BHOPAL: Even as the protests by farmers in Madhya Pradesh is not quite visible as compared with other states, the state government has been accusing the opposition Congress of "misleading" the peasants on the issue.
As small farmers in Madhya Pradesh have been confined to their villages during the agitation against the three new farm laws, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government is assuming that there is no resentment among the farmers.
With the BJP now deciding to hold farmers conventions at the divisional and district levels in the state, state Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel is holding 'chaupals' or meetings with panchayat representatives and others in different villages. Patel claims that farmers in Madhya Pradesh are happy with these laws because they will benefit.
Even as thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan etc have been participating in the ongoing protests on the Delhi borders, only farmers from Gwalior-Chambal belt and Dewas in Madhya Pradesh have gone to the national capital while others remain in their villages and fields.
Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Anil Yadav however maintained that since Delhi was far off from the Malwa-Nimar and Mahakaushal areas of Madhya Pradesh, only farmers from some parts of the state had gone to Delhi.
"Farmers from other areas are protesting in their respective areas. The public is not getting to know about the protests by Madhya Pradesh farmers since the media is not showing their agitation," he claimed.
Those working among farmers believe that most of them in Madhya Pradesh own small land holdings, that is, one to five acres of land only. Farmers in tribal area have even less land holdings. Since most of them use the crop yield for the sustenance of their families and sell it in their villages itself, they do not have to visit agricultural markets.
Secondly, they also do not have details of the new farm laws since these were passed during the coronavirus pandemic. Hence, small farmers in Madhya Pradesh remain confined to their villages, giving relief to the state government.
Dinesh Rai, a farmer from Meghnagar in Jhabua, asserted that farmers in Madhya Pradesh were indeed angry about the farm law. "But they are not coming out on the streets due to fear of coronavirus. However, farmers are registering their protest in villages. Go to any village in Madhya Pradesh — the farmers there are very angry about these laws," he added. (IANS)