Now it is Mamata Raj, which witnesses Farmers` suicide spree! Free Market Economy has Killed the Rural World. Farmers`s suicide in Maharashtra, Andhra and elsewhere is very common. But the land of Land Reforms is now inflicted with the Continuous Holocaust.
Palash Biswas
-
Video | Farmers suicide haunts West Bengal | India Videos | - India ...
indiatoday.intoday.in/.../farmers-suicide...bengal/.../16...4 Jan 2012 - 2 min
Several farmers, unable to tackle inflation, have committedsuicide in West Bengal.
-
Rising farmer suicides in West Bengal appalling: Left - The Hindu
7 Jan 2012 – The frequency of incidents of farmers committing suicides is "unimaginable" in West Bengal, State Left Front chairman Biman Bose said here on ...
-
Farmer suicide deaths make harvest in the backwaters of Bengal
4 Jan 2012 – Yet another farmer having committed suicide now in Burdwan district, the rice bowl of West Bengal, taking the toll to nine in the last two months.
-
Operation Barga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Unlike in other Indian states, West Bengal has hardly seen any farmer suicides or starvation deaths arising from crop failure. Operation Barga and the ...
-
West Bengal farmer commits suicide after failing to repay loan - The ...
16 hours ago – A 38-year-old farmer Tapas Maji committed suicide at Purbasthali under Burdwan district on Saturday.
-
Indian Agrarian Crisis - West Bengal
agrariancrisis.in/tag/west-bengal/Farmers' suicide on rise in Bengal; parties blame each other. Published By Ramoo On... Rising farmer suicides in West Bengal appalling: Left. Published By ...
-
Trinamool | MP | West Bengal | Farmers Suicide | Mamata Banerjee ...
1 day ago – Bengali singer turned Tinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman has left WestBengal government under shame with his song on farmers suicide.
| ||||
West Bengal farmer commits suicide after failing to repay loan
KOLKATA: A 38-year-old farmer Tapas Majicommitted suicide at Purbasthali under Burdwan district on Saturday. Maji's body was found near his house by the villagers during the day. Maji used to live in Sahapur-Chandipur village under Purbasthali in Burdwan district. Burdwan district police officials said that Maji had allegedly committed suicide after he failed to repay the loans he had taken to tilt his 25 bighas of land. Only on last Friday, another farmer from Malda district, Haridas Ratno killed himself for the same reason. Like Maji, Ratno also had failed to repay theloan he had borrowed to cultivate his land. More than 19 farmers in West Bengal had committed suicide. Most of these farmers had borrowed money from private lenders and failed to repay their loans as they could not sell their products in the market. Both the opposition CPIM and ruling Congress in West Bengal have raised their voices against such cases of suicides. The opposition leader and CPIM MLA, Surjya Kanta Mishra has complained on Saturday that the state government was not sincere about solving the problems of the farmers. ""The chief minister is busy attending a festival in the state's sea town of Digha and she is not at all bothered about the pathetic plight of the farmers,"" Mishra complained. The Congress, which is also a part of Mamata Banerjee's government, has also raised their voice against the farmer suicide issue. West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) president and Congress Rajya Sabha MP from the state, Pradip Bhattacharjee had alleged that the government could not purchase rice directly from the farmers by providing them the minimum support price for rice fixed up by the Centre.
| Farmers' suicide in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state: A myth or reality? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
     | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Incidence of farmers ending their lives in Vidarbha region had hit epidemic proportions recently. We adopted the psychological autopsy approach to offer some insight into the reason why these individuals resorted to such a drastic step. Suicide in farmers is public health problem and we suggested some immediate and serious interventions to prevent suicide. Keywords: Farmers, suicide, psychological autopsy, debt
"Jai Jawan , Jai Kisan" - Lal Bahadur Shastri This slogan of a visionary prime minister had lost its potential over the time. After the independence, according to Gandhiji's vision of Gram-Swaraj, villages and specially farmers were to be the main focus of any development plan of India. As years passed, by agriculture as an industry lost its importance for policy makers of India. This over the time caused severe distress among the farmers leading to recent dramatic rise in the number of suicides among farmer community. Every day in national newspaper invariably there is news related to farmers' suicides. India consisting of 16% of world's population sustains only on 2.4% of land resource. Agriculture sector is the only livelihood to the two-third of its population which gives employment to the 57% of work force and is a raw material source to large number of industries. Despite of portrayal of farming as a healthy and happy way of life, agriculture sector experiences one of the highest number of suicides than any other industry. Farmers' suicide is not only reported in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, but also from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and Karnataka. Many enquiry commissions were formed and recommendations were implemented especially in Punjab. [1] The problem of suicide is not only reported in India, but also reported in different parts of the world like England and Wales. [2] In 1990s, India woke-up to a spate of suicide among farmers community. The first state where suicides were reported was Maharashtra with particular reference to Vidarbha region. A look at the figures given out by State Crime Records Bureau makes it evident that farmers as a professional category is suffering from this problem of high-suicide rates. Approximately 3.4 million cotton farmers occupy the Vidarbha region (includes Akola, Buldana, Washim, Amravati, Nagpur, Chandrapur, Gondia, Bhandara, Yavatmal, Gadchiroli, and Wardha districts) and 95% of them struggle with massive debt, according to the Vidarbha Jan Aandolan Samiti (VJAS; Local Farmers' Support Network). [3] Incidence of farmers ending their lives in this region had hit epidemic like proportions recently. We have studied the status of farmers' suicide in Vidarbha region on the request of Wardha district administration. We adopted the psychological autopsy approach to offer some insight into the reason why these individuals resorted to such a drastic step. [4] In India, however, problems in identifying the population base and in the certification of death has meant that the true magnitude of the problem is yet to be realized. [5] Several studies undertaken in India have revealed the incidence of suicides to vary from 8 to 43 per 100,000 population [5] with a pronounced State-to-State variation, the highest being in Kerala (27 per 100,000) while the lowest is in Manipur (0.02% of total suicides). Due to its medico-legal nature, information on suicides is available from national, state, and city crime record bureaus in various parts of India. Majority suicide studies are based on police records with very few from the hospital records and nil from population settings. Given the inadequacies of police reporting - analysis and misclassification bias (suicides, homicides, and accidental deaths) - the numbers may be an under reporting of the situation.
