In 20 Years, Only 5% Of BJP, Congress's Lok Sabha Questions Highlighted Farmers Issues

From 1999 to 2019, of the total 2,98,292 questions raised in the Lok Sabha, only 14,969 were related to farmers, which comes to around 5 per cent of the total questions asked.

If divided among the political parties, the same data shows that the two parties, BJP and the Congress, that have ruled for ten years each during the said period have failed to put farmers' issues on the legislative agenda, The Print reported.

The media reported on the data collected by Saloni Bhogale, a PhD student, that stated the average share of farmer-related questions asked by both major political parties was 5.6 per cent and 4.8 per cent.

There were 377 petitions submitted by several political parties to protest at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar, between January 2016 and August 2019. Of these, only 12 concerned farmers' issues. If disaggregated between parties, Congress raised 110 of these petitions but had farmer issues on their agenda only five times. BJP petitioned 63 times but had farmer issues only four times on their agenda.

To the contrary, farmer organisations petitioned to protest 225 times at Jantar Mantar, underscoring the severity of India's agrarian crisis, the media reported.

Many political parties that make promises in campaign rallies and plans in their manifestos have failed to raise farmers' issues. The data is appalling, given the condition of farmers in the country and the need for various relief measures, welfare schemes for them.

Many of the parties have farmer wings, for instance, including BJP, that has the Kisan Morcha and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (part of the RSS), and Congress has the Kisan Congress. Still, none of them has come up with even a single comprehensive solution.

The repeated promises and their failure in the implementation of the plans have left farmers dejected. The current ongoing farmers' protest against the recently passed farm bills has gained momentum and have become yet another instance of dejection among them. Many farmer associations and leaders have refrained from allying with political parties. Their rejection of political support despite being a politically and economically distressed section shows the level of distrust they have developed over the years.

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