BKS leaders flay govt for farm policies

“While Gujarat is being praised across the country for its development, it is shameful that there are 57 dark zones in the state. Farmers have to beg for their rights and resources like water and electricity for   farming.”

These were the words of Prabhakar Kelkar, national general-secretary of Bharatiya Kisan  Sangh (BKS), in Gandhinagar on Thursday. He was addressing a gathering of nearly one lakh farmers at the ‘Kisan Adhikar Rally’ organised by BKS to raise farmers’ demands.

Prior to Kelkar’s speech, when state-level farmer leaders were speaking about the injustice to farmers by the union government, a number of farmers gathered at the back of the stage shouted slogans against Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

They alleged that like the union government, the Gujarat government was equally neglecting the farmers in the state.

Sensing the farmer’s mood, the leaders on the stage had to make sudden change in their plans.

They had to read out a pre-prepared memorandum of demands, which was to be submitted to the CM later in the day.

After that, many of the farmer leaders changed their tones and started criticising state government policies.

BKS state unit president Maganbhai Patel said that the farmers were demanding their rights and they were not baggers.

“Today, one farmer is committing suicide in every 27 minutes in this country, but governments have no time to think for them.

Even today, India is still an agrarian country, and we the farmers of this country are feeding all, but we are deprived of the basic necessities,” he said.