REPORT

Congress Protest to PM on Drought Relief

Smt. Sonia Gandhi discussing drought situation in States with Congress Chief Ministers at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi

NEW DELHI : As Congress workers were agitating all over the country against the step-motherly treatment being meted out to them by the BJP-led Central Government in drought relief the Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, who is "dissatisfied" with the package announced by the Government for drought relief, met the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, along with the Chief Ministers of the six Congress-ruled, drought-hit States on 4 August to press for more Central assistance and its even-handed distribution.

The decision was taken by the Congress leadership after a three-hour meeting with the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Karnataka and Maharashtra at Mrs. Gandhi’s residence here. Though the Punjab Chief Minister, Amrinder Singh, was not present, the State’s demands have also been added in the memorandum submitted to Mr. Vajpayee.

Given the experience of the past two years, when the Congress-ruled States got just a fraction of the Central assistance provided to Andhra Pradesh and Haryana -- which are ruled by NDA constituents -- the Chief Ministers said at a press conference later that the Centre "should not use human misery to settle political scores," and urged it to give up its "step-motherly" attitude towards the Opposition-ruled States.

With the demand of these seven States amounting to Rs. 12,473 crores, the Congress felt that the two instalments, announced by the Centre under the Calamity Relief Fund, would not be enough to tide over the crisis facing the country.

The party also urged the Centre to learn from the past and cited the manner in which the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, managed the drought of 1987-88. And, in the opinion of the Karnataka Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, the Union Ministers ought to tour the affected areas to make a "realistic and pragmatic assessment" instead of leaving the task to bureaucrats. The Congress, according to Ambika Soni, political secretary to the party president, has decided to constitute a roving team of experts -- some of whom were part of Rajiv Gandhi’s group -- to help the States manage the "serious situation".

The Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, said after the meeting that no State had the resources to deal with the drought without Central assistance. Chipping in, his counterpart from Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, said that without assistance from the Centre, the States were forced to dip into plan resources. He also claimed that the Centre’s decision to release the second instalment had been taken in anticipation of the pressure the Congress proposed to mount on it.

While the Chattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, said his Government had sent three reports to the Centre. Vilasrao Deshmukh, Maharashtra Chief Minister, said that no help had come from the Centre despite four teams visiting the State over the past year.

Of the seven Congress-ruled States, Rajasthan has asked for the maximum aid of Rs. 6,115 crores. Next in line is Chattisgarh with a demand of Rs. 2,180 crores, followed by Maharashtra (Rs. 2,100 crores), Punjab (Rs. 800 crores), Madhya Pradesh (Rs. 698 crores), Karnataka (Rs. 550 crores) and Delhi (Rs. 30 crores).

Meanwhile, the Indian Youth Congress organised several rallies and mass agitations protesting against the Government’s apathy in dealing with the farmers’ problem, particularly in drought-hit States.

The first in the series was the "Kisan Rally", held on 2 August. Led by the IYC chief, Shri Randeep Singh Surjewala, thousands of activists and farmers from different States like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembled at India Gate and marched towards Raj Ghat, carying black flags and shouting anti-Government slogans.

Addressing the demonstrators, senior Congress leaders, including Ahmed Patel and Mukul Wasnik, alleged that the Centre was least concerned about the drought-affected farmers. Even after the monsoon had failed, it was still to declare a comprehensive relief package.

Even the Special Task Force constituted by the Prime Minister, has restricted itself to lip service and has failed to come out with any concrete plan for the welfare of farmers, they added. Asking the Government to declare the drought as a "national calamity", the Congress leaders alleged the BJP and its allies lay exposed for pursuing anti-farmer and anti-poor policies.

Mr. Surjewala lambasted the Government for its "criminal indifference" towards the alarming conditions prevailing in rural areas across the country. Demanding Mr. Vajpayee’s resignation for failing to provide any relief to the farming community, Mr. Surjewala demanded that the Centre should immediately provide financial assistance to drought-hit States by granting Rs. 5,000 per acre as interim compensation for the destroyed Kharif crop and immediately stop all recovery of loans from farmers. He also alleged that the NDA Government was adopting a partisan attitude towards the Congress-ruled States in providing relief.

Hundreds of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers led by their chief, Shri Randeep Singh Surjewala, courted arrest on July 24, outside Vigyan Bhawan in the Capital where a meeting of different State agriculture ministers was on with the Union Agriculture Minister, Shri Ajit Singh. The activists were demanding immediate resignation of the Prime Minister for ignoring the drought-affected farmers.

