TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK MP

MP Govt ends up with egg on face for mishandling farmers’ agitation

NK SINGH

The Madhya Pradesh Government has never had such an incompetent Home Minister. Bhupendra Singh has ended up with egg on his face due to his mishandling of the ongoing farmers’ agitation. Earlier this week, after six farmers were killed in Mandsaur firing ---- the toll has now gone up to seven ---- he insisted that police had not opened fire on the crowd. It took him three days to find out that it was his police that had opened fire! The least that he could have done was to apologise for his brazen attempt to mislead people. But, apparently, he belongs to the genre of politicians whose skin is thicker than a crocodile’s.

Bhupendra Singh is not the only one with egg on his face. As the agitation turned violent, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan described the farmers as “anti-social elements”. Later, he declared an unprecedented compensation of Rs one crore to relatives of the same “anti-social elements” killed in firing!

There is egg on the face of the MP Government too. BJP was touting it as the most farmer-friendly government in the country. Chouhan was BJP’s poster boy in the field of farmers’ welfare. Chouhan swears by farmers, promising to double their income. The rural population is his solid vote bank, along with urban slum dwellers and women. The BJP returned to power thrice with the support of these sections. The State even boasts of an agriculture cabinet.

MP has won national awards for highest food production five times during Chouhan’s tenure. It registered an agricultural growth rate of 9.7 percent during this period, compared to the national average of 3.6 percent. In 2014-15 agriculture sector grew by a whopping 20.11 percent in MP.  

Agriculture production has increased due to several factors: increase in irrigation capacity, expansion of all weather roads linking villages with urban centres, strong procurement system for wheat and State Government’s bonus over minimum support price for procuring food grains.  MP gives loans to farmers at zero percent interest. It has also a scheme called minus ten percent interest under which if a farmer takes a loan of, say, Rs one lakh and repays it in time, he has to pay only Rs 90,000.

Yet the farmers are suffering. As the State has prospered, they have become poorer. Every five hour a farmer commits suicide in MP. Last year 1982 farmer committed suicide. The majority were small and marginal farmers. According to NSSO survey, half the farmers in MP are debt ridden.

Agriculturists say farming has become un-remunerative. Input costs have gone up, like that of seeds, water, labour, hiring of equipments and diesel prices for tractors and pumps. There is black marketing in fertilisers. Electricity is in short supply, though the State is surplus in power. Shivkumar Sharma leads Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangh, a breakaway faction of RSS-backed Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. He explains the un-remunerative prices beautifully: “In 1970 two quintals of wheat could buy one tola of gold. Now farmers have to shell out 20 quintals for a tola.”

Even as consumers are forced to pay through their nose for farm products, especially vegetables, farmers are not able to recover even their cost. The BJP government is directly responsible for this mismatch. Middlemen are prospering at the cost of both consumers and agriculturists. The government is reluctant to take action against middlemen ---- traditionally, they form a loyal chunk of BJP cadre ---- due to political reasons.

The agitation, originally scheduled for 10 days, started on June 1. The government took it lightly initially when farmers were spilling their milk on roads and throwing tomatoes in streets. Once it became clear that it was supported by a large number of farmers, the Government tried to act smart. Rather than engaging with the farmers, it called RSS-sponsored BKS for talks, promptly reached a “settlement” and announced that the agitation had been withdrawn. The farmers greeted the announcement with belligerence. Rest is history.

The BJP goofed up in assessing the strength of the organisers. Given the track record of Kakkaji, it should have treated the agitation with a little more respect. In 2010 Kakkaji, who was president of BKS in MP then, had laid a surprise, blitz-like siege on Bhopal for two days, surrounding the State capital overnight with hundreds of tractor trollies. In May 2012, the BMS organised another agitation under his leadership at Bareli in Raisen district, resulting in police firing and killing of a farmer. RSS expelled him and Kakkaji spent nearly six months in jail after that. After his expulsion, he formed RKMS.

As the violent agitation continued to hog national headlines for days, Chouhan, the master strategist that he is, tried to divert the media attention. He started an indefinite fast, appealing to people for restoration of peace, along with his cabinet members and senior party leaders, hoping to get respite from relentless negative coverage. Sadly for BJP, that does not seem to be happening.

(The writer is a senior journalist. Tweets @nksexpress.)