Since long time, Indian farmers have been facing a number of socioeconomic problems, such as harassment by moneylenders, inability to repay debts following crop loss, inability to get medical treatment for the family, etc. The problem is compounded by lack of positive and cooperative support from banks especially in the face of inclement weather and market fluctuations. Economic plight of farmers might be illustrated with the fact that a farmer having as much as 15 acres of land and hence considered a well off farmer in Vidarbha, with an average income of Rs 2700 per acre per annum, had an income just little more than what he would have earned the legal minimum wage for all 365 days of the year. Agriculture is the main stay of the state of Maharashtra. Total irrigated area which had been used for cultivation is 33,500 sq kilometers. Average annual profit from cultivation in the state of Maharashtra is the lowest of all Indian states, lagging far behind the state with the highest - Jammu and Kashmir (Rs. 4363 vs. Rs. 22,770). The reasons for such a pathetic state of farmers include below average rainfall, heavy load-shedding, lack of small irrigation projects, poverty, pressure of private moneylenders and banks, ignorance of ancillary occupations for raising income, employment problem of the farmers' children, decreasing interest of the young generation in farming, rapid urbanization, apathy and lack of political willpower toward welfare and development of the region, etc. Cumulative effect of all these is evident on the psyche of the people of Vidarbha in general and farmers in particular. Farmers are hence prompted to turn to local moneylenders (sahukars) who charged them a much higher rate of interest. In fact moneylenders proved to be the most common and easy source of loans for the farmer (28.4%) followed by loans procured from relatives (22.93%) while only 3.94% turned to land development banks.
In a country of 70 million farmers, it is 10 in every 100,000 farmers committing suicide. This is higher than the total national suicide rate. [6] The number of farmers committing suicide in India is more than twice of the total number of suicides being committed in the top 100 countries on the suicide list! This indeed is worrying factor. The Government's measures including waiving off loans, construction of dams, and other assisting measures have not produced positive results so far. In India, the national data show that suicide rate was 9.7/lakh population in 1995. [1] The population of Vidarbha is 12 lakhs, so number of suicide should be around 116 per year. But according to Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, [3] suicides in Vidarbha is 600 in 2007 till June, 1065 in 2006, 572 in 2005, 620 in 2004, 170 in 2003, and 122 in 2002. These figures definitely suggest suicide rate in Vidarbha is high since 2002 in comparison to national suicide figure. A total of 7000 farmers have committed suicide during the last 3 years. That is an average of over six farmers committing suicide per day! More than 2190 per year!! [7] Farmers' suicides in Vidarbha in the last 3-4 years have already crossed 2500 causing a great anxiety. [8] Wardha district in particular is also facing this problem with increasing number of claims for government ex gratia grant on steady rise. [9] In 2008 till April alone there were 26 claims, as compared to 29 in 2004, 26 in 2005, 154 in 2006, and 128 in 2007. Subsequently Hon. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Vidarbha and promised a package of Rs. 11,000 crores to be spent by the government in Vidarbha. The families of farmers who had committed suicide were also offered an ex gratia grant to the tune of Rs. 1 lakh by the government. This figure kept on varying, depending on how much pressure the government was facing from the media and the opposition parties for being uncaring toward the farmers' plight.
Vidarbha is home for approximately 3.4 million cotton farmers and 95% of these are struggling with the massive debt. Most of the villages in Vidarbha are badly in need of basic social infrastructure like all-weather roads, drinking water, regular electricity, primary health care, and basic education. Majority of suicide cases are from cotton growing areas. The cotton farmers in India paying more prices for inputs like seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, electricity, water, and labor whereas the price of cotton has gone down along with decreased productivity. In contrast to this picture in India, US Government is giving USD 4.0 billion to cotton farmers and asking for further liberalization of cotton trade in USA. As discussed earlier, some of the important contributing factors for farmers' suicide in this region are:
In Vidarbha (basically a low rainfall area), the major crop is cotton, jowar (Barley), and pulses and people rely more on dry farming. Irrigated farming is insignificant and seen only in very few pockets where major rivers provide water for the whole year. With the cumulative effect of these reasons coupled with environmental antagonism and exploitation of the farmers in all sectors made them pessimistic toward life resulting into development of suicidal tendency in them. The remedial measures undertaken by the government did not show any immediate positive effect in the attitude of the farmers. In April 2007, an NGO named Green Earth Social Development Consulting [10] brought out a report after doing an audit of the state and central government relief packages in Vidarbha. The report's conclusions were:
Awareness regarding the package was also pretty low. The report concluded quite alarmingly that the loan burden of the farmers will double in 2008.
The Department of Psychiatry, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sewagram, had conducted a study on farmers who committed suicide between January 2005 to March 2006 in Wardha district (having 11 talukas). Verbal autopsy was implemented as a tool of investigation. It is a recognized vital tool in suicide investigation and planning intervention strategies. A structured enquiry form consisting of 52 questions was developed. It consisted both close and open-ended questions. Family members of farmers or landowners who had committed suicide during the above specified period were interviewed. The interview included a case history taken by trained doctors and it revealed a glimpse into the causes and circumstances behind these deaths. After the interview, the family members were given counseling. [4] Counseling centers are open in few talukas.
