Rahul Kumar, Senior Journalist and Media Columnist
India`s agriculture sector is under deep threat. Farmers are observed protesting almost in every state of the country struggling for their genuine demands of Minimum Support Price (MSP). The farmers are being compelled to sell almost all their produce at prices much below MSP and the Governments are mute spectators. The poor farmers are committing suicide. On the other hand, the rich, affluent, big farmers are getting richer day by day since they enjoy good rapport with the corrupt politicians of the country who support them to get Bank loans which later on siphoned off by them.
Under the NITI AAYOG, the policies so far formulated by the bootlicker economists and policymakers are anti-farmers. The people who are in the Advisory Board of the NITI AAYOG are simply carrier-oriented and mostly work for their own socio-economic upliftment. Modi, of course, is playing in their hands and is unable to understand who is doing what and why. Writing a letter to Ex-RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan who was insulted and humiliated by Bhartiya Janata Party MP Subramanian Swamy by alleging that ‘he is mentally not fully Indian’ and has “willfully” wrecked the economy’. It is the same Subramanian Swamy who shot a letter to Prime Minister Modi to sack Rajan. Shame on the BJP government!
Agri-Food Production Data – Production in Stages in Million Tones/L. Bales
| Name of Crop | HD Deve Gowda
1996-97 |
AB Vajpayee
2003-04 |
Dr. Manmohan Singh
2013-14 |
Narendra Modi
2015-16 |
| Food-Grains | 199.34 | 213.19 | 265.04 | 252.22 |
| Rice | 81.73 | 88.53 | 106.65 | 104.32 |
| Wheat | 69.35 | 72.16 | 95.85 | 93.50 |
| C. Cereals | 34.11 | 37.60 | 43.29 | 37.94 |
| Pulses | 14.15 | 14.91 | 19.25 | 16.47 |
| Nine Oilseeds | 24.38 | 25.19 | 32.75 | 25.30 |
| Cotton | 14.23 | 13.73 | 35.90 | 30.15 |
| Sugarcane | 277.56 | 233.86 | 352.14 | 352.16 |
| Milk | 69.1 | 88.1 | 137.7 | 155.5 |
| Egg | 27.5b | 40.4b | 74.8b | 82.9b |
| Fish | 5.348 | 6.399 | 9.572 | 10.796 |
| Net Irrigation | 55.11 mhac | 57.06 mhac | 68.10 mhac | NA |
| Gross Irrigation | 76.03 mhac | 78.04 mhac | 95.77 mhac | NA |
| FERTILIZER | 14.308 | 16.799 | 28.122* | 26.752 |
| ELECTRICITY | 84.019 BU | 87.089 BU | 152.744 BU | 168.913 |
| TRACTORS | NA | 248,000** | 697,000 | 571,000 |
| TILLERS | NA | 17,000 | 56,000 | 49,000 |
*in FY2011 **2004-05 Figure
Source: Agriculture Statistics at a Glance 2016, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, available at https://eands.dacnet.nic.in/PDF/Glance-2016.pdf.
The report released by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India reflects a true picture of agriculture sectors of the country. In today` time, Modi government seems rudderless, directionless, and meaningless. Modi government cannot befool the farmers of India for a long time. Modi government after seeing this data released by his own government cannot say that opposition is misguiding the people. This venal narrative on the part of the Modi government will not work in 2019 elections. The people of India are fed with the empty rhetorics.
India under Modi stands nowhere in the global economy. China under seventh president Xi Jinping has already currency reserves surging toward an unprecedented $ 4 trillion. Many financial forecasts now project that China will surpass the U.S. as the world`s number one economy by 2030. Responding to media, Xi Jinping assert that China has lifted 60 million of its own people out of poverty in just a few years and is committed to its complete eradication by 2020.
On the international front, the Modi Government could not generate India`s goodwill to bring as much Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as expected to India. As a matter of fact, Modi has weaved a web of personal ties with autocratic leaders like Donald Trump, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia whose vision that “put first my country”. Modi and RSS are in the grip of pseudo-nationalism. The mindset of the BJP/RSS is to divide the country on religion, caste line. The people of India must dislodge Modi/RSS government in 2019.
