Mumbai: Even as the Assembly was discussing on Friday the plight of farmers affected by drought, two farmers were forcefully restrained from speaking with the media outside. The two farmers, who simply wished to air their grievances, were detained and forced to sit in the police station for more than 3 hours. After this issue was raised in the Legislative Council by Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde, the Chairman of the Council ordered the suspension of the errant police officers.
It was like an undeclared emergency for farmers, who are already on the warpath. Namdev Patange, a young farmer from the drought-stricken Hingoli district, was in the Vidhan Bhavan Complex to apprise the government of his woes. He was recently in news after he appealed to the government to accept his kidneys in lieu of seeds. His appeal and the intended sarcasm about the government’s poor performance on farm sector was lost on all. Rather, when he entered Vidhan Bhavan complex and began speaking to the media, the police took strong objection. They hustled him out of the complex and kept him in ‘captivity’ at Marine Drive Police station near Mantralaya for at least 3 hours.
Another farmer, Ashok Manwar, 55, from Jamnur Jahagir village of Washim district, too, was detained by the police in similar fashion. Manwar owns around six acres of land. He was handed over a loan waiver certificate by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at a public ceremony last year. The certificate clearly stated that Rs.1.40 lakh loan amount has been waived. But, now, comes the unkindest cut: The Washim District Cooperative Bank has asked him to deposit Rs 70,300 and informed that only the balance has been waived after the loan restructuring. Shocked and humiliated, when he reached Mantralaya to petition the Chief Minister’s office, he started talking casually with the media about his grievances. The police took this as a serious affront and he was detained so that there need be no further outbursts before the media. But when the police forced him to sit at the Marine Drive police station, he called up Chandrakant Thakare, the Vice Chairman of Washim District Cooperative Bank and a local NCP leader. At this juncture, the police was mulling formally arresting him.
Thakare immediately got in touch with Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde who scuttled the move. “I thought my loan had been fully waived. But the bank told me otherwise and said the government has restructured my loan and now I have to pay Rs 70,300. For me, the loan waiver certificate was like a cheque issued by the Chief Minister. But now that cheque has bounced. When I was recounting my story, I was detained and kept in captivity for three hours. This was very humiliating. What was my crime,” asked a tearful Manwar.
Police deny claims of arrest
While speaking with FPJ, Senior PI of Marine Drive Police Station Rajesh Shinde rejected the claim of arrest. “The farmers were agitated. We brought them to the police station and heard their grievances and later escorted them to the Chief Minister’s Office,” claimed Shinde.
12,000 suicides by farmers in 5 years
After acting coy for almost 5 years -- seemingly trying to conceal the official statistics -- for the first time, in a written statement, the state government has admitted that 12,021 farmers committed suicide during 2015 to 2018. “During January to March 2019, 610 farmers committed suicide,” Cooperative Minister Subhash Deshmukh informed the Assembly in a written answer. The admission by the state government has validated claims about acute farm distress. Now, it is clear that around 3000 farmers per year committed suicide in the last 4 years. This means almost 9 farmers committed suicide daily during the Fadnavis regime.