Farmers are in severe distress and there is an urgent need for increased public awareness among farmers regarding agricultural policies both financial and those extended by the government. If given an option, 40% farmers said that they would like to quit agriculture and take up some other carrier. It is a complex task and requires more than just throwing money at it. Surely, other measures will be needed to set the rural economy on track. Marketing and storage infrastructure will have to be built. New crop patterns that answer to emerging needs will have to be introduced. Better rural credit delivery system will have to be evolved. Self-help groups need to be encouraged. Finally, suicide should not be viewed as only mental health problem, which is a common notion among people. The various factors which play are: (1) chronic indebtedness and inability to pay interest accumulated over the years, (2) economic decline leads to complications and family disputes, depression, and alcoholism, etc., (3) compensation following suicide (death) helps family to repay debt, (4) grain drain, and (5) the rising costs of agricultural inputs and falling prices of agricultural produce. In the Indian situation, the causes are multifactorial, cumulative, repetitive and progressive, leading an individual to a state of helplessness, worthlessness and hopelessness, obviously influenced by his social strengths, and weaknesses along with his mental health status. Future Task Religious leaders have a major role to play in suicide prevention since all religions discourage the act of suicide. In this context, especially support provided by Hindu religious values in India is a strong protection against suicidal behavior. So indeed, it is very difficult and needs courage to commit suicide especially by farmers. Blaming only moneylenders, as if they have become plastic bags of rural economy is not the solution. We need to address actual reasons of suicide. There should be a committee, not only of agriculturists, economists, but also psychiatrists and social workers as well. Forming self-help group in every 4–5 villages will help. Suicide in farmers is a public health problem having no borders. It needs immediate and serious intervention.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farmers' suicides in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
India is an Agrarian country with around 60% of its people directly or indirectly depend upon Agriculture. Agriculture in India is often attributed as gambling with Monsoon because of its almost exclusive dependency on Monsoons. The failure of these monsoons leading to series ofdroughts, lack of better prices, exploitation by Middlemen have been leading to series of suicides committed by farmers across India.[1]
Contents[hide] |
[edit]Statistics
Farmers in India became the centre of considerable concern in the 1990s when the journalist P Sainath highlighted the large number ofsuicides among them. Official reports initially denied the farmer suicides but as more and more information came to light the government began to accept that farmers in India were under considerable stress. On figures there was much debate since the issue was so emotive. The government tried to underplay the cases of farmer deaths, intellectual supporters of the farmers preferred to inflate them. More than 17,500 farmers a year killed themselves between 2002 and 2006, according to experts who have analyzed government statistics.[2] Others traced the increase in farmer suicides to the early 1990s.[3] It was said, a comprehensive all-India study is still awaited, that most suicides occurred in states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Punjab.[4][5][6][7][8] The situation was grim enough to force at least the Maharashtra government to set up a dedicated office to deal with farmers distress.[9]
In 2006, the state of Maharashtra, with 4,453 farmers' suicides accounted for over a quarter of the all-India total of 17,060, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). NCRB also stated that there were at least 16,196 farmers' suicides in India in 2008, bringing the total since 1997 to 199,132 .[10] According to another study by the Bureau, while the number of farm suicides increased since 2001, the number of farmers has fallen, as thousands abandoning agriculture in distress.[11] According to government data, over 5,000 farmers committed suicide in 2005-2009 in Maharashtra, while 1,313 cases reported by Andhra Pradesh between 2005 and 2007. In Karnataka the number stood at 1,003, since 2005-06 till August 2009. According to NCRB database number of suicides during 2005-2009 in Gujarat 387, Kerala 905, Punjab 75 and Tamil Nadu 26.[12] In April 2009, the state of Chattisgarh reported 1,500 farmers committed suicide due to debt and crop failure.[13] At least 17,368 Indian farmers killed themselves in 2009, the worst figure for farm suicides in six years, according to data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).[14]
[edit]History
In the 1990s India woke up to a spate of farmers suicides. One of the major reporters of these suicides was the Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu, P. Sainath. The first state where suicides were reported was Maharashtra. Soon newspapers began to report similar occurrences from Andhra Pradesh.[15] In the beginning it was believed that most of the suicides were happening among the cotton growers, especially those from Vidarbha.[16] A look at the figures given out by the State Crime Records Bureau, however, was sufficient to indicate that it was not just the cotton farmer but farmers as a professional category were suffering, irrespective of their holding size.[17] Moreover, it was not just the farmers from Vidarbha but all over Maharashtra who showed a significantly high suicide rate.[18][19] The government appointed a number of inquiries to look into the causes of farmers suicide and farm related distress in general. Subsequently Prime Minister Manmohan Singhvisited Vidarbha and promised a package of Rs.110 billion (about $2.4 billion) to be spent by the government in Vidarbha. The families of farmers who had committed suicide were also offered an ex gratia grant to the tune of Rs.100,000 (about $2,000) by the government. This figure kept on varying, depending on how much criticism the government was facing from the media and the opposition parties for being uncaring towards the farmers' plight. Such a high figure was ironic considering that the net average income of a family of farmers in this region was approximately Rs.2700 (about $60) per acre per annum. The economic plight of the farmer might be illustrated with the fact that a farmer having as much as 15 acres (61,000 m2) of land, and hence considered a well-off farmer, had an income of just a little more than what he would have earned were he to merely get the legal minimum wage for all of the 365 days of the year. Little wonder that despite government efforts at pumping in more money into the suicide belt the suicide epidemic among farmers remained unabated through 2006-07. The problems of the farmers were quite comprehensive. There was little credit available. What was available was very costly. There was no advice on how best to conduct agriculture operations. Income through farming was not enough to meet even the minimum needs of a farming family. Support systems like free health facilities from the government were virtually non-existent. Traditionally support systems in the villages of India had been provided by the government. However, due to a variety of reasons the government had either withdrawn itself from its supportive role or plain simple misgovernance had allowed facilities in the villages to wither away.[20]
[edit]Causes