As soon as the meeting began, the IYC activists in bullock-carts tried to assemble near the meeting venue but were not allowed to protest by the security forces deployed there in large number. They IYC workers then courted arrest and were taken to Tughlak Road police station and charged with disrupting peace.

Later, Shri Surjewala alleged that the farmers and poor people were suffering for the past one month and have now reached the verge of starvation due to the failed monsoon but the Government was still busy in holding meetings and was doing nothing concrete to provide relief to the drought-affected States. Condemning the oppressive anti-farmer attitude of the BJP-led NDA Government, Shri Surjewala demanded that present drought be declared as "national calamity" and Central teams be immediately dispatched to "drought-hit States" for assessing the damage and providing a comprehensive compensatory package.

He also demanded that recoveries of agricultural loans should be immediately deferred and land revenue should be waived off so that much-needed relief could be provided to them. The promise of the Prime Minister to provide comprehensive crop insurance cover had also come cropper as farmers had failed to receive any relief, he added. The IYC leaders who courted arrest included its general secretary Ms. L. Tilotama, and the IYC Delhi chief, Shri Rajesh Lilothia.

Earlier on 22 July, more than three thousand activists of the Youth Congress organised a "Thunder Rally" at the Jantar Mantar to highlight the problems faced by the farmers. The rally was led by Youth Congress national president Randeep Singh Surjewala and was addressed by prominent Congress leaders including Deputy Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha, Shri Shivraj Patil, AICC general secretary, Shri Mukul Wasnik, Kisan Congress president, Shri Balram Jakhar, Chhatisgarh Chief Minister, Shri Ajit Jogi, AICC secretary, Smt. Sushila Tria, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president, Dr. Girija Vyas and AICC secretary, Shri Ketan Patel and Shri Chandan Bagchi.

Also present at the rally were IYC general secretary, Shri Anil Bhardwaj, Shri Jagat Singh, Treasurer, Shri Ketan Patel, political secretary to the president, Shri Shivnath Sharma, IYC spokesman, Shri Rajiv Gambhir, media coordinator, Shri Satpal, Shri Sanjeev Singh, Panchayati Raj Chairman, Shri Pradeep Jaildar, Backward Cell chairman, Shri Kamleshwar Patel and Policy Cell chairman, Shri Dinesh Kumar.

Shri Mukul Wasnik exorted the youth to start a campaign against the present government at the ground level and said that the youth by holding such a successful rally have defied the Delhi Bandh, a call given by the BJP.

Shri Shivraj Patil said that the time has come when all the youth power should combine and fight against the forces of communalism and fascism. He assured the youth that he would raise the demands of the Youth Congress in Parliament.

Shri Surjewala said that the youth should agitate against the wrong farmer’s policies and start a ground level campaign. He said that the government should immediately declare drought as national calamity and start an emergency relief campaign to save the Kharif crop of which 40% is already affected by the severe drought. He said that the government should take care of the farmers by deferring loans repayment and give proper compensation to those farmers who had sowed crops like cotton, rice, cane and other cash crops which are mostly dependent on monsoon.

Kisan Congress president, Shri Balram Jakhar criticised the BJP-led NDA government and asked as to how the people who do not know farming can understand the sufferings of the poor farmers?

Shri Ajit Jogi said that the Central Government was giving a step-motherly treatment to the Congress-ruled States and said that he is fully aware of the problems faced by the Adivasis and the poor people of the Chhatisgarh region and he is determined to see that they are given their due by the Central Government. He shall continue to fight for their cause, said Shri Ajit Jogi.

In Deesa (Gujarat) while internal bickering is prominently surfacing in the Gujarat BJP, it was a complete show of unity by the Congress at a farmers’ rally held in the border districts of Banaskantha here on 4 August.

The leaders of all groups were present at the rally that was used by the Congress as a launching pad to start its election campaign with the slogan of BJP Hatao, Gujarat Bachao. The star campaigner was the party’s new State president, Shri Shankarsinh Waghela.

Shri Waghela said the Congress would create five lakh permanent jobs in the villages, ensure continuation of the present power tariff system for the farm sector on horse-power basis instead of metering system, and supply Narmada waters, reducing their dependence on the depleting subsoil water reserves.

While Mr. Waghela criticised the Modi Government for ignoring the problem of drought for the sake of impressing the Election Commission to hold early elections in the State, Ahmed Patel, the political advisor to the national president, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, coined a new name for the BJP — the Bharatiya Janata Petrolpump Party.

While the AICC general secretary, Shri Kamal Nath, who is incharge of Gujarat affairs, said Gujarat would lead the country in banishing the BJP, the former party president, Shri Amarsinh Chaudhary, said the BJP was the "biggest threat" to the State.