Deshmukh, Vaghela trip over Vidarbha remark

“The CM said Vidarbha’s farmer sprinkles his cotton with water and mixes stones in it to increase its weight and Vaghela said Vidarbha’s farmers keep rubbing tobacco rather than doing some hard work. The statements are an insult to Vidarbha’s farmers. We demand an apology from the two within two days failing which the BJP will take to the streets,” Gadkari said here on Monday.

“The insensitive Cong-DF Government promised cotton farmers Rs 2,700 per quintal in the manifesto, but later stabbed them in the back and is now poking fun at them. They should apologise unconditionally or we will resort to dharnas and gheraos,” he added. Gadkari also appealed to all “self-respecting” farmers to join the stir.

There was some confusion over what exactly the CM said with some TV channels playing up the story. Almost all local newspapers either did not report it or mentioned it in passing. The newspapers had, instead, chosen to lead with the CM’s statement that a total loan waiver was not a solution to the farmers’ problems.

Sources, however, told The Indian Express that Vaghela said in his speech that when he was coming to Akola, he saw from his chopper that there were no farmers in the fields. He did comment about the tobacco habit, but in jest, sources added. The CM later joked that the farmers had in fact gathered for the programme and hence couldn’t be seen in the fields. He also said some farmers sometimes sprinkled water on cotton or mixed stones before selling it to the Cotton Federation, but that did not mean they were not hard working. “It was all said in jest and the audience burst out laughing over the remarks,” sources present at the venue said.

Reacting to the remarks, farm activist Vijay Jawandhia said, “The Vidarbha-Gujarat comparison is misplaced. The new generation there has got a good cushion against agricultural failure due to the diamond industry. In Vidarbha, the whole cotton industry is long dead. As for the CM’s remark, if farmers really do what he has alleged, then how many of them have been prosecuted? And how many of the corrupt officials have been prosecuted? The CM should answer why he gave purchase tax exemption of Rs 245 crore for sugar when sugar prices fell. Why did they make a buffer stock of 50 lakh tonnes of sugar? And when cotton prices fall they do nothing of the kind. So you discriminate against Vidarbha farmers?”

CM’s reaction

Maharashtra Chief Minister

Vilasrao Deshmukh has said his remarks have been blown out of proportion and context by the Opposition.

“I am a farmer’s son myself and understand the pain, agony and sufferings of the farmers. I spoke in great detail about issues of agrarian crisis, natural cycle, cotton economy, proactive role played by the Government and policies undertaken to overcome the crisis. I haven’t uttered a single insulting word about Vidarbha farmers,” Deshmukh said in Mumbai on Monday.