Research by various investigators like Raj Patel,[2] Nagraj,[18][19] Meeta and Rajivlochan,[21] identified a variety of causes. India was transforming rapidly into a primarily urban, industrial society with industry as its main source of income; the government and society had begun to be unconcerned about the condition of the countryside; moreover, a downturn in the urban economy was pushing a large number of distressed non-farmers to try their hand at cultivation; the farmer was also caught in a Scissors Crisis; in the absence of any responsible counselling either from the government or society there were many farmers who did not know how to survive in the changing economy. Such stresses pushed many into a corner where suicide became an option for them [22]
Research has also pointed to a certain types of technological change as having played an instrumental role in the problem. One study from the Punjab showed dramatic misuse of agricultural chemicals in farmer households in the absence of any guidance on how to correctly use these deadly chemicals and linked it to the rise in farm suicides wherever farm chemicals were in widespread use.[23] Important research in Andhra Pradesh showed the very rapid change in seed and pesticide products to have caused "deskilling" in the cotton sector.[24]
[edit]GM crops
There have been claims of genetically-modified (GM) seeds (such as Bt cotton) being responsible for the farmer suicides.[25][26][27][28] A short documentary by Frontline (U.S. TV series) suggested that farmers using GM seeds promoted by Cargill and Monsanto have led to rising debts and forced some into the equivalent of indentured servitude to the moneylenders.[29]
A report released by the International Food Policy Research Institute in October 2008 provided evidence that the introduction of Bt cotton was not a major factor in farmer suicides in India.[30] It argues that the suicides predate the introduction of the cotton in 2002 and has been fairly consistent since 1997.[30][31] Other studies also suggest the increase in farmer suicides is due to a combination of various socio-economicfactors.[32] These include debt, the difficulty of farming semi-arid regions, poor agricultural income, absence of alternative income opportunities, the downturn in the urban economy forcing non-farmers into farming, and the absence of suitable counseling services.[32][33]
[edit]Responses to Farmers suicides
Vidarbha was in the media for a spate of farmer suicides in recent years ostensibly because of the falling Minimum Support Price for cotton. The problem is complex and root causes include lopsided policies of the World Trade Organisation and developed nations' subsidies to their cotton farmers which make Vidarbha's cotton uncompetitive in world markets. Consequently Vidarbha is plagued by high rates of school drop outs, penniless widows left in the wake of suicides, loan sharks and exploitation of the vulnerable groups.[34]
The Indian government had promised to increase the minimum rate for cotton by approximately Rs 100 ($2) but reneged on its promise by reducing the Minimum Support Price further. This resulted in more suicides as farmers were ashamed to default on debt payments to loan sharks. "In 2006, 1,044 suicides were reported in Vidarbha alone - that's one suicide every eight hours."[35]
In April 2007 a development consulting group named Green Earth Social Development Consulting produced a report after doing an audit of the state and central government relief packages in Vidarbha.[36][unreliable source?] The report's conclusions were:
- Farmers' demands were not taken into account while preparing the relief package. Neither were civil society organisations, local government bodies, panchayats etc. consulted.
- The relief packages were mostly amalgamations of existing schemes. Apart from the farmer helpline and the direct financial assistance, there was scarcely anything new being offered. Pumping extra funds into additional schemes shows that no new idea was applied to solve a situation where existing measures had obviously failed.
- The farmer helpline did not give any substantial help to farmers except in Karnataka.
- The basis for selection of beneficiaries under the assistance scheme was not well-defined. Also, type of assistance to be given led to problems like a farmer needing a pair of bullocks getting a pump set and vice versa (or a farmer who has no access to water sources being given pump sets)
- Awareness regarding the package was also fairly low.
The report concluded quite alarmingly that the loan burden of the farmers would double in 2008.
To attract attention a variety of catch phrases were coined such as 'SEZ' or (Farmers) 'Special Elimination Zone' states.[37]
The government set up a dedicated group to deal with farm distress in 2006 known as the Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission, based in Amravati [9] A group to study the Farmers Suicides was also constituted by the Government of Karnataka under the Chairmanship of Dr Veeresh, Former Vice Chancellor of Agricultural University and Prof Deshpande as member.[38]
[edit]In popular culture
"Summer 2007" by producer Atul Pandey, focused on the issue of farmer suicides in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, as did the 2009 Bollywood film Kissan.[39] Prior to this "The Dying Fields", a documentary directed by Fred de Sam Lazaro was aired in August, 2007 onWide Angle (TV series).
In 2006, A documentary by Indian film maker Sumit Khanna titled "Mere Desh Ki Dharti" , did a comprehensive review of the way we grow our food. A well researched and in-depth understanding of the agrarian crisis, it won the national award for the best Investigative film.
In 2009, the International Museum of Women included an examination of the impact of farmers' suicides on the lives of the farmers' wives and children in their exhibition Economica: Women and the Global Economy. Their slideshow "Growing Debt" and accompanying essay by curator Masum Momaya entitled "Money of Her Own" showed how many widows were left with the burden of their husbands' debts, and were forced to work as indentured servants to repay the debt. The widows were also unlikely to remarry, because other men in the community were unwilling to take on the widows' debts for themselves.[40]
The 2010, award winning film Jhing Chik Jhing is based around the emotive issue of farmer suicides in Maharashtra. It looks at how the farmer has very little in his control and looks at the impact of indebtedness on his family.[41]
[edit]See also
- Farmers Suicide in Western Orissa
- Suicide in India
- The Corporation - Explains the impact of commodification and patenting life forms on independent farmers.
- P. Sainath, a journalist who covered the Covering farmers' suicides in India, later won the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award
- Peepli Live (2010 film)
- Kissan (2009 film)
- Battle in Seattle, a 2007 film that quotes the Indian suicide statistic in the end credits)
[edit]References
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b Raj Patel, Stuffed and Starved, Portobello Books, London, 2007
- ^ 1. Meeta and Rajivlochan (2006) Farmers suicide: facts and possible policy interventions, Yashada, Pune.
- ^ "Drought, debt lead to Indian farmers' suicides". Associated Press. Auhust 28, 2009.
- ^ "Spate of farmers' suicides in India worrying WHO". The Hindu. Oct 15, 2006.
- ^ Waldman, Amy (June 6, 2004). "Debts and Drought Drive India's Farmers to Despair". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ Huggler, Justin (2 July 2004). "India acts over suicide crisis on farms". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ Pinglay, Prachi (5 May 2008). "No let up in India farm suicides". BBC News.
- ^ a b VNSS Mission
- ^ India together
- ^ "Farm suicides worse after 2001 — study". The Hindu. Nov 13, 2007..
- ^ "Farmers' suicides in India not due to Bt cotton: IFFRI". Mint (newspaper). Nov 11 2008.
- ^ "1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India". London: The Independent. 15 April 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ The Hindu-December 2010 column
- ^ Rediff News
- ^ Planning Commission report
- ^ 1. Meeta and Rajivlochan (2006) Farmers suicide: facts and possible policy interventions, Yashada, Pune, pp. 11-13.
