Yet another farmer died in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh by committing suicide. The debt ridden farmer, Ramesh Bisen, 42, was from Balaghat which is 455 km from Bhopal. The family of the deceased said that he was in distress due to issues of loan repayment. Bisen consumed pesticide to kill himself.
Amidst these deaths and protests, the MP Home Minister Bhupendra Singh said that the farmer suicides in the state were due to personal reasons. He also claimed that debts and loan repayment were not the only reason for suicide.
Singh said, “If a farmer is committing suicide it is not necessary that he was into debt. There can be various reasons for a farmer to commit suicide.” These comments by Singh came on the day the Chief Minister of MP, Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited the families of farmers that were killed in police firing.
Last Tuesday, even as Mandsaur burned, Singh claimed that the police did not open fire on the protestors. On Thursday, he issued an official statement contradicting the same that the farmers were, indeed, killed in police firing.
MP, this year had a good harvest in both winter and summer crops. Despite this, the state has been affected worst by the farmers’ protest for farm loan waiver. They demanded better prices for the produce and farm loan waiver, which gradually turned violent. This resulted in police firing and death of five farmers. Even with real farming issues, the Home Minister associated the deaths to personal problems.
