Will farmer suicides too become fashionable, Yechury asks Venkaiah

Taking serious objection to Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu saying loan waivers have become a “fashion” now, Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury termed it as “mocking” at our country’s farmers. In a tweet, the senior Left leader asked whether the Narendra Modi government would now say that “Farmer suicides are also fashionable”.

Yechury, in an earlier tweet, had pointed out that 36,000 farmers had committed suicide since 2014, as per the Centre’s own data.

Interestingly, Naidu was blissfully muted when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stirred the issue by promising loan waiver in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh elections, and which was followed by the new Yogi Adityanath government announcing a massive Rs 30,000-crore waiver.

However, grieving farmers from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Odisha have recently protested over various issues concerning them, including the demand for waiving off their loans.

While BJP-ruled Maharashtra announced a loan waiver after UP, Congress-ruled Punjab and Karnataka have also followed with announcements of loan waivers.

The Centre though seems to be thinking differently now. On June 20, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ruled out any farm loan waivers and stressed that the Centre would adhere to fiscal targets.

Naidu seems to have taken a cue from Jaitley. “Seeking loan waiver has become a fashion these days. But waiving off loans is not the final solution and it should be considered in extreme situations,” said the Union Urban Development Minister, who was in Mumbai for an event on Thursday.

He said farmers needed to get a good remunerative price for their produce and care should also be taken of those in distress.

“Most importantly we should create adequate infrastructure and facilities like godowns, cold storage, refrigerator vans, among others. Also, we will have to ensure that affordable credit is available to these farmers,” Naidu said, perhaps forgetting that his government has been in power for the last three years and could have done substantial work on all these fronts.

Nevertheless, Yechury, who constantly tweets on farmers issues, had this suggestion: “We need to waive Loans but also, go beyond. Govt must legislate on a Right to Sell at MSP (sic).”

Perhaps the Centre could take that suggestion into consideration.