A group of farmers, including widows, held demonstrations in villages across the region demanding a ban on the screening of the film. They also burnt Khan’s effigy.
Farmers in Vidarbha are out in the street. This time they are not waging a battle for survival, but are fighting for self-esteem. They are protesting against Aamir Khan for wrongly portraying farmers’ suicides in his film Peepli Live.
The government has responded with: “We will find out what exactly the objections are before taking a call.”
A group of farmers, including widows, held demonstrations in villages across the region demanding a ban on the screening of the film. They also burnt Khan’s effigy.
Anusha Rizvi, Peepli’s director, said: “If any farmer or a woman whose farmer husband has committed suicide has seen the film and thinks we have trivialised the issue, then I ask the government of Maharashtra to take a call.
“In the film, I wanted to take up the issue of the farmers, their alienation from economic policies, and the rural-urban divide.”
Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti president Kishore Tiwari said: “Our objection is to a scene in the film which shows a brother telling a farmer to commit suicide so that he can avail of the Rs1 lakh compensation by the state government.
“Had the filmmaker stuck to a script highlighting the plight of the farmers, we would have appreciated it. But such depiction is not only false, but also insensitive.”
Notwithstanding the protest, there are officials in the government who believe that there have been in Vidarbha instances of forcible death of elderly people, which were registered as farmers’ suicides. Even instances of crime were registered as suicides to avail of the government package.
Tiwari refutes the charges as baseless. “Despite the huge package promised by the Centre and the state, only 8% of farmers’ families availed of the compensation.
“In villages, nobody is so insensitive. Nobody is going to kill an 85-year-old father or a mother for Rs1 lakh.
“Farmers are driven to suicide because of wrong policies by the government. Instead of focusing on the deep-rooted problems responsible for farmers’ distress, the film highlights greed. It sends a wrong message to the public on a crucial issue.”
State BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said: “We have not taken any stand as we have not seen the film.”
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