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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Farmers scream 'vendetta'

While top leaders of both countries cheer, the reality on the ground is very different Mumbai : Top leaders in the US and India hailed the latest trade deal between the two leading democracies as at least 32 farmers ended their life in Maharashtra in January, officials said.   Farmers' leaders like All India Kisan Sabha President Dr. Ashok Dhawale and Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti Chairman Kishore Tiwari promptly slammed the NDA Government of 'vendetta' and 'victimising' the Indian...

Farmers scream 'vendetta'

While top leaders of both countries cheer, the reality on the ground is very different Mumbai : Top leaders in the US and India hailed the latest trade deal between the two leading democracies as at least 32 farmers ended their life in Maharashtra in January, officials said.   Farmers' leaders like All India Kisan Sabha President Dr. Ashok Dhawale and Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti Chairman Kishore Tiwari promptly slammed the NDA Government of 'vendetta' and 'victimising' the Indian agriculturists.   "On one hand the Union Budget has nothing spectacular for the farming community and on the other the government has virtually opened the doors for American agriculture corporations to enter India. This will further ruin our farmers," Tiwari told The Perfect Voice.   "The US-India trade deal is a clear vendetta against the farmers for their long and successful struggles against the BJP government in the past over seven years. Even the earlier agreements with the United Kingdom and the European Union and now the latest (USA) have been on the same lines," fumed Dr. Dhawale.   "There was no anticipated relief in the Budget 2026-2027, and there's a spate of suicides being reported from Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh mainly from the cotton and soybean regions. On the contrary our farmers are being punished for taking a stand against the government," Dr. Dhawale told The Perfect Voice.   Attacking the government, Tiwari said that PM Narendra Modi only talks of Atmanirbhar and Swadeshi but his actions are exactly contradictory.   Referring to the US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins hailing the US-India trade deal, both Tiwari and Dr. Dhawale fear that doom looms over the Indian farming community.   Rollins said on X today: "New US-India deal will export more American farm products to India's massive market, lifting prices, and pumping cash into rural America. In 2024, America’s agricultural trade deficit with India was $1.3 billion. India’s growing population is an important market for American agricultural products and today’s deal will go a long way to reducing this deficit." Dr. Dhawale said that the three big recently concluded free international trade agreements may be disastrous not only for the cotton-soybean farmers but the entire Indian agro-economy. Tiwari feels the distress in the farmlands is bound to worsen with such questionable FTAs as all the aid packages of successive Indian government's in the past 20 years have failed as they did not address the core issues affecting the farmers. "Instead, of MIGA, we seem to be obsessed with MAGA. The BJP must first make our own farmers prosperous before looking at the world," said Tiwari in a swipe at the government. Core farm issues ignored The AIKS and VJAS have stressed the need to issue the primary issues like input costs reduction, providing irrigation in dryland regions, monitoring and restoring soil health, effective reforms in the MSP, village base storage and processing facilities.   The two organisations also seek long-term credit policy to replace the existing political doles or loans waivers, attractive incentives for diversification from cash crops to food crops, millets, or pulses.   India–US trade deal has NOT been signed yet: Goyal Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the India–US trade deal has NOT been signed yet. He said it will be inked soon. He said core interests are protected: India’s priorities, farmers, MSMEs, dairy, and agriculture, remain non-negotiable. "India is negotiating, from a position of interest, not impulse," asserted Goyal.

Clever seat selection helped BJP to secure historic win

The party won 65 seats against Congress, 37 against NCP (SP) and 29 against Shiv Sena (UBT)

Clever seat selection

Mumbai: The BJP’s strategic seat sharing with the allies has proved beneficial for the party. An analysis of the Assembly election results show that the BJP has scored over its main rival, the Congress, in a big way because of the direct fights.


The analysis shows that BJP defeated all three constituents of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) – in the direct fights. This is attributed as one of the reasons for the BJP’s historic poll success.


The BJP contested 147 out of 288 seats. In 76 constituencies, it faced Congress. BJP secured victory in 65 seats and lost only 11 seats, making it a whopping 86 per cent of the total direct fights. This was followed by an even stronger performance against NCP (SP). Of the total 39 fights with Sharad Pawar’s party, BJP captured 37 seats making it 95 per cent of the total fights with NCP (SP). BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) were head-to-head in 32 constituencies, of which BJP emerged victorious in 29 seats, making this 91 per cent of the total direct contests.


According to a BJP strategist the party had bargained hard with its allies, Shiv Sena and NCP to get the desired constituencies in the seat sharing formula. “We had studied to potential candidates of the MVA. That helped us in choosing the seats where we can register comfortable victories,” the strategist said.


BJP spokesperson Niranjan Shetty attributed the success to all the party workers who worked hard to boost development, infrastructure in the state. He gave credit to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his contribution to the party’s success.


Shetty pointed out that in 2019, Uddhav Thackeray had stalled all the “novel” and “legendary” projects that Fadnavis had started when he had taken over as CM, making it very easy for the people of Maharashtra to strike a comparison between both the leaders and the potential they had for serving the people. “Devendra Fadnavis gave up his post very easily for the larger good. There are many such examples like Venkaiah Naidu who was BJP National President and later worked as the Vice President of India because that was the need of the hour. We seldom care about our posts,” Shetty told The Perfect Voice.


Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe refused to call the election results as the people’s mandate. “This is not at all a Janata mandate. Despite Maharashtra struggling with so many basic social issues, how can BJP acquire such a huge mandate is the question. If a student copies and fails with just passing marks, it can go unnoticed, but if a student copies and bags the number one position, something is fishy. Why is the BJP scared of ballot papers?” he said.

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