Govts are shying away from talking to farmers: Aruna Roy

Times of India: Bangalore: Monday, July 24, 2017.

Aruna Roy, political and social scientist and founder of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan, is alarmed by the politics being played and overtures being made by the parties over sensitive issues such as distress in farm sector for narrow electoral gains. Credited for bringing in the Right to Information Act (RTI), Aruna spoke to TOI on the sidelines of Dr B R Ambedkar International Conference.

What is your recommendation at a time when successive governments seem to have failed in handling farmers' suicides and drought situation?

The first thing the government must do is to talk to farmers, who are the real stakeholders of the farm sector. Successive governments have been shying away from conversations with the farmers because they are never sincere about solving the problem. The government policies have been highly antifarmer. Dalit farmers, especially, have been the victims.They have been shoved off their land and deprived of their right to cultivate. We have to fight for them to reclaim their rights.

In Karnataka, the government has waived crop loans issued by cooperative banks and it is now daring the Centre to do its part and waive loans issued by nationalized banks.

We should oppose any overtures while politicizing the farmers' issue. This state vs Centre drama will not help the distressed farmers in any manner. When it comes to subsidy, the farm subsidy is not even a fraction of the subsidy given to industries. The government must treat farm sector like it does the industrial sector.

Do you think there are efforts to undermine the Right to Information Act?

We can see that there is a conspiracy to kill the very Act. More than 60 people, who had sought information under RTI Act, were killed recently . And the government has brought in two rules which are detrimental to the Act. The first rule says the information sought by a person need not be given after he is dead. The second one says that the information seeker can take back his application if he wants. At the outset, these rules have been notified for the benefit of the establishment and we must fight it out to remove them.