Centre readies plan to reach out to farmers

NEW DELHI: Displeased over the Narendra Modi government’s “failure” to address their issues, farmers may upset the Bharatiya Janata Party’s applecart in the forthcoming general elections, a section in the ruling BJP believes. Protests against the Central government and in many BJP-ruled states like Maharashtra and Haryana have added to the BJP’s woes after its defeat in the three states where farmers voted against the party.

Farmers have accused the BJP-led Central government for failing to keeping its poll promises that include doubling farmers’ income and increased price for their crops.

Seeking to woo the large farm sector, the government had made Union Budget 2018-19 largely pro-farmer with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announcing big bonanza for them. The government announced that the minimum support price (MSP) for various agricultural crops will be 1.5 times more than the input cost. This was one of the major promises of the BJP in its manifesto for the 2014 general elections.

The budget also proposed an institutional mechanism for price and demand forecasting. With this, farmers will be able to take timely decisions about which crop and in how much quantity it would be profitable.

However, accusing the government of not fulfilling its promises, thousands of farmers had held a massive protest in the national capital recently. The agitating farmers were seeking implementation of remunerative prices for farm produce, loan waiver and a minimum wage of Rs 18,000 a month. The government is already struggling with issues like farmers’ suicide in many states.

The charter of demands also includes curbing price rise, stopping anti-labour amendments to law, comprehensive legislation to address concerns of agricultural workers, implementation of MNREGA in all rural areas and extending it to urban areas, ensuring food security, health and education for all, universal social security, redistributive land reforms and stopping forcible land acquisition.

Meanwhile, the BJP and the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare have readied a plan to reach out to farmers across the country. The local units of the BJP are sending its “messengers” to the farmers in all the states, for collecting feedback and grievances from the farmers. The kisan morcha (farmers› wing) of BJP state units is visiting different parts of the country to educate farmers on the government’s initiatives.

Meanwhile, after waiving farm loans in the three states where it recently came to power— Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan—the Congress, led by its chief Rahul Gandhi, is planning to take to the streets to protest against the Modi government on the issue of agrarian crisis.

The state units of Congress along with farmers will protest against the Central government. They also plan to hold a massive kisan rally in Delhi in February, just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The rally is likely to be attended by Rahul Gandhi and several prominent Opposition leaders.