By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: The Nagpur-based Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, (VJAS), has taken strong exception and termed Union Minister for Textiles Shankar Singh Vaghela’s statement in Akola (Vidarbha) Cotton Farmers Conference that Vidarbha cotton farmers are lazy and that’s the reason they are committing suicide as very unfortunate.
VJAS president Kishore Tiwari, reacting after the news channel NDTV telecast Vaghela’s statement, said this not the reason of agrarian crisis that has resulted farm suicides of more than 5000 farmers in last 32 months as per police crime record.
The NDTV report said:” Speaking at the Akola Cotton Farmers Conference Vaghela compared them with farmers in his home state, Gujarat and said that the Maharashtrian farmers just did not take the initiative. ‘There are power cuts in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Farmers in Gujarat just like farmers here, eat tobacco. But after chewing tobacco farmers in Gujarat go to work whereas, farmers here just sit around and don’t go to their farms”.
”What can the government do in all this? You must try and emulate the farmers of Gujarat. Come there and see for yourself,” he said.
VJAS has termed this statement as part of ongoing Maharashtra Government’s propaganda that farmers suicides are due to non-agrarian causes and farmers are killing themselves due to there fault and they should change their habits as all the government policies are correct and they are pro-farmers whereas it is a fact that cotton farmers are victim of free trade and introduction of high cost-high risk Bt. Cotton cultivation, Tiwari added. “We urged the Maharashtra Government to protect the cotton farmers of Vidarbha by providing them proper credit and cost protection to Vidarbha 3 million farmers”, Tiwari demanded. ([email protected])