Contradictory to the Opposition Congress’s claim of 10,000 farmers committed suicide in Gujarat during the tenure of Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of the State, the Gujarat Government disclosed before the apex court that actually less than 100 farmers committed suicide in the State.
In response to the Supreme Court’s showcause notice, the affidavit was filed, in which the State Government claimed that of the 96 suicide of farmers only two were directly related to farming issues.
State Government spokesman and senior Minister Nitin Patel said that whenever one commit suicide for some or other reason, a simple police procedure takes place and in an FIR there is a column of victim’s profession. “Hypothetically, even if a farmer commits suicide for social reasons, in the column of victim’s profession would be written as farming. However, in the reality, the cause of suicide in such case was not related to failure of crop, debt or other farming related issues,” said the Minister.
Sources said that the two suicides which were taken place in last five years were related to farming related issues. Both incidents occurred in Amreli district in Saurashtra peninsula — one due to failure of crop and another due to debt.
The affidavit clearly indicates that 85 farmers committed suicide for their own problem and not because of agriculture related crisis. Other nine had committed suicide because of personal debt and not for agriculture related dues. “Hence, the Government did not pay compensation to these farmers as there is no provision for compensation to farmers committing suicide for other than agriculture related problems,” said the affidavit.
In fact, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) in its written statement claimed that around 10,000 people related to agriculture profession committed suicide in last 13 years (Modi government). Former minister and senior Congress leader Raghavji Patel said that Narendra Modi Government in Centre failed to declare adequate support price to the cotton growers. He expressed fear that it might result into more suicides of farmers.
Against the claim of GPCC, the State Government source says that hardly around 570 farmers committed suicide during the Modi Government in Gujarat that too other than agriculture related reasons.