AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government’s much-hyped Rs 10,000-crore agricultural relief package, meant to soothe the wounds of farmers battered by unseasonal rains, has instead ignited political dissent across party lines. The controversy has snowballed, with opposition parties, BJP’s own leaders, and even the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh slamming the move as inadequate and insensitive to ground realities.
The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the farmers’ wing of the RSS, has openly questioned the credibility and criteria of the government’s compensation model. Its state general secretary, R K Patel, minced no words. He told the media, “It is unclear on what basis this relief has been calculated. The amount announced is nothing compared to the actual losses suffered by farmers.” He warned that if the farmers’ anger intensifies, “the Kisan Sangh will join their struggle.”
Patel further tore into the uniform relief formula, asking, “How can there be equal compensation for both 25% and 100% crop loss?” While acknowledging that large-scale assistance was welcome, he demanded that the government “rethink the structure and fairness of the package.”
He highlighted that farmers’ actual investment per hectare ranged between Rs 18,000 and Rs 28,000, while the current aid barely scratches the surface. “If the government calls this a historic package, then what exactly has reached the farmer’s hand?” he asked pointedly.
In a striking rebuke from within, BJP leader Chetan Malani, former general secretary of Savarkundla taluka and director of the APMC, resigned from all party positions in Amreli district, calling the package “a cruel joke on farmers.”
His resignation letter accused the state of showing “lavish indifference” toward the plight of cultivators devastated by monsoon damages. Declaring that he was acting “on moral grounds as a farmer’s son,” Malani said the government’s Rs 9,815-crore assistance “does not even touch the scale of farmers’ losses.”
Malani’s exit has caused ripples across the BJP’s district unit, revealing cracks in the party’s façade of unity. He accused the government of ignoring the mounting financial burden of farmers who invested heavily in cotton, groundnut, onion, and soybean crops.
His call for the government to “reconsider and provide adequate support” has emboldened local discontent.
Adding political heat, Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda launched a scathing attack, accusing the BJP government of “mocking the pain of farmers while claiming generosity.” He alleged that the state’s farmers are buried under debts averaging Rs 56,000 each, yet the government has handed them “a mere piece of paper in the name of relief.”
Chavda warned that if the government fails to waive farm debts, the Congress will hit the streets with farmers in protest. “The BJP calls it a historic package, but for farmers, it’s a historic betrayal,” he said, adding that the lack of crop insurance has forced farmers to “beg for survival.” He pointed to a recent suicide by a farmer in Dwarka as proof of the crisis deepening in rural Gujarat.
Even as Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel’s government touted the package as a lifeline for 42 lakh affected farmers, political reality suggests otherwise. From the BJP’s grassroots to the Congress high command, the refrain is the same—the aid is too little, too late.