Our Farmers: Shout to Silence

  India is one of the oldest civilizations that exists on earth, was abound with the vast alluvial fertile plains on which world's oldest and most advanced civilizations of that time saw their peaks and downfalls. The main source of economy and income of the people of ancient India was agriculture. Even today the fertile plains, rivers and water bodies and a favorable climate provides a wonderful scope for agricultural produce in the country.  India was 'The Golden Bird'. Our conventional wisdom of agriculture dates back to thousands of years when the first plants were  cultivated. Right from the ancient civilizations of India like Indus Valley, the Aryan civilization, Mauryan Empire, Gupta Empire, Muslim rulers and most other dynasties India's economy largely rested upon agricultural produce. Such a mighty agricultural economy started deteriorating once we started strategic trade relations with the outsiders and allowed them to exploit our weak social and political structure. The advent of British, French , Portugese and many others on indian soil started the economic breakdown. Many revolts, Peasant and civil uprisings happened but never culminated in long term and everlasting reforms. 

  Peasants have been fighting for their legitimate rights since time immemorial across the globe. Indian peasantry started seeing its dark ages during colonial empire. The Hope that Indian pesantry will once again enter into its golden age after the independence is gradually fading away. It's a shame on the face of an Agrarian and so called democratic country with around 60% of people directly or indirectly depending upon Agriculture  that lack of proper policies and failure in their proper implementation by the goverment, exploitation by middlemen have been leading a series of suicides committed by peasants across india. Since past 16 years, on an average 47 farmer/peasant suicides occur every day. According to a survey around all the 70 million of our farmers are being exploited by middlemen direclty or indirectly. These middlemen usurp most of the profit earned by a farmer. The lack of proper storage has forced the farmer to sell his product to the middleman at low cost. As the products perish soon, the farmer sells it at the offered price. 

  Recently BBC news highlighted the pitiable plight of cotton farmers in western states. My heart was engulfed with grief when i heard the story of such a victim lady whose husband and brother-in-law both committed suicide leaving behind two widows and four children under the same roof. In western states' suicide cases, half the widows are between the ages of 19 and 25 and have two to three children. In states like UP, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh Goverment, Beurocrats and middlemen have left the farmers to their fate.  More than 17,500 farmers a year killed themselves between 2002 and 2006, according to experts who have analyzed government statistics. More than 2.50 lac farmers have committed suicide in India in last 10 years. As per a report of 'The Hindu', On average, one farmer committed suicide in every 32 minutes between 1997 and 2005. From 2005 this average is one suicide in every 30 minutes. Consequently these suicides bleak the future of their kith and kins, therefore millions of children and widows are left to starve. Few years back in Jhansi i saw another story of a farmer family where two children were eating a thirty two days old peice of bread after softening it by water. There was nobody to earn and feed the children as their father already committed suicide or say smothered under the heavy loans. Other farmers showed the cheques issued to them as compensation worth Rs 20 and odd. Are Government and Beurocrats making a mockery of democracy. When the questions come to them, instead of taking the onus they point fingers at each other till media itself gets bored of telecasting the same news over and over again.

  Farmers sorry plight in india is so old and being incessantly clamoured about that seems our government and we all have made ourselves accustomed to it. Every day dozens of farmers are committing suicide and Mr. Pawar who is heading agriculture ministry, in a live television interview said that “100,000 farmers' suicide per year is a normal thing that we have been seeing for a number of years”. Its really tragic to see that the so called backbone of our country is paralyzed. He was more concerned with the extravaganza of world cricket and not with the plight of the farmers. The policies of privatisation and globalisation may have worked for our industries but have always wreaked havoc on our farmers. Industrial hegemony is suffocating our farmers to death.

  The influence of our current prejudiced policies and ignorance will surely render India totally dependent on western capitalist countries to meet the demands of food grain. Those countries are giving very high subsidies to their farmers but refraining the developing country's farmers for the same. Recently India announced a $500 million aid to Afghanistan. My conviction is, look inward at our own home problems. Its ridiculous fixing the tiles on others roof whilst at home ours is leaking. Our farmers are truly in deep crisis. 

  A government-owned bank will give you loan at six per cent interest rate if you are buying a Mercedes but if a poor farmer wants to buy a tractor, it charges him Fifteen per cent!. Sixty-seventy per cent of India's population is living on less than Rs. 20 a day, cost of just a drink for us. Its really unfortunate seeing government showering land and crores upon indian cricket players after the world cup. People jumped, screamed, had gallons of beer and no wonder that to very near of our celebrations, in villages our farmers committed suicide.

