• Prakash Pohare

After the terrorist attack by Pakistani terrorists (?) in Pahalgam, as expected, the Indian Air Force carried out an ‘air strike’ on terrorist camps. It has to be accepted that Pakistan, which supports terrorism from behind the scenes, needed to be taught a lesson in this way. We should be proud of the Indian Army and the respect they get is never enough. 26-27 tourists were killed in Pahalgam, a newly married Navy officer was shot in front of his wife. These incidents were outrageous. After this, messages inciting religious sentiments were spread by the Godi media and are being spread even today. The reaction to them was as expected, but the truth behind these incidents is being deliberately hidden. These are the unfortunate victims of the BJP government’s ‘deceitful’ Kashmir policy (Article 370), this truth cannot be denied at least now.

Today, there is a war-like situation in the country, so the attention of all the people of the country is now completely focused on the war. In such a situation, all the issues of farming, farmers, crop prices, farmers’ suicides, inflation, unemployment, corruption, education, health, good governance, rural roads, irrigation, electricity etc. have now become ‘small’ and taken a backseat. That is, the everyday needs for which we elect the government have now become secondary and the attention of the entire country is being focused or deliberately diverted to the Indo-Pak war. And now, everyone is worried about when our beloved Prime Minister Modi will declare a big war to teach Pakistan a lesson! The common man is waiting only for this today sitting in front of the TV, isn’t it? We should not ask questions to the government - perhaps this thinking has been deeply embedded in us, because a spokesperson of the ruling party itself had praised the Prime Minister by calling him the ‘eleventh incarnation’ of Lord Vishnu of the Puranas. When he has been given the status of a ‘God’, then asking questions to him is considered a ‘sin’!

Now please remove the bandages of your ‘blind devotion’. Some basic and important questions should arise in your mind too, like: Where did the terrorists come from in Pahalgam? Who were they? Who was the mastermind behind them? If they came from across the border, then what were our National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, intelligence agencies like IB and RAW, Home Ministry and Home Secretary - all of them doing? Have you ever asked these questions to the government? Not only this, if we talk about the Pulwama attack, it was said that the car which hit the CRPF bus was filled with RDX. So the question arises, what was the number of that car? Who was its owner? How did that car enter amidst such tight security? Where did so much RDX come from? These questions have not been answered till date. Like the Pahalgam incident, these questions should also be seriously considered, but the biggest irony is that the Indian public does not ask such questions. It cannot be said that no one tried - when Neha Singh Rathore raised such questions, a case was registered against her. When journalists like Sanjay Sharma, Kunal Kamra raised such questions, their channels were closed or legal action was taken against them. So should we assume that an undeclared dictatorship has been imposed in the country? Should it be assumed that every effort is being made to end independent journalism? The government is not limited to just one ‘Pahalgam’ incident - it has been formed to fulfill the daily needs of 146 crore citizens of the country. But as they say, ‘Who will cry for someone who dies every day?’ This is the condition of the government today, which seems to be turning away from important issues.

Today, 12 to 15 farmers are committing suicide every day in Vidarbha, 20 to 22 in Maharashtra, and more than 100 farmers in the whole country. Farmers who have a loan of only 40 to 50 thousand or one lakh rupees from the banks do not get loan waiver. They commit suicide in despair, but no one pays attention to this.

Lakhs of our mothers our ‘beloved sisters’ have been rendered widowed, but who will take responsibility for that? No one pays attention to this serious question. More than 75 years have passed since the country got independence and became a republic, yet there is no drinking water in many parts of the country. Water and electricity for farming is a far cry.

There was a time when Lal Bahadur Shastri gave the slogan of ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’. But unfortunately, the condition of soldiers is also bad today. More than two lakh posts are lying vacant in the army, and the army is being weakened by bringing temporary and hollow schemes like ‘Agniveer’. The condition of farmers is even worse.

In 1947, when a farmer sold 1 quintal of cotton, he would get 3 tola (36 grams) of gold - then one tola was 12 grams. In 1967, the price of cotton was Rs. 180/quintal and gold was Rs. 102/tola - that is, the farmer used to get 22 grams of gold in exchange for 1 quintal of cotton. At that time, the price of gold was only Rs. 8/tola. In 1972, the government rate of cotton was Rs. 275/quintal and gold was Rs. 202/tola, that is, the farmer used to get 14 grams of gold. The production cost was very low then.

But today, by selling 1 quintal of cotton, a farmer gets only Rs. 7000, that is, only from half to three-fourths of a gram of gold! And on top of that, the cost of production, fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, wages and other daily expenses are skyrocketing. Why are farmer suicides increasing? The answer lies here - the value of their hard work is constantly falling and the government is turning a blind eye.

