At the outset, I would like to congratulate you for your ability to enact dramas and spin off new narratives to hoodwink gullible people, especially the farmers. If you were considered for film awards, you would have definitely got awards for the best actor, best screenplay writes and best story writer.
Otherwise, what could explain your newfound attention to the issues of farming community and your sympathy for them? When you did not bother to even look at them in the last 4 years, what would explain this empathy for them, as the elections got nearer? But now you have suddenly got stirred into action to set up Farmers Coordination Committee. Do you think that farmers were having luxurious lives in the last four years? If you were really honest in solving farmers’ problems and if the coordination committee could have solved their issues, why did not you take this initiative 4 years ago? Of all, you have chosen a political defector Gutha Sukender Reddy as chief of farmers coordination committee. Is this a reward to him that he has cheated congress party and defected and is this a reward to him that he has withdrawn cases against the your government?
Farmers have been suffering from lack of remunerative prices since last 4 years as the BJP-led Narendra Modi government failed to increase Minimum Support Price adequately. But you did not bother to take up this issue with your friend in New Delhi. Neither did your MPs highlight the unfortunate plight of farmers in Parliament. In the 4 years, you did not have time to leave from your house, farmhouse or Pragati Bhavan to console the families of farmers who committed suicide. So what made you set Farmers Coordination Committee all of a sudden?
The answer is: The committee was created to address political joblessness of your party cadre. It is head by a political opportunist and power broker Gutta Sukhender Reddy. You declared that only those who supported the Telangana agitation would be included in the coordination committees. If it is so, have you forgotten about lakhs of common people, especially those from poor and underprivileged sections who were torchbearers of Telangana agitation? What have you given them? If you are sitting the Chief Minister chair, the credit goes to lakhs of those unsung heroes of Telangana. But you have forgotten about all of them. Instead of doing justice to everybody, you have grown partisan to TRS cadre. If you were really honest, you would have made sarpanches, the true representative of villages, head the Farmers Coordination Committees at village levels. You are deliberately diluting the panchayatraj act.
Your decision to ignore tenant farmers and pay agriculture support of Rs 4,000 per acre to landlords shows your anti-poor attitude. Most of the farmers who commit suicide are tenant farmers. It will neglect 15 lakh tenant farmers and their families. If you give Rs 4,000 to landlords, do you think landlords would give the support money to tenants, who actually bear brunt of vagaries of monsoons? Isn’t it a scheme of making the rich the richer? It is just a ploy to buy votes in the next election.
Over 4,500 farmers committed suicide in the last 4 years. But you never bother to console them. You and your party leaders have insulted them with disparaging remarks. Thumala Nageshwar Rao, who was an ardent supporter of united Andhra Pradesh, had called the farmers as rowdy gangs, while another minister of yours Naini Narasimha Reddy said farmers are dying for insurance payouts! This is the kind of respect that you and your ministers have for farmers. However, political gimmicks you play, no farmer in Telangana will ever forget your atrocity of chaining and imprisoning them in Nerella.
In the entire world, you can claim credit for claiming to be pro-farmer even while snatching lands from farmers, who are dependent only on the land for their livelihood. You did not distribute Rs 790 crore that the state got from the Central Government as drought relief to farmers. Despite declaring Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for the families of the farmers who committed suicide, you did not pay one paise to them. But because of elections in 2019, you have
developed new love for farmers. You have now come up with insurance for farmers, when the Central Government already has Fasal Bhima Yojana.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was your best friend. But when your friend did not support the farmers by increasing MSP, neither you nor your MPs utter a word against him On the contrary, you had always defended him: be it in President’s elections or demonetisation or GST rollout. However, you have suddenly turned against Modi. You owe a reply to people as to what caused this dramatic change in you. What are the secret agreements that your friend Modi did not honour?
In the last 4 years, you were not able to complete even one irrigation project. But you have delayed the projects that the Congress government had started and which were completed about 90% in the name of redesigning them to siphon off the funds. All projects that are existing in the country, including our state, were built by the Congress governments. If India has so advanced in science and technology that we reached Mars and became self sufficient in food grains, it is because of the foresight of the Congress governments. But I think you have selective amnesia to forget all the development that Indians have achieved in the last 70 years. It is an
insult to the intelligence and efforts of Indians.
You had promised to improve the plight of farmers but failed to even stop spurious seeds and fake pesticides coming into the market. These fake products wreaked havoc in the lives of farmers. When Monsanto was selling fake chemicals and cancer-causing cotton seeds without the permission of the Central Government, your government remained mute spectator. You owe an explanation to people about your relations with the suppliers of spurious seeds and fake chemicals. Previously, the Congress government had helped farmers to gain profits at market yards itself. After ignoring them for 4 years, now you have come up the concepts of agricultural colonies, etc. You need to tell people who benefit from agricultural colonies
As you did not waive loans of farmers, 35 lakh land passbooks are still with banks under mortgage. Instead of talking about this, you sought to divert attention by proposing a special agricultural budget. How laughable is this? Instead of wasting Rs 7,000 crore in Farmers Coordination Committees, you could have used this money to reduce the indebtedness of poor farmers.
Even in your Assembly constituency Gajwel, you failed to ensure that farmers are paid on time for their sale at market yard. When 1,789 farmers have sold 8,135 quintals tur dal at market yard, only 100 farmers have been paid their money. This making poor farmers undergo further financial distress. Though your government talks of the ease of doing business for rich people, you are bent on making things difficult for farmers. Your government wants any farmer who intends to sell more 10 quintals of Tur Dal at the market yard to produce a certificate from a
marketing official. Is this your commitment to farmers?
According to official statistics, around 50,000 quintals come under the Gajwel market yard. But only 588 farmers sold their 8034-quintal cotton produce at the market yard, while 44,973 quintals of produce was sold to brokers by 10,179 farmers. The same applies to maize produce. The reason for this is lower MSP offered at market yard. If the Central Government has offered lower MSP, why did not your government, which claims to have surplus budget, increase the MSP from its own coffers?
On the whole, farmers are suffering due to your poor policies and your inability to convince the Central Government to increase MSP. Instead of addressing their problems, you have created official sanctuaries for your party cadre in the name of Farmers Coordination Committees. When you can’t trust the ability of Sarpanches, what kind of role that you can play in the national politics? You can fool people once or twice but not always. People have realized how you are hoodwinking people and they would definitely teach a lesson to your party. Mark my
words.