Farmers on warpath: Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh threaten a Delhi siege

Enough of the lies

Harpal Singh Bilari, a farmers' leader from Uttar Pradesh said, “Look at the way they have been insulting the farmers through their 'Rinn Mochan Yojana' where the farmers have received waivers in a few paise and a few rupees. There are around 60,000 farmers whose loans have been waived off by a few paise. On top of this, they are shamelessly coming up with slogans on doubling the farmers' income by 2022. We would like to ask them how do they plan to do this.”

The farmers from Haryana pointed that it was the Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala and the state's agriculture minister OP Dhankar who had stripped to protest the injustice being meted out to the farmers during the earlier UPA regime while they participated in a yatra from Jhajjar to Rohtak. Now these very leaders are talking in a different language they said.

“We will not accept this double speak. Things have come to a pass that we are not afraid of dying and this time it is a do or die battle for the farmers,” said Raghunath Singh, a farmer leader from Haryana.

The farmers have also charged the Modi government of cheating the agrarian community across the country through the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).

“This has been a tool to exploit the farmers. We have always stated that the insurance of the crops should be voluntary. Modi had launched this scheme from Sherpur village in Sihor even before the scheme was notified. I have a list of people who have got compensation for their destroyed soya bean crop ranging from a few paise to a few rupees while the premium that was compulsorily deducted from their bank accounts was Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000. The government collected around Rs 21,000 crore from the farmers across the country and the compensation given is to the tune of around Rs 7,000 crore. The rest has gone to the pockets of the private insurance companies through which the crop produce was insured,” Singh explained.

The farmers from Haryana claimed that they got nothing as compensation for the 2,400 acres of wheat destroyed in a fire.

“They say that there can be no claim for losses due to fire. The government collected Rs 251 crore as premium and has disbursed only Rs 51crore in the state. Claims worth Rs 150 crores have been rejected,” Singh added.

Campaign continues

Earlier, the RKM had blocked 176 highways across the country on 16 June, they had tried to gherao the Niti Aayog and sat on a dharna at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on 3 July this year. The farmers had also carried out a Jail Bharo campaign in the second week of August.

Farmer leader Gurnam Sing Chadhuni from Haryana pointed out that according to the National Sample Survey (NSS) of 2014 the monthly income of a farmer's family is Rs 3,081.

“Since even a class four government employee earns ten times more than a farmer, the government must explain that the farmer comes in which class. It must also explain why it is so soft on the corporates who have not paid back their loans amounting to lakhs of crores and why is it that it has nothing to offer to the farmers,” Chadhuni said.

The farmers are also agitated over the government allowing import of commodities like wheat. “Why is it that only 6% of the agriculture produce is purchased on MSP and the remaining is ignored as has been pointed in the NSS of 2014. What steps have been taken in this direction?” asked Chadhuni.

Edited by Jhinuk Sen