Following the outrage over his alleged comments that it had become a fashionable for farmers to commit suicide, BJP MP Gopal Shetty expressed his regret for the incorrect use of the word “fashionable”. He said that his comments were distorted by a Hindi newspaper.
Condemning the alleged comments, Congress said the remarks by Shetty reflected the BJP’s “insensitivity” towards farmers’ plight. “Mr Shetty’s remarks show how insensitive he and his party is towards thousands of farmers who have committed suicide due to debt and crop failure. Private institutes and persons have to take the initiative to help farmers because the government has failed to do so. If the BJP cannot provide relief to distressed farmers, they should at least not rub salt in the farmers’ wounds,” Congress leader and leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said.
However, Mr Shetty said that his statement was “distorted”. “My statement was completely distorted and I never intended to say that farmers are committing suicide to get money from the government. I was asked by a reporter whether the fact that 124 farmers had committed suicide was a failure of the BJP government. To this I said that the Fadnavis government was doing a great job through schemes like the Jalyukta Shivar Yojana, but it would take time for it to reach the farmers. I also said that suicides wouldn’t stop overnight because the last government had done nothing to stop suicides in the last fifteen years,” he said.
Mr Shetty further said, “I went on to say that nowadays it has become fashionable for state governments to give money to families of deceased farmers. One state government gives Rs 5 lakh, another gives Rs 8 lakh, while a third gives Rs 9 lakh. So I intended to say that it’s almost become a competition among state governments to offer monetary help to farmers — almost like a fashion statement. My statement was distorted to me saying that it has become fashionable for farmers to commit suicide.”
