Karnataka: Politicians play blame game as 42 farmers end lives in 2 months

Crushed under a massive farm debt, a desperate Chennaiah Khatedar (47) chose to end his life at Komaragoppa village in Karnataka’s Dharwad district. Knowing that he would not be able to clear his debt of Rs.1.20 lakh to a private financier, Khatedar hanged himself, says the police.

He was not alone. In two other districts of the southern state, at least three other farmers ended their lives for the same reason. While 42-year-old Devaraju of Ankanahalli in Mysuru chose to hang himself like Khatedar, 38-year-old Karabasappa Basantappa Hediyala of Haveri’s Guddadabevinahalli village and 60-year-old K Annakka of Shigenahalli village in Vijayanagara district took poison.

Debt-ridden farmers’ suicides are nothing new in either Karnataka or India. According to statistics, over 30 farmers kill themselves every single day in India. The suicides are mostly driven by low crop yields, high-interest loans, and minimal support system — both financial and psychological.

Karnataka’s dubious record

Karnataka recorded 3,339 farmer suicides in 2022 — the second highest in the country — accounting for 20.5 per cent of the 16,152 farmer suicides in India. Karnataka also recorded 999 suicides of farm labourers, the second in the country after Maharashtra.

Farmers’ suicides and their plight in general have rocked the ongoing state legislature session, too. However, instead of trying to address the grave agrarian crisis, the political system seems to be busy trying to dump the blame on the rival.

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Even worse, when JD(S) leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and BJP leaders raised the issue of suicides in the state assembly, it appeared that both parties were trying to take advantage of a drought looming large over Karnataka due to the failure of the monsoon.

The squabble in Assembly

The BJP and JD(S) have joined hands to oppose the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (Amendment) Bill, too, calling it detrimental to the farming community. In the run-up to the May Assembly polls, the Congress had promised to amend the law to return the state to a regime where the sale of all agricultural produce must occur through the markets of APMC.

Congress leaders accused the state BJP of being “anti-Modi” by opposing the withdrawal of a law the Centre withdrew. The JD(S), which opposed the ordinance brought by the BJP government to introduce the law in 2020, has now done a U-turn and backed the BJP in opposing the amendment.

Moving an adjournment motion in the Legislative Council on Tuesday, BJP leader Kota Srinivasa Poojari said 42 farmers have died by suicide in Karnataka in the past two months. Of these, 18 died in Haveri — the home district of former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai. He urged the government to declare the state drought-hit.

Bommai, on his part, has demanded a grant of Rs 1 crore to each constituency to address the drinking water issue, while Kumaraswamy has criticised “government apathy”.

Agriculture Minister N Chaluvarayaswamy, however, has insisted that the Congress government is concerned about farmers. He appealed to the Opposition not to politicise the suicides.

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Speaking to The Federal, he said: “The BJP is shedding crocodile tears.” He claimed the BJP and the JD(S) were opposing the scrapping of the amendments introduced by the previous BJP government to the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) Bill. “Both have no moral right,” he said.

Deaths and deaths

There is some truth to Chaluvarayaswamy’s claim. Data reveals that 4,257 farmers have ended their lives in the past five years in Karnataka. The number dropped in the post-Covid period. The BJP, then in power, claimed this was a “positive development”. Farmers’ groups rubbished the figures and claimed the government was “under-reporting”.

“There were 1,084 instances of farmers ending their lives but the number shows 310,” says Kuruburu Shanthakumar, president of the Karnataka Sugarcane Growers’ Association. Of the 4,257 suicides reported, the government reportedly approved compensation in 3,442 cases, according to the data tabled by former agriculture minister BC Patil.

During the 2013-2018 Congress rule, too, Karnataka had recorded over 1,500 farmer suicides. Then Congress president Rahul Gandhi had visited Mandya district, which registered many suicides.

What lies beneath?

“For the politician, every suicide is just a number and political parties use the statistics to politicise the issue. The recent suicides in Karnataka reflect the volatility and vulnerabilities of the agriculture sector,” said noted filmmaker Kesari Harvoo, whose 85-minute movie Kisan Satyagraha captured the spirit of the farmers’ protest on the borders of Delhi.

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“The cases of farmer suicides underscore the larger question of government support for farmers and financial policies to protect them and their families. Despite Karnataka’s status as a primarily agrarian economy, volatile crop prices, rising transportation and storage costs, erratic weather patterns, and debt trap cycles have made farming an increasingly unsustainable economic activity,” said Kuruburu Shantha Kumar, president of the Karnataka Sugarcane Growers Association.

Leaders of various farmers’ outfits also hold disunity among themselves, which is partly responsible for the plight of farmers. Citing the farmers’ agitation of the 1980s, they say that had that spirit of unity continued, farmers would not spare political parties which usher in anti-farmer policies.