During the last few weeks farmers across the country started protesting against the governments demanding justice and rightful compensation. Farmers who till recently protested in a peaceful manner like the one seen by the Tamil Nadu farmers protests in New Delhi,however lost their cool when Madhya Pradesh cops fired and killed four farmers.
This resulted in farmers protests turning more violent in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Farmers protests may soon get intensified across the country irrespective of the party in power as farmers are suffering due to pressure to repay loans, unseasonal rains and low crop.
Many people angrily question why are farmers protesting in states where agriculture growth is the highest and tops in the world. Farmers have been demanding loan waivers and if one sees the loan waivers amount then it will burden the economy. The figure is number 3 followed by 12 zeroes and comes to 3,000,000,000,000, if one were to waive out the loans of the farmers before the 2019 elections.
According to the Merill Lynch's estimated calculation, it costs 2% of India's 2015 GDP ($2089 billion). Merill Lynch issued a warning note declaring that "farm loan waivers of up to 2 per cent of the GDP in the run-up to the 2019 hustings pose fiscal/rate risk and impacts the credit culture" after Yogi Adityanath,CM of Uttar Pradesh waived off loan waivers to the tune of Rs 36,359 crore, or 0.4 per cent of the state's Rs 12.37 lakh crore GDP.
This triggered similar demands from the farmers in Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. While Union Government and RBI governor Urjit Patel,Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya are asking state governments to be cautious, left parties question saying if banks can have NPAs and black money continues to be stashed abroad, why can't farmers be waived their loans?
According to the National Crime Records Bureau's estimate of the number of farmer suicides between 1995 and 2015, one farmer is ending life committingg suicide every one hour and 318528 farmers ended life between 1995-2015. Supreme Court bench, consisting of Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and S.K. Kaul, to ask the Centre on March 27 to file a report within four weeks on what plan of action the states had to tackle the issue of farmer suicides taking it seriously.
All political parties tried to solve the farmers issues with shortterm policies like loan waivers. Political parties used loan waiver not to solve the problems but to garner votes. In Punjab, as many as 40 per cent of the state's 9 lakh farmers who were disbursed crop loans worth Rs 7,500 crore at the start of this Rabi season have deliberately defaulted on their dues because chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh had promised 'Karza kurki khatam (end to farm debt recovery)' ahead of the assembly polls.
Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis is resisting loan waiver to farmers as Shiv Sena chief Uddav Thackery is demanding it. The unconventional 41-day agitation by Tamil Nadu farmers at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in March-April, in which they wore human skulls, conducted mock funerals and even stripped at Raisina Hill, led first to the Madras High Court directing the state on April 5 to write off farmer loans, which would entail a hit over Rs 40,000 crore to state finances.
After 1960 green revolution no party or government addressed the problems of the farmers. Crisis in agriculture is not due to food scarcity but due to market volatility. Excessive use of urea and pesticides compromised the soil fertility. Not all cultivable land is underirrigation; water usage is inefficient, farmers find it xpensive to buy farm equipment, and small holdings make machinery use inefficient. One should also help farmers beat the debt trap.
Secret behind farmers anger?
During the last few weeks farmers across the country started protesting against the governments demanding justice and rightful compensation. Farmers who till recently protested in a peaceful manner like the one seen by the Tamil Nadu farmers protests in New Delhi,however lost their cool when Madhya Pradesh cops fired and killed four farmers.
This resulted in farmers protests turning more violent in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Farmers protests may soon get intensified across the country irrespective of the party in power as farmers are suffering due to pressure to repay loans, unseasonal rains and low crop.
Many people angrily question why are farmers protesting in states where agriculture growth is the highest and tops in the world. Farmers have been demanding loan waivers and if one sees the loan waivers amount then it will burden the economy. The figure is number 3 followed by 12 zeroes and comes to 3,000,000,000,000, if one were to waive out the loans of the farmers before the 2019 elections.
According to the Merill Lynch's estimated calculation, it costs 2% of India's 2015 GDP ($2089 billion). Merill Lynch issued a warning note eclaring that "farm loan waivers of up to 2 per cent of the GDP in the run-up to the 2019 hustings pose fiscal/rate risk and impacts the credit culture" after Yogi Adityanath,CM of Uttar Pradesh waived off loan waivers to the tune of Rs 36,359 crore, or 0.4 per cent of the state's Rs 12.37 lakh crore GDP.
This triggered similar demands from the farmers in Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. While Union Government and RBI governor Urjit Patel,Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya are asking state governments to be cautious, left parties question saying if banks can have NPAs and black money continues to be stashed abroad, why can't farmers be waived their loans?
