Government policy seeks to turn landless into beggars: Rajgopal

The government's development policy seeks to render farmers landless and turn them into beggars, Gandhian P.V. Rajgopal, founder of the Ekta Parishad, said here on Wednesday.

Rajgopal was observing a four-day fast and a sit-in against the development policy of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led governments at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh.

"The people need to oppose this development policy in which the landowners are being rendered landless. Today, 99,000 villages have vanished from the Indian map. We are objecting to such an idea of development and demanding that the people should not be deprived of their means to livelihood," Rajgopal said.

He demanded that the people should be given rights to forests and land, and called for strict implementation of laws that ensured rights of farmers and the deprived communities instead of favouring the capitalists.

Ekta Parishad president Ransingh Parmar said any development infrastructure that ignores the poor would always invite social revolution.

Surender Bisht of Bharat Swabhiman Andolan said politics based on ignoring villages and farmers can never lead to a country's development.

Ekta Parishad's sit-in, which received support from almost all opposition political parties and social groups, concluded on Wednesday at Neelam Park here with a public meet.

Farmers and tribals from 37 districts of Madhya Pradesh participated in the state-level fast and sit-in led by Rajgopal.