Ending the Bhopal leg of his 72-hour satyagraha in solidarity with farmers here on Friday, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said that based on extensive consultation with various ryot groups, he had prepared a ‘blueprint’ that he would take to other parts of the State.
The Congress will now take the satyagraha to Khalghat in Dhar district where it will end with a major farmers’ meeting on Saturday.
“The response has been unprecedented over three days here,” Mr. Scindia told The Hindu on the sidelines of the event held at the Dussehra Maidan here. “We have had between five to ten thousand farmers with us and I have interacted personally with over 200 delegations and met with thousands of farmers,” he said.
Times of distress
Over the course of these meetings, the Congress leader said that the widespread distress and despair in the agrarian sector was clear for everyone to see. “On input issues, like the prices of seeds, fertilizers, petrol and diesel farmers are facing difficulties across the board,” he said.
Madhya Pradesh, he said, has the highest percentage of VAT on petrol and diesel while India has the highest rates for petrol and diesel in the world today compared with neighbours like Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“All of this requires an explanation from both the Central and State governments as to why prices have not come down despite global oil prices having dropped by 60 per cent since the days of the UPA government,” Mr. Scindia said. He also spoke of the falling prices of crops – from soyabean in Madhya Pradesh, to chillies in Andhra Pradesh, grapes in Maharashtra, peanuts in Gujarat and other crops like onion, tomatoes and potatoes where farmers are simply not able to find remunerative rates. “There have been 9 suicides in the last three days in Madhya Pradesh and there has still not been an adequate response to the shootings in Mandsaur,” he said.
Major initiative
The 72-hour satyagraha that Mr. Scindia started here on Wednesday afternoon and which will conclude in Khalghat on Saturday is seen as a major initiative for the Congress seen in recent years to have lost its organisational strength.
The satyagraha drew large crowds and also provided some semblance of a unified leadership — former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh joined Mr. Scindia on Thursday while Congress’s other stalwart in MP, Kamal Nath, will join the public meeting in Khalghat.
Assembly elections are due in Madhya Pradesh in 2018 and there is talk that Mr. Scindia, who cut short a holiday in the U.S. and returned to MP to lead the satyagraha, could take the lead in the fight against the incumbent BJP.