‘On the other hand, in Telangana, farmers get twelve thousand rupees per acre, no matter how much land they have. And on the other hand, the ‘PM-Kisan’ scheme gives only six thousand rupees in a year - that is, 500 rupees a month, only 16 rupees a day! Can any farmer be happy with this ‘crumb’?’

‘Lakhs of farmers protested for a year on the Delhi border against the three black agricultural laws imposed by the government. During this time, 750 farmers lost their lives, but the government neither regretted, nor apologized, nor expressed any condolences. What about the ‘sindoor’ that was wiped off the foreheads of their widows?’

A film named ‘Kashmir Files’ was released in March 2022. A massacre took place last month in Pahalgam of the same Kashmir. I say, till now lakhs of farmers have committed suicide - a film named ‘Kisan Files’ should also be made on them. If a big director of the Hindi film industry like Vivek Agnihotri, director of ‘Kashmir Files’, takes this responsibility, then I stand with him.’ The tears that came to my eyes after the attack in Pahalgam are not born from today. They are from the 80s, when I was an activist of the farmers’ movement.

Which ‘missile’ will be fired against those who have committed the sin of removing the ‘sindoor’ from the foreheads of the widows of lakhs of farmers who have committed suicide? First tell me this. Who has snatched the right to that ‘sindoor’? Who is responsible? Does your sense of patriotism not awaken then? Lakhs of children have lost their hardworking fathers - who is responsible for this? ‘Corrupt officers are protected by leaders and ministers, and the farmers, labourers and workers have to bear the brunt of it. When every day the ‘sindoor’ is being wiped off the forehead of some woman in some house, even then we do not bow down in shame! Does our patriotism awaken only when there is noise of war on TV? Is the government that looks after the problems of farmers still alive, or is it dead?’ Huge corruption in crop insurance, corruption in the irrigation sector, empty talks of minimum support price, false announcements of loan waiver, illegal money lending, no action against them means indirect support to them, falling prices of agricultural products due to your import-export policies, farmers getting very low prices in the market - when all this becomes unbearable for the farmer, he commits suicide.

When a farmer dies, his children become homeless, his wife is widowed. Then we must ask - who is responsible for this? ‘Then tell me’ - ‘Who is committing the sin of wiping off the sindoor from the foreheads of the widows of farmers who commit suicide? Who is destroying lakhs of sindoor boxes kept in the houses of farmers? And what ‘missiles’ will be fired at them?’

50 years ago, the agriculture system was the backbone of this country. Then 70 percent of the country’s population was dependent on agriculture. Today, it is being said that this number has come down to 52 percent. Then where did those 18-20 percent people go?

‘The answer is clear’ – ‘Either they did not get the price for their crops, or they were devastated by disasters, or the burden of debt crushed them, or they left the country or committed suicide! In the last 10 years, 3500 villages of Maharashtra have been destroyed, out of which 3150 villages are from Vidarbha. Why? Because farming cannot provide livelihood anymore. No, it cannot’ – ‘It has been ended in a planned manner. I am talking about my youth’ – ‘Earlier there used to be strong agitating streams of farmers, labourers and students. But now the power of agitation in these three has ended. The farmer has become weak. The common man has become crippled and helpless. Unemployment and inflation are at their peak and these rulers are playing the flute like the Roman king Nero.

The people who came to power by making inflation, corruption and farmers’ suicides an issue have today doubled and tripled the price of every essential commodity like diesel, petrol, gas, cement, iron, pipes.

‘But there are no movements on these issues. That is why, suicides are happening today. So many farmers have committed suicide, and lakhs of women have become widows. We need to ask’ - ‘What ‘missiles’ will be fired against those who erase their vermilion? This is my question.’ With this I want to give another message - what will be achieved from the Indo-Pak war? As the poet Sahir Ludhianvi has said – “jung to khud ek masla hai, Jung kya maslaayo ka hal degi? Khoon or aag aaj barsegi, Bhookh or berozgari kal degi. Isiliye aye shareef insaano, Jung talti rahe to behtar hai. Aap or hum sabhi ke aangan mein, Shamma jalti rahe to behtar hai.”

Unfortunately, a cunning game is being played in the country today - to divert attention from one issue, a bigger issue is created. To drown the youth in drugs, drug smuggling is in full swing from Adani’s Mundra Port. Alcohol in villages, betting, online gambling - why is all this spreading? Even if only this much is understood, then a lot can be understood.

(The author is the Editor of Marathi daily ‘Deshonnati’, Hindi daily ‘Rashtra Prakash’ and weekly ‘Krishakonnati’)

The author can be contacted at 9822593921.