Farmer suicides: Oppn may take back seat in RS

The Upper House, which will resume on Friday, is likely to witness an uproar over farmers’ <g data-gr-id="24">sucicide</g>. 

According to sources, the incumbent Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh is likely to counter the charges of Opposition by giving details of state-wise suicide cases reported by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) mentioning several reasons. 

 The Minister is also expected to tell the House that it was the NDA government that asked the NCRB to change the death reports of farmers separately. It is due to this that the number of farmer suicides has dropped to 5,600 this year against over 11,700 in 2013. 

According to sources, Former Agriculture Ministers such as Sharad Pawar, Tariq Anwar and Charan 

Das Mahant have started preparing their defensive strategies to face the heat in the House as previous ministers had given more insensitive answers. 

Acting cautiously, senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar has asked his staff to scan all his answers given on the issue in the <g data-gr-id="25">House,</g> when he was the minister in the UPA regime. On February 26, 2013, Pawar had said that causes of suicides include family problems, illness, drug abuse, love affairs, barrenness/impotency, cancellation or non-settlement of marriage, dowry dispute, etc. 

 The similar answers were given to the House by Pawar on August 6 and 16 in 2013, while Tariq Anwar had answered in the same fashion on February 21 last year and Charan Das Mahant on March 30, 2012.

All three leaders had answered the questions pertaining to farmers’ suicide on the basis of NCRB report, which was repeated by Singh for 2012 and 2013 only.