- ^ a b Macroscan reports
- ^ a b Nagraj, K. (2008) Farmers suicide in India: magnitudes, trends and spatial patterns
- ^ M Rajivlochan (2007) "Farmers and firefighters" in Indian Express, August 28, 2007, [2]
- ^ Meeta and Rajivlochan (2006) Farmers suicide: facts and possible policy interventions, Yashada, Pune, pp. 75-101.
- ^ Behere PB, Behere AP. Farmers' suicide in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state: A myth or reality?. Indian J Psychiatry [serial online] 2008 [cited 2009 Oct 23];50:124-7. Available from: http://www.indianjpsychiatry.org/text.asp?2008/50/2/124/42401
- ^ Kaur, Raminderjeet, 2008. "Assessment of genetic damage in the workers occupationally exposed to various pesticides in selected districts of Punjab", unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Human Biology, Punjabi University, Patiala.
- ^ Stone, Glenn Davis, 2007. "Agricultural Deskilling and the Spread of Genetically Modified Cotton in Warangal." Current Anthropology 48:67-103
- ^ "Farmer's Suicides". Z Magazine.
- ^ "Indian Farmer's Final Solution". countercurrents.org.
- ^ "Rough Cut Seeds of Suicide India's desperate farmers". PBS Frontline. 26 July 2005. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
- ^ P. Sainath (August 2004). "Seeds of suicide – I I". InfoChange News and Features.
- ^ Seeds of Suicide: India's desperate farmers from the Public Broadcasting Service
- ^ a b Guillaume P. Gruère, Purvi Mehta-Bhatt and Debdatta Sengupta (2008). "Bt Cotton and Farmer Suicides in India: Reviewing the Evidence". International Food Policy Research Institute.
- ^ Sheridan, C. (2009). "Doubts surround link between Bt cotton failure and farmer suicide". Nat Biotechnol. 27 (1): 9–10. doi:10.1038/nbt0109-9. PMID 19131979.
- ^ a b Nagraj, K. (2008). "Farmers suicide in India: magnitudes, trends and spatial patterns".
- ^ Mishra, Srijit (2007). "Risks, Farmers' Suicides and Agrarian Crisis in India: Is There A Way Out?". Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR).
- ^ Deshpande and Arora. Agrarian Crisis and Farmer Suicides. Sage,. ISBN 978-81-321-0512-1(HB).
- ^ "The Dying Fields". Wide Angle (TV series). PBS. 2007.
- ^ "GreenEarth report on Impact of Relief Packages on farmers suicides in Vidarbha". Retrieved 4 January 2012.
- ^ "17,060 farm suicides in one year". The Hindu. Jan 31, 2008.
- ^ Deshpande(2002)
- ^ "Has Bollywood shut its eyes to movies on farmers?". The Economic Times. 29 Aug 2009.
- ^ "Marriage and Money". Economica: Women and the Global Economy. October 2009.
- ^ "Jhing Chik Jhing - a story of hope". January 2010.
| ||
Farmers' Suicides in Maharashtra
Over 14000 farmers in different states of India have committed suicide between 2001 and 2006. Death is haunting the farmers of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra . Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are competing with each other to stake the highest claim to farmers' suicides in India .
Despite the tall claims of containing the crisis by the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh after initiating a number of ad-hoc measures such as interest waiver, moratorium on debts, waiver of electricity dues, providing free power for agriculture use, streamlining seed supply etc., farmers' suicides still continue in Telangana and Rayalaseema regions of the state. The official figures put the number of suicides at 1,261 till March 2006, during two years of Congress rule in the state. It is said that on an average, three to five suicides are being reported every week in the state. The same is the fate of farmers in Karnataka and till now largest number of farmers' suicides occurred in this state. Agriculture is almost becoming obsolete in Punjab . There are attempts to pump in more agricultural credit and other ad-hoc interventions to salvage the situation. Time and again this has misfired. It is only like tightening the noose around the neck of already debt-ridden farmers. The basic cause for the malady lies elsewhere.
The farming community in India is exposed to the volatility of international market under the WTO regime, thanks to the policy of bringing in a range of agricultural commodities under the Open General Licence imports. Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen says: "Clearly, even across regions, the most common problem is the essentially high level of debt relative to incomes. Between the last two NSS surveys, both debt to GDP and debt to consumption ratios for farmers have simply doubled. Also, the highest suicides are in the regions with the highest debt. Most of them are also in cotton belts in the case of Maharashtra , Andhra and even Karnataka, while in Kerala, it's spices like black pepper. These are cash crops which suffer from highly volatile prices and need superior market and technical knowledge. When the unaware farmer diversifies into a cash crop lured by high prices in a particular year, it's like entering the stockmarket when the prices are unrealistic; you can face a crash the next year."
It is said that the cotton crop killed many debt ridden farmers in Maharashtra . But the suicides of farmers in Vidharba region clearly shows that it is the policy of central and state governments that has pushed many of the vulnerable farmers in to debt/death trap.