  The rosy pictures of GDP growth rate and per capita income which are being used by the governments for their propaganda of election campaign cannot reform the indian agrarian crisis. We must understand that government's intervention in salvaging this crisis should never be a one time scheme. It has to be a sustained policy. Boisterous cacophony in Parliament in the name of policies will not help. Recently in Noida farmers were pushed to their limit of tolerance when they were not paid the legitimate compensation after the acquisition of their fertile land which was later sold to builders at very high rates. They went berserk and clashes with government was inevitable. Well Noida uprising is neither the first one nor the last. In a Democratic India where the government propagandize the slogan of "JAI JAWAN JAI KISAAN", where government is chosen by its very own people on a free will basis, still the hands who were meant to drag the chisel plough and feed the millions are hurling weapons and fighting for their rights. Farmers turned belligerent by force and not by choice. Conditions are worst to this extent that after seeing the plight of farmers in Noida a prominent leader of ruling party couldn't help saying " I'm ashamed to be an Indian ".

  Famous American author Bill Brayson once said, " There are only three things that can kill a farmer: lightning, rolling over in a tractor, and old age". But when our farmers are unable to hold the burden of privatisation and industrial hegemony i would like to add few more words:  "There are only three things that can kill a farmer: lightning, rolling over in a tractor, and old age unless circumstances lead him to take his own life." 

  I cannot resist to share the story of a Roman emperor 'Nero': 

    Centuries ago, there was a Roman emperor, called Nero. He was a strong ruler and also very fond of parties, art, poetry, drinking and a life full of pleasures. Once he decided to organise a grand party and invited all poets, writers, dancers, painters, artists, intellectuals and thinkers of society. Everybody was having a great time eating, drinking, laughing, and socialising. The party was at its peak when it started getting dark. Nero wanted the party to go on. So he ordered and got all the arrested criminals, who were in his jails, around the garden and put them on fire! Burnt them alive, so that there was enough light for the guests to keep on enjoying! The guests had a gala time though they knew the cost of their enjoyment. Now, what kind of conscience those guests had? Tacitus, continuing his above quote, goes on to say of the Christians that:

Besides being put to death they were made to serve as objects of amusement; they were covered with wild beasts' skins and torn to death by dogs. Some were crucified, others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed, fastened on crosses, and when daylight failed, covered by inflammable matter, were set on fire to serve as torches during the night. Or tied to stakes in Nero's gardens while he drove around in his chariot, naked, indulging himself in his midnight revels, gloating over the dying agonies of his victims. The Roman Christians, accused by Nero of setting the city on fire, were massacred in a spectacular fashion on the Vatican Hill.

  Whenever i come across the sad plight of our farmers and government being silent and giving false hopes only thought that bothers me is, Is our government, clearly not competent enough in reforming our farmers' conditions and prevent them from committing suicides, different than Nero himself? and We, the middle and elite class, young, well earning, mall hopping, 'First day first show' movie crazy, IPL-watching and celebrating-junta are Nero's guests watching the gala of burning farmers!  

                                                                                                       -  Saurabh
"The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people."

A New Deadly War Game of Terror Unleashed in Middle East

  In past few decades Newspapers and broadcast media are fraught with the upsurge in middle east. The Storm of terror is hurling in Gulf countries around the axis of United States. Most noticeable fact is the involvement of US in almost every single political activity of Asia. A new war game of Interventionism has been launched to deal with the rest of the world in a way that best secures and advances its proper national interests. This seems quite preposterous to me as founding fathers of America pledged to establish the peace and commerce between nations and were against involvement in political and military  alliances, so called Noninterventionism.

  Nonintervention simply means America does not interfere militarily, financially, or covertly in the internal affairs of other nations.

In the words of George Washington

"It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world."

  Seems USA has comfortably ignored and defied the basic principles of their foreign policy laid down by the veterans. Monroe Doctrine which was one of the most formidable principles of their foreign policy clearly asserted that the United States would neither interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries. The Doctrine was issued at a time when many Latin American countries were on the verge of becoming independent from the Spanish Empire. The United States, reflecting concerns raised by Great Britain, ultimately hoped to avoid having any European power take over Spain's colonies.'America for the Americans', a clear message to the world of political hegemony and indisputable right of unilateral intervention over the American continent.

  But today America has emerged as the destiny maker for many middle east and other Asian countries and has brought innumerable casualities. Right after the World War II there was a tremendous amount of political conflicts, proxy wars, social-economical-scientific competitions between the United States and its allies and the Communist world-primarily Soviet Union and its allies popularly knows as Cold War.

