PM’s I-Day speech out of touch with ground, say protesting farmers

Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the need to transform the agricultural sector on Thursday at the flag-hoisting event at Red Fort, farmers at the Shambhu Border, who took out a tractor rally, said their demands have remained unheard.

Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the need to transform the agricultural sector on Thursday at the flag-hoisting event at Red Fort, protesting farmers at the Shambhu border said their demands have remained unheard.

“It is the need of the hour to transform the agricultural system. The Centre is providing all help to farmers to adopt modern practices. To make their lives easier, we have ensured internet connectivity, better health care, and employment for their children. Comprehensive practices are being encouraged at every step,” Mr. Modi said from the ramparts of Red Fort.

He added that the government has launched several programmes to encourage natural farming methods. “I am confident that India can become the organic food basket of the world. The government is making efforts to improve farmers’ lives through technological advancements,” he said.

Farmers from Punjab and Haryana, who have stayed put at Shambhu border over six months after they began blocking roads as part of their protest, said speeches matter little when compared with ground realities. “The real picture of what farmers want and have been demanding can only be understood by coming to our villages and protest sites. The technological advancements that the Prime Minister spoke about are not possible for a debt-ridden farmer to adopt,” said 37-year-old farmer Sukhchain Singh, who has been at Shambhu, the border between Punjab and Haryana, for several months.

Jagjeet Dallewal, president of Bharatiya Kisan Union Ekta Sidhupur, said, “We heard farmers were special invitees [to the event at Red Fort], but why has nobody come to talk to us at a time when we are protesting for basic needs?”

“The Prime Minister can make tall claims, but on the ground, it is not the farmers who are benefitting, but the capitalists. We still have no profits to speak of despite being given guarantees after our protest,” said Haseep Ahmed, a farmer from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur.

The farmers also took out a tractor rally on Thursday to raise their demands. Their protest, which began in February this year over various demands, including a legal assurance for minimum support price on crops, had led the Supreme Court to observe that the government must try to solve the “trust deficit” with the farmers by “reaching out” to them.