| Sharad Pawar's package to arrest farmers' suicides In Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra the state governments have already been announcing packages to curb farmers' suicides without much result. There is already a package announced by the Centre during June 2004 for the entire country, comprising rescheduling of repayment of outstanding debt over five years with two year moratorium, rescheduling of loans in default, fresh credit for 'ineligible' farmers, OTS for farmers declared as defaulters and loans for farmers to pay off moneylenders. These packages along with Chidambaram's budget 'commitments' to rural sector have not effectively addressed the basic issues of crisis in agriculture as evident from the continuing farmers' suicides across the country. In this backdrop, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has recently announced a special package to be implemented within two months to arrest farmers' suicides. This is done in consultation with the chief ministers and agriculture ministers from Kerala, Maharashtra , Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in Hyderabad . The government has chosen 30-35 problem-ridden districts from these four states, including 15 from Andhra Pradesh, six each from Maharashtra and Karnataka and three in Kerala. Agriculture Minister has said that the new package would supplement and support the State Governments' efforts. It is said that the package would address problems relating to credit, insurance, irrigation, agricultural productivity, lack of extension services and lack of marketing infrastructure. · The draft package envisages conversion/rescheduling of loans from six to nine years or even more, including moratorium of three years, no compounding of interest and waiving of interest during moratorium period at the end of the loan tenure. · A special one-time settlement (OTS) package would comprise waiving of interest and allowing three to four years for payment of settlement amount to be made applicable to cooperatives and the creation of a credit risk fund for interest relief to small and medium farmers. · The package envisages farmers to pay maximum premium of 4% and liability beyond that to be shared by the government. The government proposes to launch weather insurance and individual assessment where a scheme on actuarial basis is not applicable. These are not something new and have been already announced as policies both at Central and State government levels. Finance Minister, Mr. Chidambaram, has offered some announcements in his budgets over the past two years, the main one being increasing credit flow into rural areas by Rs. 1,70,000 crores. These already existing packages have not meant anything to farmers who are caught in the crisis of unremunerative prices and volatility of international markets. Under such circumstances pumping in more credit without control over trade would only intensify the crisis and push farmers deeper into debt. Pawar's proposal also includes increasing cropping intensity by increasing intensive irrigation. One of the main ailments of agrarian sector in India is shift to capital-intensive crops, on the one hand, and reduction in protection to such farmers under the WTO regime, on the other. This has pushed farmers into debt and suicide. The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey has shown that 50% rural debt is due to capital-intensive farming such as high cost Bt. Cotton seeds and agrichemicals. According to the National Sample Survey, 48.6% of farm households are in debt. The two most important purposes of taking loans were stated to be "capital expenditure in farm business" and "current expenditure in farm business". At the all India level, out of every 1000 rupees taken as loan, 584 rupees were borrowed for capital-intensive agriculture. Thus, any package that is devoid of measures protecting the farmers from the volatility of the international market and prices is bound to be a failure. – Vidyasagar |
Killer Cotton?
In the Vidarbha region, the cotton belt of Maharashtra , over 980 cotton farmers have committed suicide between 2001 and 2006. Of the 3.4 million cotton farmers in this region, 95% are believed to be struggling with heavy debt, according to Jan Aandolan Samiti.
Cotton is an important commercial crop grown in Maharashtra constituting around 15 of the gross cropped area, accounting for the highest area under cotton in the whole country. Nearly 97% of the cotton cultivated in Maharashtra being unirrigated, yield from cotton is lowest and much below the all-India average. While the all-India yield was 191 kg per hectare in 2000-01, the yield in Maharashtra during the same period was 100 kg per hectare.
The four major cotton growing districts of Akola , Amravati , Buldhana and Yavatmal together constituted 43% of the area in the state. For most farmers in this region, cotton is the primary cash crop and therefore the principal source of income. However, this has turned out to be most unremunerative in the last decade.
The Maharashtra State Agricultural Prices Committee data shows that for the year 2002-03 the cost of production of H-6 variety was Rs 2357.61/- per quintal whereas the Minimum support price (MSP) announced by CACP was Rs 1875/- per quintal. Again with respect to NHH-44 and LRA-5166 while cost of production was Rs 2318.84/- and Rs 2185.33 per quintal respectively, the MSP was Rs 1620/- and Rs 1750/- per quintal respectively. This indicates that the MSP fixed is about 20 to 30% lower than the cost of production. (Sangeeta Shroff, GIPE, Pune, Cotton Sector inMaharashtra ).
The newly introduced, genetically modified seed, Bt.Cotton, that was enthusiastically endorsed by the government has wreaked havoc on cotton farmers' lives. Its manufacturer, Monsanto, said it was resistant to boll weevil - the main cotton pest - and required just two sprays of insecticide for every crop, instead of the usual eight. This seed sold for about four and a half times the cost of normal seed, but many farmers opted to buy it because they believed it was indestructible and would give a higher yield. They were devastated when many of the Bt cotton plants were afflicted with a reddening that destroyed much of the crop leaving the farmers with unusually high debts.
On the one hand promoting multinational giants such as Monsanto, the government has withdrawn market controls, tariffs and subsidies for agriculture under the diktats of the World Bank. This is done without providing proper infrastructure such as irrigation and marketing facilities. This has pushed Indian farmers to compete with farmers in the United States and the European Union who are protected by trade restrictions and provided with billions of dollars as subsidy. The 2002 Farm Bill in the U.S. alone gave $190 billion to large companies growing cotton, wheat, corn, soybean, rice, barley, oats and sorghum.
Ten years back, the international price of cotton lint was $1.10 a pound ($2.42 a kilo) but now it is 52 cents. The retail price of cotton then was Rs.40 a metre, and it is now Rs.80. Retail prices have doubled but farmers are forced to sell their produce at half the price.
The Central Government can protect cotton growers from imports and crashing international prices by hiking the import duty on cotton. But this is not done. At present it is only 10%. With respect to imports of cotton, since 1970 they were canalized through Cotton Corporation of India . However, in April 1994, keeping in tune with globalisation, cotton lint imports were placed under open general license (OGL) i.e., they were freely importable. Further, from July, 2001, raw cotton exports were also under OGL. With international prices being depressed there is hardly any scope for the Maharashtra Federation which was holding large stocks of cotton to capitalize on exports. (Sangeeta Shroff, GIPE, Pune). Falling global prices coupled with a low 10% import duty, made imports cheaper; imported cotton now sells at Rs 17,000 a bale compared to Rs 19,000 for Indian cotton. As a result more cotton is imported in the past five years than in the previous two decades.
The Maharashtra Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme set up in 1972 to purchase cotton from the state's 30 lakh cotton farmers has been systematically scarped since 2002 to allow the private traders to have their heyday (see box).
Cost of production being much higher than the prices, most farmers are running up huge losses and have to borrow heavily. Since most of them have defaulted on loan repayments the banks are unwilling to extend fresh loans. Their only recourse is to borrow from the trader-moneylender at 60 to 120% interest. This has ensured that the farmers are trapped in debt.
A report submitted to the government of Maharashtra by the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai during January 2006 on Suicide of Farmers in Maharashtra by Srijit Mishra has found out that the suicides are triggered by the import policies of the government and the resultant debt trap of the farmers. The study was focused in three districts in Vidharba region namely Wardha, Washim and Yavatmal.
