Socialist leaders flay centre, some states for ignoring agriculture

BHUBANESWAR: Veteran socialist leaders on Tuesday literally lambasted the centre and various state governments for ignoring the agriculture sector and farmers community.

The leaders, most of them who participated in the freedom struggle and worked with top socialist leaders like Rammanohar Lohiya and Jayaprakash Narayan and Dr Ram Monohar Lohia, said the successive governments at the centre had systematically buried the principle of socialism enshrined in the country’s constitution to perpetrate capitalism in the country.

Over one hundred socialists, most of them in their 80s, have arrived here from different parts of the country to participate in a two-day national conference organized by Socialist Front and Lohia Birth Centenary Committee.

“Until 1990, successive union governments followed the principle socialism to some extent. But in 1990s, the centre completely buried it in the name of liberalization,” Dr G.G. Parikh, noted socialist and chief of Mumbai’s Yusuf Meherally Centre said.

The octogenarian socialist observed that the union government as well as the state governments did not spend much on agriculture and always cared how to promote the interest of the corporate houses – both national and multi-national.

Presiding over the inaugural session, former Madhya Pradesh minister Ms Sabita Vajpayee said unless the condition of the farmers community improved, the much-touted slogan of inclusive growth would remain only in pen and paper.

“The term inclusive growth has been a fashionable slogan with some people. How can it be possible without addressing the problems of agriculture sector?” she asked.

Former union minister Brajakishore Tripathy said the growth rate in agriculture has come down to 1.7% in recent times because of sheer negligence by the successive governments to the sector.

“The union and state governments are often seen advising farmers to take up cash crops. But the facts remains that institutional finance is hardly available to farmers. Nor do they get insurance benefits as announced by the union and state governments. When the peasants are rotting in poverty, how can they take up cash crop?” Mr Tripathy quipped.