Causing embarrassment to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, singer-turned-Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman has composed a song condemning farmers' suicides in the state and has urged the state government to pay heed to the plight of the peasants
Causing embarrassment to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, singer-turned-Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman has composed a song condemning farmers' suicides in the state and has urged the state government to pay heed to the plight of the peasants.
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Several farmers in the state have committed suicide as they are not getting appropriate prices for their produce and thus incurring heavy losses.
Suman had earlier courted controversy and drew flak from Trinamool supremo Banerjee for eulogising slain and arrested Maoist leaders.
This time, he has sung paens to dead farmers and reminded the 'Maa Mati Manush' government -- the slogan of the Trinamool Congress government -- that it had used the farmers to come to power.
The English translation of the song, 'Kannay Kaan Dao' (Pay Heed to the Tears), goes something like this: "Maa Mati Manush government, you may call the opposition in whatever name but you need the farmers, what is the cost of the potato sacks stored in cold storage and rice at easy prices, when will the farmers in the Maa Mati Manush regime sell as they are all starving."
"Come and answer whether the owners of the mill buy the rice at government prices or less than that," Suman asks in the song.
Suman also mocked at Banerjee's poll promise of turning Kolkata into London. "The new government has come to power at the price of the martyrdom of the villagers with a new name of change. There is no need of making London, rather look into the plight of the farmers," Suman said.
Both, alliance partner Congress and the opposition Left Front, has blamed the Trinamool-led government for the mismanagement of agriculture in the state. It has alleged that the farmers are not getting the minimum prices of the products fixed by the central government.
Congress has alleged that out of the 1,018 rice mills in the state 350 are closed and the public distribution system through 28,873 ration shops is also not functioning well.