The main findings of the IGIDR Report
• Farmers in the selected districts are exposed to both yield as well as price shocks for their cotton crops. In 2004, the selected districts experienced acute water problems due to deficit rainfall. Though cotton cultivation was affected in at least some pockets of the selected districts, there has been record production in the state as well as in the rest of the country. Increased supply of cotton in 2004 was worldwide leading to a fall in its prices.
• Price risk in cotton is further compounded due to large subsidy provided in the United States , low import tariff of only 5% in India and the failure of the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme (MCPS) in providing a fair price to the farmers in Mharashtra.
• The number of rural branches of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) has not increased and it has been declining as a proportion of total branches. Agricultural credit as a proportion of total credit disbursed by the SCBs has been declining. Credit lines of co-operative societies are chocked. Credit flow through primary agricultural co-operative credit societies indicate that loan per hectare gross cropped area is the lowest in the Vidarbha region.
• The breakdown of formal credit structures has led to increased reliance on informal private sources of credit with greater interest burden. Under normal circumstances interest charged by private moneylenders is around Rs.25 ( sawai ) or Rs.50 ( dedhi ) for a loan of Rs.100 that is to be repaid in 4-6 months time.
• In the absence of government extension service, farmers are advised by input traders leading to an increase in input costs through supplier-induced-demand.
• Share of input costs for seed, pesticide and fertilizer in cotton is higher than that for other crops. In fact, 90% of the total insecticide/pesticide usage in the five major crop groups in Maharashtra is in cotton.
• Cotton's share of gross value addition in Maharashtra 's agriculture is much lower than its share of gross area under cultivation. In fact, estimated cost of cotton cultivation in 2004-05 would at best break-even with the price under Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme.
• Expenditure under public intervention programmes like the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme (MEGS) is not commensurate to the regions share of poor. The share is even lower for agriculture and irrigation schemes, which together account for 44% of the state's expenditure under MEGS during 2001-4.
The study also reveals that the suicide mortality rate among male farmers in Maharashtra trebled from 17 in 1995 to 53 in 2004. This is much more intensive in the selected districts of Vidharba region. Farmers' suicides were neutral to education and social groups. The most important reason is found to be heavy indebtedness to both institutional and non-institutional sources. Reliance on the latter has been increasing in the recent past.
Response of the State Government
Alarmed at the phenomenal scale of farmers' suicides, Chief Minister of Maharashtra announced farm loans at the rate of 6% interest, 1% less than the previous rate. He also announced that, "If a farmer repays the loan on time, he will get an additional subsidy of 2% in the interest rate and state will bare the cost of giving loans to farmers at subsidised rate." This announcement is a farce as the farmers are already with high debt burden that they are unable to repay. In the absence of remunerative prices the farmers cannot repay the loan. 1% reduction in the interest will hardly relive the farmers from the large gap between cost of production and prices. A recent study by the state-run National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) revealed that small and marginal farmers holding up to five acres were more vulnerable. And borrowings from institutional and non-institutional sources were almost equally responsible for farmers' indebtedness. The average outstanding per sample farmer was Rs 38,444. Given that most of the farmers are indebted to the non-institutional sources of credit, there is no strict action to curtail the private moneylenders.
Besides financial relief, the state government is trying to uplift the morale of farmers by organising social events like prayer meetings, plays, talks by experts etc. Instead of addressing the root causes, efforts to start counselling camps for the farmers, asking them to join Art of Living classes, or attend morning bhajans is a cruel joke on dying farmers.
While the state government packages are yet to take off, there is yet another package for the suicide prone states announced by Pawar which is almost on similar lines (see box).
http://www.cpiml.org/liberation/year_2006/June/farmer_maharashtra.htm Full coverage
Principal after principal thrashed, Mamata does nothingNDTV - Jan 12, 2012 When a group of student activists from her party were seen on camera thrashing a college principal, Mamata Banerjee dismissed the attack on the Raiganj College campus as a minor matter. The Chief Minister of West Bengal also alleged that the Congress ... Bedside mannersIndia Today - Jan 13, 2012 In Bengal, Mamata Banerjee and Congress are not squabbling. They are preparing for the inevitable battle for the same space. Both Mamata and Congress know that the Left Front will need a decade in Bengal before it can revive, but that there is an ... Congress working overtime to arrest slide in Trinamool tiesThe Hindu - Jan 12, 2012 Concerned over the deteriorating equations between the Trinamool Congress and its unit in WestBengal, the Congress' national leadership has invited senior State leaders, including PCC chief Pradip Bhattacharya and Minister Manas Bhuniya, ... Trinamool MP slams Bengal government for farmers' suicidesHindustan Times - Jan 12, 2012 Causing embarrassment to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, singer-turned-Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman has composed a song condemning farmers' suicides in the state and has urged the state government to pay heed to the plight of the ... Endgame for UPA?Daily Pioneer - Jan 13, 2012 But as old habits die hard, the Congress' ambition to grow at the cost of its allies in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra is raising the level of mistrust among its partners. Rising prices, growing corruption, moves to kill federalism, ... Negative politics of Bengal now a national characteristicDaily Pioneer - Jan 13, 2012 Surya Kanta Mishra, the leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, who is from the CPI(M), had this to say about the running dispute between the Trinamool Congress and Indian National Congress — go to the family court for arbitration. ... Pranab asks Cong not to provoke Trinamool CongressDaily Pioneer - Jan 13, 2012 Ahmed the AICC in-charge of Bengal had earlier advised the PCC leaders not to speak out of turn. He had advised only one person to make comments on sensitive issues like the relationship between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress. ... Congress at odds with Trinamool, admits PranabDaily News & Analysis - Jan 13, 2012 "Shakeel Ahmed is the AICC general secretary in-charge of West Bengal. He has said what he had to on the Indira Bhavan issue, that is enough," Mukherjee told newspersons in Kolkata when asked to comment on the spat between the allies over the Indira ... Trinamool Congress is a valued partner, says Shakeel AhmadEconomic Times - Jan 12, 2012 The Congress central leadership has directed its raucous West Bengal unit to pipe down attack on Mamata Banerjee and her party. "The central leadership has asked state unit leaders to exercise restraint. We have also advised them to open channels of ...  