KBC-fame woman among Vid farm widows headed to Delhi-Times of India
Publication: TNN
Nagpur: Chairman of Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavalamban Mission (VNSSM), a state government task force on agrarian crisis, Kishore Tiwari is leading a team of widows of farmers who had committed suicide to join the protests in Delhi.
The protests are being carried out by relatively well-off farmers of the north, said Tiwari and added that his group will represent the underprivileged cultivator of the country. “The widows are the real face of the country’s farmers,” he said
Tiwari from Yavatmal has been raising the suicides’ issue since over a decade. The first batch of 60 women includes Aparna Malikar, widow who had taken part in Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) show in 2011. Around 1,000 widows will reach Delhi and take part in the Republic Day march also.
“Even as voices are being raised against the three laws, no one is taking about the agrarian crisis of Vidarbha. The widows will tell the story of the distress in Vidarbha to farmers in Delhi.”
“The issues of dryland farmers like those in Vidarbha are not being raised at all. Even we demand a law ensuring MSP according to the Swaminathan Commission’s formula. There are other issues like credit disbursal and availability of water,” he said.
On the three new farm laws, Tiwari said those going to Delhi will also tell the rest that the model proposed by the centre is already under implementation in Maharashtra but has failed. “The moves were taken as part of the relief packages and the market system was liberalized long ago in the state but they failed to deliver,” he said.
Yavatmal district has seen the highest number of farmers’ suicides in the state. Before the group led by Tiwari, All India Kisan Sangh, the farmers’ wing of Communist Party of India (CPI), had taken a group of 35 widows from other parts of the state to Delhi.
