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The forecast of a possible drought this year is not good news for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it prepares for Assembly elections in six states, the most crucial being the post-monsoon election in Bihar.
Last year’s below-average rainfall, unseasonal rain this year, and now the prospect of a drought will need hard work on the part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party to counter a attacks by the Congress and other Opposition parties over being anti-farmer.
The BJP has not found it easy rebutting Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the Modi government on farmer distress.
“The Modi government has been ignoring the agricultural sector. A drought will aggravate the agrarian crisis. We shall rake up the issue to ensure this government acts in time,” Congress communication chief Randeep Surjewala told Business Standard.
The BJP will rely on Modi’s proven crisis management skills, while telling the people that drought management is more a job for states than the Centre. The party has asked its Bihar MPs to organise marches in their constituencies to “expose” the Nitish Kumar government’s failure to deliver central assistance to farmers.
“We have a leadership that has proved its mettle in crisis management. We will take every possible step, just as during the recent unseasonal rains, to help farmers,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said announcing special packages for states would not suffice. The minister pointed out how the package for Bundelkhand announced by the United Progressive Alliance was used more by the Madhya Pradesh government than by Uttar Pradesh.
Droughts and the resulting food inflation have swung Lok Sabha as well as Assembly elections. Modi, however, bucked the trend as chief minister of Gujarat in the December 2012 Assembly elections, despite a severe drought in the state.
The recently launched dedicated Kisan channel on TV will help the government inform farmers on drought-proofing steps like digging deeper village tanks and moving away from water-intensive crops like pulses.