The Cold Comforts of a SpatTehelka - Jan 13, 2012 This week, after openly accusing her ally of siding with the CPM, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dared the Congress to walk out of the West Bengalgovernment. Later, in its first public rally against the Congress, TMC leaders lined up on stage and ... Mishra slams Mamata for inaction against campus violenceIBNLive.com - Jan 13, 2012 PTI | 04:01 PM,Jan 13,2012 Kolkata, Jan 13 (PTI) Opposition Leader in the Assembly Suryakanta Mishra of the CPI-M today accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of taking no action against growing campus violence in West Bengal and alleged 'blatant ...  Souring tiesThe Week - Jan 13, 2012 The central leadership is, however, sympathetic to the concerns of the state Congress and is backing up its protests on issues such as paddy procurement and suicide of farmers. "But the most important issue on which the Congressmen are most emotionally ...  Didi goes national, first stop Uttar PradeshFirstpost - Jan 13, 2012 By Alka Pande Stepping out of West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has decided to enter the poll fray in five states—Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarkhand and Uttar Pradesh—and making a move in this direction it has declared the list of 49 candidates for the ... Pranab backs Shakeel's cool down advice to Bengal CongressMSN India - Jan 13, 2012 Kolkata, Jan 13 (IANS) A day after the Congress high command asked its Bengal unit to cool down tempers against ally Trinamool, senior Congress leader and union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Friday indicated that the state unit should heed the ... Cong drive to repair Bengal tiesCalcutta Telegraph - Jan 12, 2012 Sources said party president Sonia Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee, who decides the Bengalstrategy, strongly disapproved of such radical ideas and asked senior leaders to lower the temperature as soon as possible. Bengal in-charge Shakeel Ahmed was on the ... Cong blinks, tries to mend ties with TrinamoolIndian Express - Jan 12, 2012 In a clear attempt to arrest the slide in its relations with UPA partner Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Congress has asked its leaders in West Bengal to refrain from using harsh words against the TMC and has called the party's state chief to Delhi for ...  Cong asks West Bengal unit to cool down tempersIBNLive.com - Jan 12, 2012 New Delhi: With the ruling alliance partners in West Bengal bitterly targeting each other, the Congress on Thursday asked its state unit to refrain from using harsh words against the ally and also appealed to the Trinamool Congress to do likewise. ... Cong ready to discuss contentious issues with TrinamoolHindustan Times - Jan 12, 2012 Congress in-charge for West Bengal Shakeel Ahmed described Mamata as a "valued ally" and stressed that no party leader ever said that Congress will dump Trinamool Congress after the Uttar Pradesh elections. The Congress high command also wanted the ...  Campus violence: Mamata faces flakindiablooms - Jan 12, 2012 Kolkata, Jan 13 (IBNS): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee faced Opposition criticism of "doing nothing" over escalating incidents of campus skirmishes in the state, blamed largely on the student wing of her Trinamool Congress (TMC) party. ... Discussions to continue to resolve Indra Bhavan issue, says Pranab MukherjeeNewstrack India - Jan 13, 2012 Mukherjee said that senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader in-charge of WestBengal affairs, Shakeel Ahmed had come up with a solution over the matter, which would be discussed among the parties. "AICC in-charge of West Bengal unit, ... Take your choice of exit, Mamata's party dares the CongressNDTV - Jan 9, 2012 The simmering tension between the Congress and the Trinamool has turned explosive with WestBengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee saying that her alliance partner, who she accuses of working with the CPI-M against her, was free to leave. ... Congress's worst enemy: Not Opposition, but allies?NDTV - Jan 9, 2012 The 9 O'Clock News: Two days ago, Trinamol Congress chief Mamata Banerjee - one of the key allies in the Congress-led UPA government - showed the Congress the door. Today, more bitter words between the allies. A Congress minister today said that theirs ... Stop fighting: Congress to warring partners in BengalDaily Pioneer - Jan 12, 2012 Asserting that the recent war of words between the two alliance partners are on local issues like renaming of Indira Bhavan and farmers' suicides, he said on major national issues like FDI in retail and Teesta water agreement the central Congress ... Shakeel Ahmed urges Congress, Trinamool to resolve differencesNewstrack India - Jan 12, 2012 This would also be unjust for the people of West Bengal who voted for TMC and got rid of 34 years of ill governance," Ahmad told the media here. The alliance of the TMC and the Congress had run into troubled waters on several issues like the passage of ... Ending Bengal's politics-violence marriageEconomic Times - Jan 11, 2012 Seven months ago, Bengal turned a historic corner. Mamata Banerjee ascended to power, defeating the over three-decade-old Marxist regime, reviving people's dormant aspirations and hopes. But the state was in terrible shape. Financially in the red, ...  WB: Buddha lashes out at Mamata for campus violenceIBNLive.com - Jan 12, 2012 Kolkata: Lashing out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for taking a soft approach towards the ongoing incidents of assault on principals by students, CPM politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday said such incidents were bound to ... Mamata Banerjee's fire and bluster scorches Goa poll sceneEconomic Times - Jan 10, 2012 PANAJI: The famed moodswings of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and her partymen against the ruling Congress party seem to have got into a domino mode, spreading from Delhi to West Bengal to Goa. Less than a week after he was appointed state ... Cong, CPM blocking road to development: MamataTimes of India - Jan 10, 2012 At a programme organized by the West Bengal Minorities Development and Financial Corporation at Netaji Indoor Stadium, the Trinamool Congress chief again took on the Congress and, of course, CPM. Mamata Banerjee is back to Congress bashing. ... Congress tries to ride out storm in Trinamool tiesTimes of India - Jan 10, 2012 Congress is in no hurry to end its alliance - even if it adds an ally or two - with the party seeing an "action-reaction" syndrome at work as state leaders respond angrily to Trinamool's bid to dominate West Bengal's political turf and exercise a ... Kolkata rally: Trinamool leaders hit out at CongIBNLive - Jan 9, 2012 In an answer to the Congress's street protests, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's party workers took to the streets in massive numbers in Kolkata on Monday. http://ibnlive.in.com/livetv/ |
Nice article posting. I really like it. Great !! Thanks for sharing. Attitude Status Hindi
ReplyDelete