Bihar govt not to send farmers for Vibrant Gujarat 2013 

Patna,(BiharTimes): The Nitish Kumar government has decided not to send farmers to attend the three-day Vibrant Gujarat 2013 Global Agricultural Summit, which will be organised by the Gujarat government between September 9 and 11.

According to sources the state government had sometimes back started a process of selecting farmers who were supposed to participate in the programme but now it has changed its mind, saying it is a political meet.

Political observers are of the view that the change in state government’s stand has much to do with the snapping of ties with BJP on June 16 last.

Reports from Gandhingar say that the Summit involves a nationwide programme and the Gujarat government had identified 126 farmers from Bihar to attend it to exchange ideas and techniques of farming. 

Though the organizers claim that the Summit is aimed at giving the farmers an exposure and an opportunity to interact with leaders the Janata Dal (United) rubbishes all such talks and term it just a political exercise. Even many average farmers looked at the whole exercise suspiciously as they are no less better equipped than the farmers of Gujarat, which itself is not agriculturally a very developed state.
Not only that the ground reality in Bihar is very different from Gujarat. Besides, what is creates misgiving in the mind of the people is as to why a state government––Gujarat in this case––is taking so much interest when such initiative should have come from the Centre.

Many independent observers are also opposed to this move of the Narendra Modi government. They charged him with playing into the hands of the corporate lobby, who are now out to destroy the agriculture sector. 

About 200 firms from 15 countries are expected to join the Summit. The Gujarat government has sent invitations to various states to send farmers to attend the Summit. The help of NGOs have been sought to send farmers.

Meanwhile, former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi criticised the state government for disallowing the state farmers. He said politics should not be made over key issues of development.