Outlook Podcast | 11,290 Farmer Suicides: Election Season Promises Remain Unfulfilled

3/27/2024

The farming community's grievances persist despite being a focal point in election campaigns. Explore the challenges faced by farmers like Hardev Singh, whose struggles epitomize the unmet promises of MSP and agricultural reform. Delve into the dichotomy between political rhetoric and ground realities, as leaders pledge support yet fail to deliver. Discover the economic hardships, debt burdens, and agrarian crises plaguing rural India, as farmers grapple with dwindling incomes and rising suicides. Despite being a crucial voting bloc, will their voices truly influence their plight?

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Transcript

00:00 Outlook brings to you excerpts from its latest issue titled

00:04 Outrageous, Outlandish, Ostentatious

00:08 From the Overlap

00:09 A section that looks at news and emerging events from Outlook's special lens.

00:15 In the run-up to Lok Sabha Elections 2024,

00:18 the Overlap section in the latest issue of Outlook

00:21 takes a deep dive into the four new casts as defined by PM Modi

00:27 Women, Farmers, Youth and the Poor.

00:31 The Iron Harvest by Sharmeeta Kaur from Outlook

00:34 The farming community has always been given great significance

00:38 when it comes to poll promises and manifestos,

00:42 but many of their issues have never been resolved.

00:45 Like hundreds of others at the Shambhu border,

00:48 a frail Hardev Singh has turned his tractor into a makeshift tent

00:53 where he has been spending weeks since farmers started protesting on February 13.

00:59 Hailing from Punjab's Mogar district,

01:01 75-year-old Singh has black flags tied to his red tractor to rebel.

01:07 A small-time farmer, he owns a three-acre plot.

01:11 The shrinking rights of farmers compelled his son to move to Canada.

01:15 "We barely get any money for the produce procured from us.

01:19 We are the annadata.

01:21 Do we not deserve this minimum guarantee that we are asking?

01:24 And then we are being called Khalistanis," he says.

01:27 When the government awarded the Bharat Ratna to agriculture titans

01:31 like former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh and Dr. M.S. Swaminathan,

01:35 it made headlines.

01:37 However, concerns were also raised about whether the honour

01:41 actually had a deeper significance or was merely a political tactic to draw votes.

01:47 The Bharat Ratna came as thousands of farmers in Punjab renewed their protest,

01:52 seeking several demands, including a legal guarantee for a minimum support price

01:58 for crops based on the M.S. Swaminathan report.

02:02 However, these demands remain a distant dream for the farmers

02:06 while their legends are being given honorary statuses.

02:10 As the opposition India grouping framed this 2024 Lok Sabha poll battle

02:16 around caste census, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that,

02:19 "For him, the four biggest castes are the poor, the youth, women and farmers."

02:26 One would expect that the demands of the farmers are heard

02:30 and promises made to them are kept.

02:33 For this and more, read the latest issue of Outlook.

Outlook Podcast | 11,290 Farmer Suicides: Election Season Promises Remain Unfulfilled

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