Let’s talk about agrarian crisis

One fails to understand why the BJP and RSS are making Ram Mandir controversy an election issue whereas they conveniently forget the agrarian crisis the nation is undergoing. Agriiculture should be a significant issue ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, not the Ram Mandir controversy, because the Narendra Modi government has failed on its promises to implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee in letter and spirit and waive farm loans.

He said the crop insurance scheme was 100 percent fraud, which had increased the rate of farmers' suicide by 42 percent in the past four years. The government's failure to implement land reforms is the root cause. After Independence, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, despite promising land reforms, didn't make it happen. Introducing Green Revolution in India helped only a limited number of rich farmers. Landless farmers had no purchasing power. There was high production, but purchasing power was low.

The agriculture policies implemented in the past 70 years have never been pro-farmer and led to the rise of middlemen, who bought agriculture produce at a lower price from farmers due to the lack of a proper procurement policy. As a result, agriculture gradually became a loss-making industry, and farmers' children are not venturing into it. Whoever who comes to power, please save our farmers!

- Rammohan Rao Y, Gooty, Anantapur, AP