`Siddaramaiah government failed to foresee the situation'

RS Deshpande, former director of the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru and national fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) has authored 17 books and over 110 research papers in national and international journals. One of his books includes `Agrarian Crisis and Farmer Suicides, Farmers and MSP in Karnataka'. Deshpande tells TOI the spate of suicides in Karnataka is a result of wrong government policies and lack of support system for the farming community. Across the country, 5,650 farmers committed suicide in 2014, with most deaths being reported from Maharashtra, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. Of late, such cases are being reported more in Karnataka.What could be the reason? Karnataka is undoubtedly vulnerable to farmer suicides like in Maharashtra, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. This is because the state is partly on irrigated and partly on dry land.The recent suicides are largely because of a lethargic government and wrong policies. The Siddaramaiah government failed to foresee such a situation when he took over and now he is paying the price for it. The state government has decided to set up two committees one involving experts in various fields to study the reason for farmers' suicides and another headed by MS Swaminathan to study the agrarian crisis. Do you think it will help? MS Swaminathan is about 90 years. Undoubtedly he is the best scientist of his generation. But I don't he has enough knowledge about the problems faced by farmers in Karnataka. The government is wasting its time. Instead, it should look at implementing the recommendations of the GK Ve e r e s h Committee which has done a detailed study a n d g ive n prog ressive recommendations. In many farmers' suicides, there is a linkage with loans taken from moneylenders or Micro Finance Institutions. Are they responsible for the situation? No way. These are the views of academics. Suicides by farmers cannot be for a single reason. We found this when we were part of the GK Veeresh Committee which studied farmers' suicides in mid-2000. There are multiple reasons -of course, debts are in many ways are the genesis of a suicide as it leads to stress and lack of family, friends and banks support makes it worse. In many suicides, relatives of victims allege that coercive methods are used by banks or moneylenders to recover loans and creates a situation where the person is forced to commit suicide.Has the government done enough on the issue? Former CM SM Krishna had enacted the Moneylenders Act following a spate of suicides in the state in early 2000. But successive governments have failed to implement it. Moreover, government policies have also failed farmers. If a bank freely gives loans to farmers, why would they go to moneylenders? Even schemes like kisan credit cards have been a failure as they only offer a one-time, paltry loan. Farmers in Mandya, where most suicides have been reported, grow water-intensive sugarcane crops. Has this anything to do with suicides? Yes. Sugarcane is not just a waterintensive crop but also high on capital.Farmers who go for sugarcane crops are highly ambitious and always expect good returns. When their expectations are not met, they generally struggle to overcome it. -TOI