"I join the outpouring of grief across the country over yesterday's incident," Modi said as he argued for the need to craft a national resolve to ensure that farmers were not left to fend for themselves and said his government was ready to accept suggestions from all quarters to try and put an end to the "old, deep-rooted and widespread" problem.
Participating in a debate triggered by Gajendra Singh's suicide at the rally of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Modi struck a non-partisan note, but emphasized that the crisis in the farm sector was of a very old vintage. The PM said policies, including those during his tenure of 10 months, needed to be reviewed to find out the mistakes which were committed. "We all have to introspect where we went wrong, the wrong turns which we took both during the last 10 months as well as the period preceding it," he said.
Modi spoke after the government readily agreed to opposition's demand for a debate on the problems facing farmers as symbolized by Gajendra's tragic death. Parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that while the issue was discussed only this week, government favoured a fresh debate in view of the "seriousness" of the matter.
The PM's personal intervention was significant because of the opposition's effort to staple the farm crisis to the NDA government's alleged pro-rich policies. Towards that end, Rahul Gandhi, Kejriwal and others in the opposition have tried to fuse the troubles of farmers on account of unseasonal rains with their charge that the land acquisition bill was a device to grab land for corporate houses favoured by the government.
The Modi government has refused to blink on the land acquisition bill, but has tried to buffer itself against the "anti-farmer" charge by hiking the amount and relaxing the norms for compensation for crop damage and by agreeing to procure the damaged foodgrain. The readiness for the debate and the PM's speech are seen as indication of the government's willingness to go further before the land bill is sought to be passed in Parliament.
However, the Congress remained unimpressed. Outside the House, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said replies by the PM and the home minister were "unsatisfactory". Other Congress leaders maintained the stance, saying the government had not announced any real measure for the betterment of farmers.
Earlier, home minister Rajnath Singh had attacked AAP for the farmer's suicide and promised a time-bound probe into the incident. Singh told the House that the crowd gathered for AAP's rally had "clapped" and "raised slogans" as Gajendra Singh was perched on the tree. "The crowd was clapping. Police requested them to stop raising slogans. Generally, anybody who tries to do an extreme act like this is engaged in a very intelligent way through talks. He is kept busy. Against it, the crowd kept clapping and raising slogans," Singh said.
Rajya Sabha too witnessed sharp exchanges with the opposition urging the government to urgently rescue distressed farmers while slamming the Centre for focusing on the land bill instead of addressing farmers' woes. Demanding an all-party meet to debate the issue, opposition MPs alleged that the land bill was being pushed for passage with a "vengeance".
The MPs demanded waiver of crop loans, substantial hike in the minimum support price of crops and compensation to farmers for crop loss.
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