Rajasthan farmers used to struggles, don’t commit suicide, says BJP’s state unit chief

The opposition Congress has alleged that 92 farmers have committed suicide since the BJP came to power in Rajasthan in 2013.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s new president in Rajasthan Madanlal Saini has said that farmers in the state are used to struggles and do not commit suicide.

Rajasthan, like many other states, is in the midst of an agrarian crisis caused largely by falling prices for farm output . (HT File Photo)

Commenting on reports of suicides by farmers in the Hadauti region of the state, Saini said this was unlikely.

“Farmers in Rajasthan are used to struggle and hard work. I am a farmer myself. When Shekhawati farmers do not commit suicide, then how can Hadauti farmers commit suicide? We in Shekhawati have to pull out water from a depth of 500 feet,” the BJP leader said in an interview to HT.

Saini said Jaisalmer had not received any rain in the past eight years, but no one had committed suicide. “Some farmers might have died due to natural causes. The state government has done a lot for the farmers,” he added.

Rajasthan, like many other states, is in the midst of an agrarian crisis caused largely by falling prices for farm output and the government had announced a loan waiver last year to address the problem. However, that doesn’t seem to have been enough, and experts say that farm distress could be one variable affecting the outcome of assembly elections due in the state by the end of the year.