Police arrest Gujarat, Maharashtra farmers proceeding to Modi's birthplace Vadnagar to protest
The Gujarat police
have prevented Aasood Yatra, a non-political farmers’ protest rally, led by
maverick independent Maharashtra MLA Bacchu Kadu of Amravati, at the
inter-state border immediately after it reached Navapur village, to proceed
further into Gujarat.
The rally, which began in Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ hometown Nagpur on April 11, proposed to reach Vadnagar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthplace in Gujarat, on April 21. In Vadnagar, around 1,000 farmers were to donate blood in order to send a message to Modi that they were willing to give their blood if he spared their lives. The Nagpur to Vadnagar rally consisted of hundreds of whip wielding farmers of Vidarbha. According to Khedut Samaj – Gujarat (KSG) general secretary Sagar Rabari, “About 1,000 Maharashtra farmers, along with 400 Gujarat’s farmers who were about to join the rally, were detained on the border.”
Along with farmers
and independent MLA Kadu, KSG president Jayesh Patel, who was in South Gujarat
town of Bardoli with his supporters to welcome the yatra, was also detained at
Songardh”, said Rabari, adding, “Patel had organized lunch for the Maharashtra
farmers as also a joint meeting. They have all been taken to the Ucchal police
station.”The rally was allowed to pass through Sukhpur, the last village in
Maharashtra along the border with Gujarat. In all some 50 groups, including
Shetkari Sanghatana, took part of the rally, whose claimed objective was to
draw the present government's “attention towards plight of farmers forced to
live in abject poverty because of wrong agriculture policies.”
The rally was called
Aasood, which in Marathi means whip. It idea taken from top Maharashtra social
reformer Jyotiba Phule’s novel 'Shetkaricha Aasood', which is based on the
theme that the farmer should use the whip not only on the bullocks he mends but
also on the oppressors. "Motivated by that thought, I mobilized farmers to rise for their rights
of a respectable life," Kadu has been quoted as saying. Even as starting off for the rally, Kadu said, "We will crack the whip
against the government to remind Modi that he has failed to fulfill electoral
promise of implementing MS Swaminathan Commission's recommendation on fixing
crop prices to input costs and 50% of profit.”
He wondered, “We want curbs on exports of cotton, tur to go so that farmers can
benefit. When there are no such restrictions on Baba Ramdev's products, why
impose them on poor farmers?”
Passing through
Wardha, the rally traversed through Yavatmal and Nanded. It covered Latur,
Osmanabad, Solapur and later via Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur, Pune, Ahmednagar,
Aurangabad, Nashik, Dhule and Nandurbar, before it reached the border with
Gujarat in order to proceed towards Vadnagar, via Ahmedabad. Ahead of the rally, Kadu rejected any support from the Congress or the
Nationalist Congress Party, saying, their Kisan Sangharsh Yatra was “nothing
but a stunt”.
"These parties were in power when Swaminathan submitted his report in 2006. But they did not implement it. Now out of power they are shedding crocodile tears for farmers," Kadu reportedly said.
"The government without batting an eyelid gives 7th pay commission to its staff. But even after 3.5 lakh farmers committed suicide, they do not want to find permanent solution to agriculture crisis or invest adequately for the cause," he added.
