Govt. accused of backtracking on promise of loan waiver

Farmers in Maharashtra are using the phrase bure din (bad days) to describe their condition.

Akshay Tale last spoke to his close friend Neelesh Walke at around 2.45 p.m. on December 30 last year. Neelesh, who faced a Rs. 2 lakh debt, seemed anxious but showed no signs that he was considering any extreme step.

At around 4 p.m., Neelesh, barely 23, killed himself by consuming pesticide. Since then, over 600 farmers have committed suicide in Maharashtra due to sustained debt, drought and crop failure.

“If a literate person [like Neelesh, who worked in Pune for a year] can commit suicide, what hope does an uneducated farmer have?” asked Mr. Tale, still haunted by the loss.

When Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi went on a padayatra in Amravati recently, the Walke family was the first household he visited. Among the enthusiastic crowd was Mr. Tale, who managed to shake hands with the Gandhi scion but was shoved away by security personnel before he could say anything.

Cotton farmers like Mr. Tale, who suffered devastating losses in the kharif season last year, had pinned their hopes on the rabi season. But with the unseasonal rain and hailstorm earlier this year, they have been dealt a crippling blow.

“If this year the rain fails, it will be my turn to commit suicide,” said Mr. Tale, who owes banks Rs. 4.5 lakh.

Though farmer suicides has been a common phenomenon in the State’s Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, experts say the situation has worsened in the recent past.

“BJP has not kept promise”

Though farmer suicides have been a common phenomenon in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, experts say the situation has worsened in the recent past. Across the Amravati division, the worst hit, one will struggle to find a farmer who is not under debt.

The BJP ran a high-pitched Assembly election campaign against the Congress-NCP regime on farm suicides last year. In his Lok Sabha rallies in Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised farmers that he would fix the minimum support price (MSP) to ensure 50 per cent profit on investment to farmers. However, farmers in the State’s Vidarbha region are growing increasingly frustrated and impatient with the BJP governments (Centre and State) for failing to keep their “lofty” promises.

Explaining the agrarian crisis, farm activist Vijay Jawandhia from Wardha said not only was the produce short of expectation, even the prices the farmers were getting were significantly lower. The minimum support price for cotton has fallen from Rs. 5,500 last year to Rs. 4,000. In the market, the crop is being sold much below the MSP. “The BJP is now totally bypassing the issue of loan waiver or MSP,” Mr. Jawandhia said.

Under debt and unable to secure further loans to recover losses, farmers are facing a severe “credit freeze,” said Kishor Tiwari, farmer activist. “The BJP has backtracked on the assurance of loan waiver and considering higher MSP. Now all we are asking for is credit restoration. The farmer is crying for a bailout package but there is no talk of that,” said Mr. Tiwari, who supported the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.

Under fire from all quarters, including its ally the Shiv Sena which on Tuesday warned the BJP against inviting the “wrath of farmers,” the Fadnavis government has taken steps to ward off criticism. The government on Tuesday announced Rs. 1600 crore worth crop damage compensation to 35 lakh out of 45 lakh farmers in the State who participated in the insurance scheme.

This comes on the heels of Mr. Fadnavis last week announcing that compensation to farmers would be increased from Rs. 4,500 to Rs. 6,800 per hectare while the loss percentage would be brought down to 33 per cent from 50 per cent, thus expanding compensation coverage. Mr. Fadnavis has also ordered a survey to find the reason behind the high incidence of suicides. But farmers are not impressed. Many farmers affected by last year’s drought are yet to receive full compensation.