“MY husband committed suicide last year after repeated crop failures. We have just two acres and I have two small kids, a son and a daughter. I have neither in-laws nor parents. I have passed the HSC. Please give me a job. I have nothing, no one to fall back on.”

As Vinita Parteki fought back tears and narrated her plight to the Prime Minister, more than 20 others from similar such families in Amravati’s suicide belt stepped forward to tell Manmohan Singh why the government needs to step in immediately and help the farmers.

For once, there were no tutored speeches, no one to stop criticism of the government.

Immediately after he entered the Adarsha Vidyalaya hall in this tehsil town, Singh began interacting with the farmer families. Divisional Commissioner S K Goyal played the translator as the Prime Minister got a first-hand account of all that was wrong in cotton country, why farmers, neck deep in debt, were taking their own lives after crop failures.

“I have come here to know your plight. I know what pain you are going through. I will see what needs to be done to prevent such a crisis in future,” the PM told the families.

Accompanying Singh were the state’s leaders: Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Prithviraj Chavan, R R Patil and Nagpur MP Vilas Muttemwar.

Vijay Bhaiyya told Singh he sold cotton for Rs 2,600 per quintal two years ago, Rs 2,200 last year and at Rs 2,000 this year. “Why not connect agricultural prices to the wholesale price index?” he asked. Vanita Ingole said if cotton fetched the right price, no farmer would be forced to commit suicide.

... contd.