  Prior to 1980, Teheran was one of Washington's most allied allies, a heavily armed outpost that practised repression against its own people, looted the oil wealth of the country, and helped in the projection of American power in the Persian Gulf and West Asia. During the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, United States supported the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq in its aggression against Iran and the 1990s saw the erection of a range of sanctions aimed at stifling the Iranian oil industry and USA's persuasion for a regime change. The nuclear issue of Iran had brought Washington to the verge of war but later lack of options compelled President Bush to participate in multilateral negotiations with Iran.

  President George W. Bush himself established the link between Iraq and terrorism by stressing the need to deny sanctuary to terrorists anywhere in the world and pointing to the totalitarian threat posed by state sponsors of terrorism with potential access to weapons of mass destruction. He also declared that it was the stated policy of his government to have regime change in Iraq. It is increasingly regarded as having failed campaign in Iraq to bring about either democratic changes or security for the Persian Gulf region. Numerous countries are challenging, if not directly violating, the sanctions regime, and international support has largely eroded. Consequently widespread opposition has spread in the Middle East—across the region at the street level and increasingly at the governmental level as well.

  In US led NATO strikes (claimed to be an attempt to assassinate the Libyan leader) Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi survived but it killed his youngest son and three of his grandchildren.The strike came hours after Gaddafi called for a ceasefire in the civil war and The Libyan government gave its consent for a political resolution to the conflict.  Clearly  leaders are being targeted and this strengthens the regime change policy of  USA. Besides this USA is actively involved in an upsurge against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. America is also aggressively making other countries like Pakistan its military non NATO ally and is pressuring the  government to sign a defense logistic agreement with it. America wants that its air force and navy use others airports and other facilities and also use their military in fighting their war in the region. Such unrestricted interventions and alliances have posed serious threats to the sovereignty of nations affected. Negotiations and alliances  must be unconditional and every nation has full right to take their decisions to join an alliance or say in enriching themselves with nuclear energy. Every country has right to decide on their internal affairs and political system through democratic dialogue away from an outside threat.

  Seemingly USA is omnipresent targeting the political unrest in the rest of the world and has turned notorious for engineering “regime change” in countries that do not act at its behest. They claim to bring justice to the innocent victims but countless men, women and children have lost their lives in US and allies led operations and in the aftermath not even some semblance of normalcy is observed. No doubt USA has led some operations which were directly or indirectly for the common good but waging war and heaving casualties cannot justify their acts claimed to be humanitarian.

  When asked if the WikiLeaks would damage American relations with other countries, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted that "governments deal with the United States because it's in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets." Well here lies the key. Apart from deliberate interventions there is one more thing that drives USA into others interests, Invitation. Every regime should bear this in mind that an outsider can never understand the value of your people's life and property if you can not, can never feel the pulse of the nation if you cannot. If you cannot take care of your own people somebody else will. All the territories should resolve their issues by engaing in bilateral talks involving only those who has geopolitical significance for the issue, instead of looking for a response from Washington as vested interests will always be there. Dependency on so called super powers like United states or others  should be curtailed. Nothing gives a right to wage a war unless a direct threat has been given. Promising peace by waging war seems contradictory.

  Moreover It is time for USA to reevaluate the interventionist foreign policy. It is time to understand the obvious casualties that results from being involved time and time again into intractable and endless Middle East conflicts, whether in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Lebanon, Afghanistan or Palestine. It is definitely time to ask yourselves whether further American lives and tax dollars should be lost trying to remake the Middle East in your image.  It is time to analyze:

• The clear and present threat to U.S. security interests to justify going to war.
• Should the U.S., as historically a "benign power", move toward a paradigm shift to pre-emptive war without the elaboration  of an international strategic context and policy?
• What are the consequences and implications of the U.S. going it alone if there is little international support for military   action?
• Will a military attack in which a regime's survival is at stake result in the use of chemical and biological weapons   against U.S. military and/or neighboring states? 

  World has suffered a lot because of the colonisation policy of Britain secured by cultural hegemony, this time political hegemony of the west is raising its ugly head. If "America is for Americans" then the same principle applies to others as well. Let them decide their fate themselves. United States’ theory of preemptive wars, so as to “adapt to new threats” needs to be discouraged. USA and its allies seek after political and military control of the world. Stress is building engulfing sheer force having the potential to wage the great confrontation in the Arab World and Central Asia in distant future – a confrontation that will detonate in local,regional or even global wars, which will witness changing regimes, perhaps also the borders of some countries and above all cause a great loss to humanity.

                                

                                                                                                       -  Saurabh

"The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people."