Indore: Five farmers died and several were injured in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district on Tuesday after police allegedly opened fire during a protest to demand better prices in the drought-ravaged region that clocks among India’s highest farm suicide rates.
Angry farmers ransacked and set ablaze a police station and thrashed several security personnel after the firing, as the administration rushed extra forces and withdrew internet services to tamp down on social media rumours fanning violence. MP home minister Bhupendra Singh said five people died in two separate incidents.
“This govt is at war with the farmers of our country,” Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, attacking the BJP government in the state.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said his government was sensitive to the farmers’ cause, blaming the Congress party for a “conspiracy to fuel violence”.
He announced the kin of the deceased will get a compensation of Rs.5 lakh each, and the those with serious injuries will get Rs1 lakh each, news agency ANI reported.
Hundreds of farmers had gathered in the district, 350 kilometres from state capital Bhopal, as part of their week-long demonstration for higher crop prices that cover their input costs, a loan waiver and a farm package to tide over losses incurred by the drought.
Sources said many farmers were angry at the lack of government response and torched several vehicles before ringfencing a local police station at Pipalia, forcing personnel to fire at the crowd. Bullet injuries killed three on the spot and the wounded were taken to a local hospital and curfew declared in the district.
The three deceased farmers, who are all from Mandsaur district, have been identified as Kanhaiya Lal Patidar of Chillod Pipaliya, Babloo Patidar, resident of Takrawad and Prem Singh. Enraged farmers also blocked the Mhow-Nasirabad road and held up traffic for hours before being driven away by a large police force.
But state home minister Bhupendra Singh denied all reports of firing by forces and said “certain anti-social elements” were behind the violence and that police would take stern action against them. Other officials indicated it was the Central Reserve Police Force, not the police, that fired the bullets.
“Chief minister boasts of being a farmer’s son. What can be worse than this that farmers are killed by police in his rule,” said Congress leader and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, demanding a judicial inquiry into the firing.
MP FARMER AGITATION: HOW THE CRISIS UNFOLDED
June 1: Farmers begin a ten-day-long agitation in Madhya Pradesh demanding better price for their produce
June 4: Clashes break out between police and farmers in Sehore, Indore and Bhopal districts, leaving six policemen injured
June 4 afternoon: A delegation of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), which is affiliated to ‘saffron parivar’, defers farmers’ agitation following a meeting with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Ujjain
June 4 evening: Enraged by the announcement of BKS, other two major organisations spearheading the agitation – Rashtriya Kissan Mazdoor Sangh and Bharatiya Kisan Union – say agitation had not been called off or deferred. They decided to intensify the agitation
■ CM Chouhan announces MP government will procure onions at a cost of Rs 8 per kg. State BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chauhan announces farmers will honour the CM for his stand. But BKS distances itself from the felicitation
June 5: CM Chouhan hurriedly calls a press conference, blaming ‘a few people for giving a wrong direction to farmers protest’. CM announces Rs 1000 crore price stabilisation fund in scenarios where prices destabilise following bumper crop
■ Farmers take out a vehicle rally from Double Chowki, over 20 kms from Indore city. The rally is, however, stopped
by the police on the outskirts of Indore
June 6 afternoon: Security personnel fire on protesting farmers in Mandsaur district, killing five of them. Ruckus follows as enraged farmers block road and ransack properties
June 6 evening: Rashtriya Kissan Mazdoor Sangh announces MP bandh on Wednesday till 2 pm
■ CM Chouhan announces judicial inquiry into the Mandsaur firing incident
Madhya Pradesh is considered a BJP bastion where the saffron party has been in power for 14 years. But the government is facing snowballing protests by farmers, who say they cannot afford to sell produce at below-par prices for a third straight season and want the administration to create a safety net.
The firing can also impact assembly elections in neighbouring Gujarat as the farmers who died were Patidar, an influential community that has backed the BJP for decades but has in recent years shifted support.
“All that farmers were demanding were help from the government and in return they received bullets. If the situation and attitude of the BJP government does not change, the same farmers will bring change in the government,” said Hardik Patel, leader of the Patidar protests in Gujarat that has shaken the BJP.
Three farmers died every day last year in Madhya Pradesh, data from the National Crime Records Bureau showed. According to the information submitted in the state assembly in July and December last year, 1695 farmers and agricultural labourers committed suicide in 2016 from February 1 to mid-November. Overall between 2001 and 2015, there have been 18,687 suicides by farmers in MP.
The reasons for the suicides, according to the NCRB data, were attributed to farming-related issues like crop failure, inability to sell their agricultural produce, inability to repay loans as well as other factors like poverty, property disputes, marriage-related issues, family problems and illness.
(Source: The Hindustan Times)