According to the National Crime Records Bureau's estimate of the number of farmer suicides between 1995 and 2015, one farmer is ending life commiting suicide every one hour and 318528 farmers ended life between 1995-2015. Supreme Court bench, consisting of Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and S.K. Kaul, to ask the Centre on March 27 to file a report within four weeks on what plan of action the states had to tackle the issue of farmer suicides taking it seriously.
All political parties tried to solve the farmers issues with shortterm policies like loan waivers. Political parties used loan waiver not to solve the problems but to garner votes. In Punjab, as many as 40 per cent of the state's 9 lakh farmers who were disbursed crop loans worth Rs 7,500 crore at the start of this Rabi season have deliberately defaulted on their dues because chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh had promised 'Karza kurki khatam (end to farm debt recovery)' ahead of the assembly polls.
Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis is resisting loan waiver to farmers as Shiv Sena chief Uddav Thackery is demanding it. The unconventional 41-day agitation by Tamil Nadu farmers at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in March-April, in which they wore human skulls, conducted mock funerals and even stripped at Raisina Hill, led first to the Madras High Court directing the state on April 5 to write off farmer loans, which would entail a hit over Rs 40,000 crore to state finances.
After 1960 green revolution no party or government addressed the problems of the farmers. Crisis in agriculture is not due to food scarcity but due to market volatility. Excessive use of urea and pesticides compromised the soil fertility. Not all cultivable land is underirrigation; water usage is inefficient, farmers find it xpensive to buy farm equipment, and small holdings make machinery use inefficient. One should also help farmers beat the debt trap.
Secret behind farmers anger?
During the last few weeks farmers across the country started protesting against the governments demanding justice and rightful compensation. Farmers who till recently protested in a peaceful manner like the one seen by the Tamil Nadu farmers protests in New Delhi,however lost their cool when Madhya Pradesh cops fired and killed four farmers.
This resulted in farmers protests turning more violent in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Farmers protests may soon get intensified across the country irrespective of the party in power as farmers are suffering due to pressure to repay loans, unseasonal rains and low crop.
Many people angrily question why are farmers protesting in states where agriculture growth is the highest and tops in the world. Farmers have been demanding loan waivers and if one sees the loan waivers amount then it will burden the economy. The figure is number 3 followed by 12 zeroes and comes to 3,000,000,000,000, if one were to waive out the loans of the farmers before the 2019 elections.
According to the Merill Lynch's estimated calculation, it costs 2% of India's 2015 GDP ($2089 billion). Merill Lynch issued a warning note eclaring that "farm loan waivers of up to 2 per cent of the GDP in the run-up to the 2019 hustings pose fiscal/rate risk and impacts the credit culture" after Yogi Adityanath,CM of Uttar Pradesh waived off loan waivers to the tune of Rs 36,359 crore, or 0.4 per cent of the state's Rs 12.37 lakh crore GDP.
This triggered similar demands from the farmers in Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. While Union Government and RBI governor Urjit Patel,Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya are asking state governments to be cautious, left parties question saying if banks can have NPAs and black money continues to be stashed abroad, why can't farmers be waived their loans?
According to the National Crime Records Bureau's estimate of the number of farmer suicides between 1995 and 2015, one farmer is ending life commiting suicide every one hour and 318528 farmers ended life between 1995-2015. Supreme Court bench, consisting of Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and S.K. Kaul, to ask the Centre on March 27 to file a report within four weeks on what plan of action the states had to tackle the issue of farmer suicides taking it seriously.
All political parties tried to solve the farmers issues with shortterm policies like loan waivers. Political parties used loan waiver not to solve the problems but to garner votes. In Punjab, as many as 40 per cent of the state's 9 lakh farmers who were disbursed crop loans worth Rs 7,500 crore at the start of this Rabi season have deliberately defaulted on their dues because chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh had promised 'Karza kurki khatam (end to farm debt recovery)' ahead of the assembly polls.
Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis is resisting loan waiver to farmers as Shiv Sena chief Uddav Thackery is demanding it. The unconventional 41-day agitation by Tamil Nadu farmers at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in March-April, in which they wore human skulls, conducted mock funerals and even stripped at Raisina Hill, led first to the Madras High Court directing the state on April 5 to write off farmer loans, which would entail a hit over Rs 40,000 crore to state finances.
After 1960 green revolution no party or government addressed the problems of the farmers. Crisis in agriculture is not due to food scarcity but due to market volatility. Excessive use of urea and pesticides compromised the soil fertility. Not all cultivable land is underirrigation; water usage is inefficient, farmers find it xpensive to buy farm equipment, and small holdings make machinery use inefficient. One should also help farmers beat the debt trap.
