These Are Farmers, Not Criminals: MS Swaminathan's Daughter On Government’s Handling Of Protests (image: twitter.com/MadhuraFAS/)
Madhura Swaminathan, the daughter of the late agricultural scientist Dr MS Swaminathan, said on Tuesday that farmers in India cannot be treated as criminals. She was reacting to the news reports that the Haryana government was preventing agitating farmers from reaching Delhi.
Madhura Swaminathan, Developmental economist made the comment while addressing an event organised by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa to celebrate Bharat Ratna to her father.
“The farmers of Punjab today are marching to Delhi. I believe, according to the newspaper reports, there are jails being prepared for them in Haryana, there are barricades, there are all kinds of things being done to prevent them,” she said.
“These are farmers, they are not criminals,” she stressed and received applause from the audience.
“These are #Farmers & not criminals…” Dr Madhura Swaminathan, economist & daughter of Bharat Ratna Prof MS Swaminathan. Bharat Ratna was announced for MS Swaminathan recently
“If you have to honour MS Swaminathan then we have to take our farmers along with… pic.twitter.com/GfEeQH1m6C— Tamal Saha (@Tamal0401) February 14, 2024
“I request all of you, the leading scientists of India, we have to talk to our annadatas [food providers; farmers are referred as annadatas], we cannot treat them as criminals. We have to find solutions,” Madhura Swaminathan added.
Adding further, she said that it is her request, and “if we have to continue and honour MS Swaminathan, we have to take the farmers with us in whatever strategy we’re planning for the future,” concluded her address.
In an X post on Tuesday, Madhura Swaminathan shared MS Swaminathan”s statement in November 2021 expressing happiness about the Union government decision of repealing its three controversial farm laws.
Here is what M S Swaminathan said when the farm laws were repealed @mssrf https://t.co/HYSmSlSOve. https://t.co/dC3ejbsZ8F
— Madhura Swaminathan (@MadhuraFAS) February 13, 2024
MS Swaminathan, the father of the Green Revolution, and the founder of the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), died September last year.
As the farmers protest, ‘Delhi Chalo’ March, enters its second day on Wednesday, one of the demands of the protesting farmers is the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission Report. In 2004, the Centre government has formulated a commission led by MS Swaminathan to help address problems faced by farmers. In the report, the commission had recommended that the government should raise the Minimum Support Price (MSP) on crops to at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production.
