With a view to alleviate the lot of the hapless farmers, I am undertaking a two-day Rythu Deeksha at Armoor in Nizamabad district from Tuesday. The aim of this initiative is to bring to the Government's notice the plight of the farming community in the state what with soaring input costs and sliding profits. I call for all round support for this Deeksha and I appeal to everyone not to stall this noble endeavor by resorting to obstructionist and politically motivated smear campaign.
The farm sector, as we all know, is on the throes of a deep crisis. While the input costs have trebled, the incomes have plummeted to a third of earlier profits. Unkind weather gods and unconcerned rulers have made agriculture so utterly non-remunerative that the despondent farmer is seeing suicide a better option. For the first ever in thousands of years of farming history, the farmers of the state had a self-imposed crop holiday to stave off further losses.
The YSR Congress Party, which believes that well being of the farm sector alone can ensure all-round development, has been waging a relentless struggle on farmer and farm-related issues. We have been fighting to ensure higher remunerative prices, increased input subsidies, better access to fertilizers, uninterrupted power supply to the farm sector and quick release of crop loss compensation by organising a slew of agitation programs such as the Lakshya Deeksha in Vijayawada, Jala Deeksha in New Delhi, Ravulapalem to Polavaram Harita Yatra, Rythu Deeksha in Guntur, Saagu Poru in Chittoor, Maha Dharna in Vijayawada and laying a besieging collectorates across the state. The Armoor initiative, therefore, is a natural continuation of these untiring pro-farmer efforts and it represents our unstinted support to the farm sector.
We have undertaken this Deeksha not with an eye on the impending bypolls as we had already gone on record announcing our decision not to put up candidates against those who have resigned for the Telangana cause. This was our conscious decision in deference to the strong sentiment in this region. Similarly, the general elections are two-and-a-half years away. It is therefore crystal clear that we are not eyeing electoral gains by resorting to this Deeksha.
However, the yatras undertaken by TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu are motivated by pure political considerations. He is aiming to pocket all the six seats for which bypolls are round the corner. Chandrababu Naidu had betrayed the Telangana cause by reneging on his assurance to help carve out Telangana, a promise made in the 2009 poll manifesto. Chandrababu Naidu's regime was marked by the utter neglect of farm sector forcing hundreds of farmers to commit suicide. Chandrababu's talk of protecting farmers' interest is a classic case of devil quoting scriptures.
We strongly believe that the farmers have no caste, region or religion and their exploitation too cuts across regional barriers. The government too has admitted that 876 of the total of 1076 mandals in the state are drought-hit. The state has no minister for agriculture, nor is there a Vice-Chancellor for the sole agricultural university in the state. No one knows the fate of the Agricultural Technology Mission. Such is the plight of the farm sector in this state.
Responding to the YSR Congress Party's clarion call to vote out the ruling dispensation for its neglect of farm sector, 16 Congress MLAs and one PRP MLA had voted against the Government knowing fully well that by doing so they would get disqualified and consequently forfeit their right to continue as MLAs. Another MLA, Surekhamma, had already put in her papers in protest against the neglect of the Telangana farmer. Despite all these, there is a concerted effort to oppose the Deeksha both by the Government as well as the parties that are ensuring its continued survival.
As a party and at an individual level, we have amply made our stand on Telangana issue very clear at our maiden party plenary. We believe that as per Article 3 of the constitution, only the Union Government can carve out new states. Recent rejection by the Centre of UP Assembly's resolution seeking vivisection of UP into four smaller states is proof enough of this. While we respect the aspirations of the Telangana people, we would like to admit that we are in no position either to grant or reject the State demand. Quite interestingly, while leaders of the Congress, which alone can decide on the issue, are moving unhindered in the Telangana region, attempts are being made to prevent other parties from touring the region.
Our Rythu Deeksha is a democratic endeavor that seeks to shake the state and the Central Governments off their slumber and is totally different from police-protected tour of Chandrababu Naidu, taken up with the tacit support of the Government. Ours is a fight of the righteous and a struggle in the cause of the people.
We request all pro-farmer forces to extend their support and cooperation to our endeavor.
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