aditya kumar's weblog

On a break from blogging. Will be back soon.

…Abhishek Bachchan is a worried man these days. And why not, with a reason like this, anyone would be.

Ouch, that must have hurt, poor attention starved Abhishek.

In Vidarbha, on an average, 2 farmers commit suicide everyday.

Forget the Economic reforms, the growth rate and forget the FDI and the theories associated with it. I am sorry to say this, but India is not shining.

105 farmers committed suicide in Vidarbha in the month of August. These figures have more significance since they come to you just a month after the PM announced a relief package for the ill-fated region. It is clear how much this scheme has benefited the farmers. Or maybe it is not clear.

Don’t you see what is happening? You — the media, the administration. You — you and me? Not one CM went to the region in three years. The Minister for Food and Agriculture says, on prime time TV, that “Farmer suicide is a normal thing.”

P.Sainath, Dilip D’Souza, Sonia Faleiro, Jaideep Hardikar are a few names who have seen something wrong in all this. They have travelled to these regions, the 6 districts in the state of Maharashtra and they have their own stories to tell. One such story, by Sonia Faleiro is here.

Clearly, the media is not doing enough. Says P.Sainath, “You had India Fashion Week in Bombay, over 500 accredited journalists covered the Fashion Week. Less than 6 journalists from outside Vidarbha were in Vidarbha in that same week.”

Full Interview here. [Link via Sonia Faleiro]

I think I see a trend here. The media is targeting that segment of the population which is benefiting the most from the economic boom. The urban middle class. People like me, and in all probabilities, people like you. The fashion shows and the automobile exhibition stories are given precedence over something like the plight of the Indian farmer. Of what I have seen, I have lost my interest and maybe even faith, in the traditional channels of Indian journalism.

But to be fair to the media, even if the media machinery works to the optimum, one should not expect it to do what the babus and netas up there should.

Fact is, the economy boom has not touched the Indian farmer. Fact is, the Indian economy’s boom has more to do with the market driven forces, the private sector than with the Indian Government. Fact is, The Government has done absolutely nothing to improve the status of the farmers affected in regions like Vidarbha.

And it is not just Vidarbha. It is Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and it is Kerala too.

It was said that the last Government at the center fell for its indifferent attitude towards the Indian farmer. Isn’t it ironical, the Government that follows does it in a more evident fashion?