New Delhi, 11 April 2022
The controversy between the Centre and the Telangana Government on the paddy procurement issue has now reached Delhi. Pursuing the demand that the Centre procure all the paddy of the farmers in the state, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) reached Delhi on Monday along with his entire cabinet, legislators and thousands of farmers and sat here in protest. He got the support of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) national spokesperson and farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on this occasion and the latter, too, joined the sit-in protest.
KCR addressed the protesting farmers from Telangana at the sit-in protest organized at Telangana Bhavan. He appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal on this occasion that the central government procure paddy in Telangana just as it did in the rest of the states. He would await the Prime Minister’s decision for 24 hours and then take a call. He said that he would not stop until the farmers of Telangana got their rights. We are not so poor, we will fight for the rights of farmers from across the country, said KCR.
Speaking on the occasion, the BKU national spokesperson said, “Wherever in the country a voice concerning farmers’ problems will be raised, BKU and SKM will extend their full support to the cause.” Besides, we will unite the farmers in the country and launch a comprehensive movement to demand a “one nation, one agriculture policy,” he said.
Chief Minister KCR said that all the ministers, MPs, MLAs and local representatives from Telangana had come to participate in the protest. Farmers from Telangana have covered a distance of about 2,000 kilometres to reach Delhi.
KCR said on this occasion, “Why have all these legislators and farmers braved the scorching sun and reached here? What compelled them to do so? Was it a sin to grow paddy? Mr Narendra Modi, don’t treat the farmers unfairly. Wherever in India, the farmers sigh in torment, the government loses power. Nobody is permanent. Your Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal’s behaviour was highly insulting. When our agriculture minister Niranjan Reddy reached Goyal with the farmers’ demands, the latter’s behaviour was bad and insulting. Goyal said, ‘You inculcate the habit of eating kinki (broken rice) among the people of Telangana.’ This is just not done. I don’t understand what he knows about every corner of the country. There are 20 lakh borewells functioning in Telangana. Farmers have spent crores of rupees to buy pumps and grow paddy. The water level was a thousand metres below the ground before Telangana was created. Lakhs of people had gone from Mahabubnagar to other states to look for employment. But the situation has drastically changed after the creation of the state of Telangana. It is the only state that gives free power to the farmers round the clock. The arable land in Telangana has increased by one crore acres. Mr Prime Minister, your minister is insulting me on the contrary. Is growing paddy Telangana farmers’ fault?”
The epic battle of the farmers will start, said KCR. Farmers in the country are not beggars. “The farmers of Telangana demand an agriculture policy from you. We will also contribute to it. If this does not happen, let me tell you that when Telangana goes for a fight, it does not stop till the final battle is won. The Telangana government is not so weak. It will come to the rescue of its farmers, but we want the entire country to know about their behaviour. Did the central government not have the wealth to procure paddy or was this what Narendra Modi wanted? This conspiracy cannot go on in the country.”
KCR said that the central government wanted to woo the corporate. “This is what their policy is.” He said that if the government failed to decide in favour of the farmers and come up with the right agriculture policy, a nationwide movement would be designed. He would hold talks with other opposition parties, too, on this issue.
K Kavitha, an MLC at present and former MP, said, “We shall not sit silent until every grain of his crop is procured from the farmers of Telangana. Our protests will continue from the road to the parliament.”
Rakesh Tikait said, “What can be more shameful for the central government than this that the chief minister of a state is sitting in protest in Delhi with his entire cabinet and that too for crop procurement?” He added, “Even when farmers had sat in protest all around Delhi, the central government had meted out a step-motherly treatment to them. It lost no opportunity of defaming them. When the farmers demanded their rights, they were burdened with court cases. But we didn’t bow down and the farmers returned to their homes only after the three bills were repealed. On the one hand, they say in the parliament that agriculture is a state subject. But, (on the other,) it is the central government that fixes the MSP. It determines the states’ quotas. The three dark farm laws were brought in the parliament.”
Tikait said that it was due to the 13-month-long farmers’ movement in Delhi that a state was now sitting in protest in Delhi with farmers’ demands. If any other state, too, would raise farmers’ issues, he would go on every such forum and raise the farmers’ voice, he added.