The death of the dream of socialist India:Whither equitable distribution of wealth?
A woman rag-picker and her kids drag the cart. Mukesh Ambani gifts Jet to his wife Tina. Nobody is jealous of her but think what has went wrong with our nation in the last fifty years.
If this doesn't wake us up, nothing else can. The rising Sensex, ever-growing Ambanis and the wealth of Mittals keeps up blinded.
The dream of equitable distribution of wealth is dying. Outside the glitter of Hyderabad, rural Andhra Pradesh is witnessing one of the worst phases in history. In 1997, the State had 1,097 farmers ending their lives and the figure went up to 2,490 in 2005.
And hold your breath 16,770 farmers have committed suicide in 8 years in AP. Just go beyond Hyderabad and every district from Karim Nagar to Mahboob Nagar and Kurnool, has at least 300-400 suicides by farmers in the last three years.
In Karnataka, beyond the Bangalore of Narayanamurthy and Premji, 20,093 farmers have committed suicide in eight years. The figure was 1832 in 1997 and went up to 1,883 in 2005. And the worst is Maharashtra where the figure of suicides for eight years was 28,911. IN 1997, the figure for state was 1,917 and 3,926 for 2005.
States Figure of Deaths
(1997) (2005) (8 years)
Maharashtra 1917 3926 28,911
Andhra Pradesh 1097 2490 16,770
Karnataka 1832 1883 20,093
And these are government figures. The reality is 1.5-2 lakh deaths in last ten years.
Every hour a farmer is committing suicide in Vidarbha alone. Meanwhile, the number of millionaires keep growing in India. The divide is only getting wider. Sadly the educated middle-class also remains indifferent to the plight of poor and rural India. How have we all grown so insensitive. Will the political class and social consciousness comprehend the gravity of situation.
Or these vast crores of poor Indians, who are getting poorer by the day, and have nothing to lose, have to resort to Urban Naxalism. Do they have any option?
