Farmers' True Picture in Gujarat

Friends,

Let us discuss today something about soil and farmers of India, especially of Gujarat where the uproar of the claim of 'farmers have blossomed' is on the high.

Researches show that today we have about 1 cror and 50 lakh farmers, which is less than the number of what it was in 1991. According to the data of Census-2001, some 77 lakh people have lost their identity as a farmer in the country! Many farmers are forced to commit suicide over here; but numbers of them are not always true. The governments do not define the death of one in a proper language. Sometimes, it register the death like this : 'relative of a farmer, women, partners in farming". These people are not included in the "farmers' suicide"! The Census takes those people into consideration as a farmer who cultivate a land, weather it is his own land or somebody else land. Also the Census divides them into two classes - one, main laborers and two, other workers. While the Gujarat government and the police register only those people as farmers who have their own land! Therefore, the suicides of 'others' in the agriculture sector are not registered as 'suicides'! The governments also have commenced some new categories like 'relative of farmer' and 'unfair suicide' that more cut could be put on the real numbers of farmers' suicide!

All these things have increased to a top in Gujarat where farmers are living a very hard life. The BJP government in the state of Gujarat brought the 'SIR' (Special Investment Region) in the state and has begun to grab the lands of farmers under any name of development. ‘Gujarat Today’, a Gujarati daily newspaper, published from Ahmedabad on April 20, 2013 wrote citing the Supreme Court that the tribal have a right to preserve their land, they have right to live. The major tool of their livelihood is the land. But it seems that the Gujarat government has nothing to do with the Supreme Court! The CM of Gujarat ‘has the courage’ to call even the Gujarat Governor Bhavan a ‘Congress Bhavan’ when it was the time for Lokayukt in Gujarat! Also the Government of Gujarat has no fear of the ‘CAG’ Report, because Gujarat CM can ‘prove’ the CAG as ‘congress agency’ anytime! The CM of Gujarat, in the time of 2002 elections used to say in public that ‘James Michael Lingdoh meets Sonia Jii in the Church!” It is noted here that Lingdoh was CEC in that time and his commission had not given permission for early elections in Gujarat that time. And therefore Gujarat CM left no stone unturned in teasing him in public. Whoever opposes him, will be treated as ‘congressman’, or ‘anti-Gujarat’! The result is, nobody speaks against the present CM of Gujarat, and he thinks that ‘everything in Gujarat is well’; but it is his wrong belief. The truth is that CM of Gujarat is ‘an angry lion’ before whom nobody opens mouth!

This government of Gujarat can win the highest award of Joothi Sarkaar in the world if it appears in any competition. There are many examples but see some of them here. ‘Gujarat Samachar’, a Gujarati daily shows the scandal under the name of Crop Loan on May 6, 2013. The daily wrote that the Government of Gujarat showed the sowing of ground nut and cotton seeds in such regions of Gujarat where the two crops are never produced! The RBI and NABARD were surprised with this level Jooth of the government of Gujarat! When Modi visits to Somnath, he boasts in high about his people’s security, but there are many incidents that people have to commit suicide by drowning in the sea off Somnath as a way out of the clutches of the moneylenders! But Modi did not stop boasting : “Gujarat farmers drive Maruti cars!” He does not have that trueness of accepting that the people whose lands have been grabbed under the name of Maruti, have not received their compensation yet! One man named Ramesh hanged himself in Sarapdar village near Rajkot because the cotton and Jeera crops failed for constant two years. His widow Prabhaben said, “The police report said that he (the farmer) killed himself because of family dispute! The police changed the story of crops failure and converted his suicide in ‘family dispute suicide’ case later.” She also said, “They told me ‘you have such a big house, there must be some other reason for the suicide. If we provide compensation in one case, people will start killing themselves and their families will start claiming compensation.” Now, the truth is that, across Gujarat the farmers’ suicides are either unreported or wrongly reported.

Farmers' True Picture in Gujarat

This is the story of farmers’ suicide in Gujarat, where the true numbers of farmers’ suicide are being hided. Also the Gujarat government sold the precious land of Gujarat near Gandhinagar for merely one rupee, and then it was sold for crors of Rupees by the industrialists! Interestingly, in 2012-13l, about 60 farmers had committed suicides in Gujarat, mostly in Saurashtra region for various reasons. But only 25 out of these were reportedly due to debt or crop-failure! Junagadh accounted for 10 farmer suicides, Amreli for 4, Rajkot Rural for 5, Rajkot City for two and Jamnagar for two farmers suicides! In last five years, from 2008 to 2013, a total of 125 farmers in Gujarat have committed suicide but out of them only 33 reportedly due to crop failure and debt! It is very sad reality that the number of farmer suicide caused by bad debts and crop failures were at 8 in the 2008-9, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, had suddenly shot up to 25 during 2012-13! ‘Gujarat Samachar’, the Gujarati daily in its 10-5-2013 issue wrote that the High Court of Gujarat said that people and animals are unhappy in Gujarat with the water scarcity in state. Also the Narmada Canal Work is not done properly, because of which some 97 villages have been affected.

The CM of Gujarat many times boasts with uproar in public the false things, and it is proved very well. A leading daily The Times Of India wrote on 24-6-2013: “Forget feku Modi, even Rambo can’t save 15k pilgrims!’, when Modi claimed that his special ‘rescue team’ had ‘saved’ about 15,000 Gujarati pilgrims after reaching to Dehradoon in the time of Uttarakhand natural calamity. Now, let us return to the major point of our discussion. The motive behind all these details is to show the true face behind the false ‘words’ of the Government of Gujarat. It can lie in any matter! It can speak false in farmers’ issues too! And I think, that is why, the statement of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress vice president is very suitable for Modi. Rahul Gandhi said that India doesn’t need a ‘Chowkidaar’ who grabs the poor man’s land to dole it out to industrialists. Gandhi clearly said that this kind of Chowkidaari was actually a theft. He said the BJP government has acquired thousands of acres of land without giving anything in return to the people.

And I think, the words of Rahul Gandhi are very true in the light of truth, which is shining in Gujarat.