, where mills are required
to pay the Centre's fair and
remunerative price (FRP) within 14
days of purchase from farmers. In
Maharashtra, the average FRP for
the 2017-18 crushing season is Rs
255 per quintal (linked to a 9.5 per
cent sugar recovery), while Uttar
Pradesh (UP) has a flat state advised
price or SAP of Rs 315/quintal for
normal cane varieties.
However, as on January 31,
Maharashtra mills had paid growers
only Rs 8,150.09 crore out of their
FRP dues of Rs 10,685.23 crore,
while the corresponding figures for
UP (against SAP) amounted to Rs
11,481.12 crore and Rs 14,311.18
crore, respectively.
Also, it would be naïve or
shortsighted on our part if we brush
aside the role that demonetization
played in farmers' distress. I've been
talking to farmers and hearing their
plight…tragedies compounding for
them, with the withdrawal of the old
Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes… The
farmer couldn't cope with the
disaster heaped on him by that one
move – demonetization!
I trace my roots to a small
qasba in Uttar Pradesh and so
I'm well aware of the ground
realities to farmers and farm
lands. Today, the situation is so insecure for the farmer that
he is not even stocking up, as
fear looms large of yet another
bombshell from the sarkar of
the day.
Yes, fears and insecurities and
apprehensions loom large. And as
the farmers' protest continue, we
could see a repeat of what took
place last summer on the streets of
Lutyens' Delhi. Farmers and their
families squatting here, in the
national capital, clad or semi – clad,
to focus on their fragile existence.
It's about time to ask the farmer
what we, the masses of this country,
can do for him, to lessen his agony,
to halt the untimely deaths!
To begin with, each time you eat
your meal – rotis and rice and daal –
think of the farmer! And think hard
how to help him out from the
ongoing distress heaped on him by
the rulers of the day.
Better kill mosquitos !
As encounters and encounter
killings in Uttar Pradesh are ongoing
- as many as 1,142 encounters were
recorded between March 2017 and
January 2018 , and 38 alleged
criminals were killed - I have been
wondering how many of the killed or
wounded or hounded could be
innocents. And now ask these
innocents (those still alive and in a
position to speak the truth, without
fear of the aftermath) who is a
terrorist? Quite obviously their
answer will be - the State!
If only chief minister Yogi
Adityanath, had an equal number of
mosquitoes killed in his State and
particularly in his constituency,
Gorakhpur, probably mosquito
related deaths of the two -legged
human beings could have somewhat
subsided. The entire region is
plagued with encephalitis and
malaria, so Yogi's next round of
encounter killings should be targeted
against the four –legged mosquitoes
of his State.
Sex as consolation
On March 6,on the 91st birth
anniversary of the late Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, as I sat re-reading his
'Memories of My Melancholy
Whores ( I have read it seven
times if not more!), as always, one
particular line tucked in this
offbeat novel hit- "Sex is the
consolation one has for not finding
enough love."
What great philosophy is tucked in
these words of Marquez!