When Prime Minister Singh met Jawandhia and his group of farmers, it was a unique encounter--between a man who is seen as the face of economic reform and globalisation in India and a group of people who the country seems to have forgotten in its scramble for faster growth.
One represented the urgent need for Western style productivity; the other was pleading for a level playing field within the corroded marketing systems created by the heartless agriculture policies of government after government.
It is well known that Prime Minister Singh's singular focus is on consistent 8 per cent-plus growth rate for India but his Vidarbha visit--albeit late-seemed to suggest that he has the sensitivity to take time out to listen to the Indian farmer's woes.
Not even Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh or the state's strongman and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had bothered to visit the severely debt-trapped sons of soil till the prime minister took the time off to convey his sense of sorrow over the tragic deaths.
In a moving telephone interview, Jawandhia explains why he wanted to meet Prime Minister Singh, what he and the farmers of Waifed told Prime Minister Singh and how the most powerful man in the country reacted when confronted by the harshest reality of India, far away from the corridors of power and the ivory towers of those who plan the nation's destiny.
Image: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh interacting with the suicide-affected families of farmers in Waifed Village in Wardha District of Maharashtra on June 30..
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