VJAS Letter to Indian President

Ref: VJAS/POI-Visit/175/07 Date : 09/06/2007
An Open Letter to :

Respected Hon'ble President of India –
His Highness Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

It's not all well in Vidarbha to attend cultural programmes : Farmers are dying – rural economy is on the verge of collapse !
"Would you please spare few minutes to meet unfortunate widows of farmers who killed their lives in extreme distress and due to complete failure of Govt. Policies ruining the entire Indian Rural Economy in the background of so called shining india which resulted agrarian crisis witnessed by Vidarbha as a live lesson to learn!"

Ref : Your proposed visit to Farmers Suicide Epicenter – Yavatmal & Wardha Districts of Vidarbha Region in the State of Maharashtra.
Respected His Highness Dr. Abdul Kalamji,

You are well aware that, since last couple of years our organization – Vidarbha JanAndolan Samiti, is raising the issue of plight of poor farmers who are in extreme distress & suffering the heat of failure of Govt. policies, which has resulted in complete collapse of Indian Rural Economy and perhaps Vidarbha Region has been branded as Epicenter of farmers suicides and is witnessing a live lesson to learn.

From the days Your Honour occupied the coveted post of President of India, we have been keeping you informed about the plight of farmers & agrarian community in Vidarbha and their distressed conditions. We have also kept Your Honour posted regularly with the facts & figures of the ruining Indian Rural Economy and always prayed for your humble intervention in the interest of justice to the farmers & Rural India.

Hon'ble Mr. Sir, you may recall that since last two years, everyday in the morning, we have been mailing Your Honour the updated list containing names, addresses & other relevant details of the unfortunate farmers whose continued series of suicides due to extreme distress conditions prevailing in the Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra State, is heating the National & International news sense. We also submitted a detailed report containing the facts how Prime Minister Relief Package has failed to address the basic issues.

We are extremely sorry that we neither received any reply from your office on our various mails / fax / letters sent to you almost daily nor came to know any action is initiated by you on such a serious issue of plight of farmers in Vidarbha Region.

We regret that your office have not addressed issue in a manner it would have been, considering the gravity, seriousness & intensity of the subject. Perhaps this might be due to your busy schedule.

Now we understand that, you are visiting Yavatmal & Wardha Districts of Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra State for some cultural & educational programmes as Guest of Honour. While we propose to welcome & extend best wishes to you for your proposed visit to Yavatmal & Wardha Districts of Vidarbha Region, we would like to request you for sparing few minutes for the grief ridden unfortunate families & widows of farmers who killed themselves due to continued plight & miserable life being experienced by entire Rural India, economy of which is in extreme broken condition and due to that the farmers at large are constraint to commit suicides. Vidarbha agrarian crisis is a live example of how we are proceeding in a Global Economy in which issues of Rural India & farmers have thrown to back benches. Yavatmal & Wardha are the worst heat districts and therefore, being termed as Epicenter of farmers suicides, if you refer to the reports submitted by Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, Former Chairman of National Commission on Farmers & your friend.

We will be highly obliged, if you could spare few minutes to meet unfortunate widows of farmers either at Yavatmal or Wardha and incorporate this meeting in your busy schedule programme and arrange to inform us accordingly.

However, we strongly feel that it is not all well in Vidarbha and therefore, it's not right time for any cultural or dancing session inauguration. Social issues are so grave that, such white collar cultural & dancing session inauguration programmes need to be discarded and we all should address thrust issues of ruining Rural Economy of India and the agrarian crisis. We feel your Yavatmal & Wardha visit must addressed these core issues and due importance may please be given on such a serious subject.

Hon'ble Mr. Sir, We hope you will understand our feelings and do the needful accordingly.

Best Regards,
Yours faithfully,
For VIDARBHA JANANDOLAN SAMITI

KISHORE TIWARI
PRESIDENT

1001 Suggestions

This is a blog for recording the "1001 Brilliant Suggestions" for what the Indian farmer must do to stop committing suicides because of agrarian distress, and to start sharing the optimism of Indian politicians, economists, bureaucrats regarding Incredible India.

While Indian farmers do have some idea about their situation, we will be asking farmers in a separate excercise what they want from other Indians. Right now, only those who are not dependant on agricultural incomes, and have basically, non agricultural incomes to sustain them, in their day to day living, will usually have better and more relevant ideas, of what the Indian kisan, ought to do, to escape his seemingly depressing and downhill progressing situation.

So here in this blog, we will try and collect 1001 most brilliant ideas of non agriculturists, on what the farmer should be doing and what the government should be doing to improve the lot of farmers. Once we reach the figure of 1001 most brilliant suggestions, we will try to put them up before a farmers panchayat for ratification before being presented to the President of India for further suitable action.

Please note, for giving constructive and acceptable suggestions, it is essential that you have non agricultural sources of income, for yourself and your family, and should be able to prove non agricultural sources of income if required. This will ensure consistency of the suggestions about Indian agrarian distress and will give a bird's eye view of the situation in Indian villages.

Please note we welcome people with guaranteed, as well as non guaranteed, sources of income. The only condition is, it should not be based on agriculture.

So if you are a politician, a bureaucrat, a student's leader, a journalist, a media professional, an economist, a government employee, an IT professional, a scientist, an NRI, or any other such non agricultural professional, with some basic guaranteed income or non guaranteed basic incomes, please feel free to submit your suggestions.

In case you come across some suggestions of other knowledgeable people, please do tell us about them, quoting the sources.

Please try to be brief in your suggestions. Suggestions in the form of brief action points, will be best.
Suggestions will be later categorized in categories of :
1. For the Central and state governments
2. For the politicians, in power or in opposition, and big industrialists
3. For professionals like scientists, teachers, defence forces, IT professionals, urban rich, urban middle class, urban poor
4. For landless sections of rural population
5. For students and coming generations
6. For the media
7. For non farming sections of Indian population who have left villages in last 10 years.
8. For families of farmers
9. For farmers themselves.