INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
10-day farmers' strike: Farmers throw vegetables on a road in Punjab's Moga districtNew Delhi:
Farmers
across several states have launched a 10-day agitation to demand better prices and loan waivers to pull them out of debt traps
They have refused to send their produce to urban centres, at places throwing vegetables and milk on roads as a mark of protest
Union farm minister Radha Mohan Singh spoke his mind on the protests on Saturday
Mr Singh suggested that the protests were an exercise to get media attention.Mr Singh, the minister for agriculture and farmers' welfare,
was sharply criticised by the opposition for what the Congress says are "insensitive remarks".But he isn't the only senior BJP leader to
attempt to run down the protests.Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has called the farmers' protests "pointless"."There is no
issue," Mr Khattar said."By saying they won't sell farmers' produce they'll only cause losses to the farmers," he said, according to ANI.The
union minister, who was asked about these statements, seemed to agree."The country has about 12-14 crore farmers
There will always be organisations with a following of 1,000, 500, 2,000, 40,000, 50,000 farmers
And it requires some unusual deeds to appear in the media
This is natural," Mr Singh said at a media interaction where he highlighted that the production and productivity of the farm sector had
improved during the NDA government's four years. Radha Mohan Singh suggested that the protests were an exercise to get media attentionThe
Congress's RPN Singh said the BJP had promised farmers the moon when they were in the opposition
Once in power, the party only exploited them.Madhya Pradesh agriculture minister Balkrishna Patidar claimed that farmers in his state were
"happy with the schemes that chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched for them"."It is 2nd June today
Where is the strike the protests had had no impact," he claimed.But reports from several wholesale markets indicated there had been a sharp
decline in the amount of vegetables and grains reaching urban centres.News agency Press Trust of India reported that only 800 sacks of
grains and vegetables reached the market in Madhya Pradesh's Mandasaur, the epicentre of last year's farmer protests that led to six deaths
The market normally receives 40,000 to 60,000 sacks every day.In Delhi, only a quarter of the vegetables reached the wholesale market."Our
agitation for demands including loan waiver and better prices for crops has started impacting MP
It has affected nine states, overall," said Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh (RKMM) convener Shivkumar Sharma.Punjab Chief Minister
Amarinder Singh said the strike was a sign of the farmers' desperation "in the face of the wrongs being perpetrated on them by the central
