All izz Not well on the farm

Amidst all the ruckus inside Parliament, and the politically-sponsored celebrations outside, the Women's Bill has brought no relief for the beleaguered farming community. Nor will it ever bring. With or without the historic passage of the Women's Bill, our elected representatives always had something to cheer and celebrate. They live in their own secluded and well protected world, made sound-proof by the deafening electronic media, who work in tandem with our people's representatives and provide the cover of event management.

It is primarily for this reason, the loud cries coming from the farms across the country have not pierced the thick walls of Indian Parliament. It is generally believed that farmer suicides are merely a collatoral damage that the nation must bear in its pathway to growth. In other words, dying farmer does not figure anywhere in the national priorities.

The insensitivity of the nation towards its annadata is not only deplorable, but shameful. Why only blame the politicians, in one way or the other we are all party to this crime. Even the farmer leaders have refused to treat this as an emergency. They only make a reference to it ostensibly to get a higher price for their produce.

Our silence is in many ways responsible for the growing indifference towards the dying farmers.

No wonder, in the past three days, ten farmers have ended their life in the Vidharba region of Maharashtra. The death toll on the farm is multiplying with every passing day, but who cares. As I have said earlier, the farm tragedy has been kept alive in the national media by an agile group -- the Vidharba Jan Andolan Samiti -- otherwise even that horrendous news would not have stirred the conscious of at least some of us. We don't even know about the death toll in other regions of the country simply because no one is keeping a track.

All izz NOT well on the farm.