Farmers sow a new headache for Raje, agrarian crisis deepens

Farmer agitation is not new to Rajasthan. It’s again simmering. This time from Sikar and it’s likely to spread to other parts also. With elections next year, farmers’ protest is posing a tough challenge for chief minister Vasundhara Raje. Farmers are demanding crop loan waiver and right pricing of Minimum Support Price (MSP) of key crops.

Two days ago, Sikar, just 100 kilometres from capital Jaipur, was completely hijacked by thousands of farmers who gathered from surrounding area to register their agitation. A day after on Thursday, again farmers have called for district-wide bandh in Sikar which is likely to throw life out of gear in the district.

“We want loan waiver as promised by the government. We also want the government to fix 1.5 times value of every crop produce of the farmer, year-long purchase of crop produce at village level and a permanent mechanism for crop purchase,” said a farmer leader.

CM adept at dealing with issues

The chief minister has proven her political acumen several times during this tenure. The way she handled Gurjar and Jat agitation, it looks like she will be able to resolve farmers issues as well. She has emerged as a mass leader with a political maturity …read more