Only 150 Bihar farmers attend Gujarat Summit, none figures in award list

Patna,(BiharTimes): Against 600 farmers from Bihar who were expected to participate in the two-day Vibrant Gujarat Global Agriculture Summit-2013, only 150 turned up.

According to an Indian Express report from Gandhinagar a senior agriculture department official, who has been involved in planning and executing the event, politics was the reason behind the low participation of famers from Bihar.

Incidentally, only on Monday, while addressing the media in Patna, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar hotly denied that farmers from his state was being prevented from going to Gujarat to attend the Summit. He said that there was no need for passport to travel to any place in the country and that moving from one place to other is a part of the fundamental rights of a citizen. He asked newsmen as to whether any one has been prevented from going out.

He was countering the state BJP’s allegation that farmers from the state are being stopped by the officials from travelling to Gujarat.

However, by the time the Bihar chief minister’s statement came it was too late and the Summit had started. Now it was not possible to attend it.

The 150-odd farmers from Bihar, who attended the Summit, are basically those sent by the state unit of BJP.

Political observers are of the view that whatever be the allegation of the BJP the fact is that saffron party failed to send 600 farmers. They could have gone there quietly. It exposed the weakness of the BJP in rural Bihar and the party is now busy covering this up by over-blowing the story that the Nitish government stopped farmers from travelling.

Reports from Gandhinagar also said that the political bickering between Janata Dal (United) and BJP delayed the list of “progressive farmers” to be awarded at a function on Tuesday.

While the names of farmers from all other states had been received well in time and published in the souvenir for the Summit, the names of Bihar farmers are missing from the 82-page souvenir.

An official said the names from Bihar came only after the souvenir had been printed.

Over 4,000 farmers from 29 states, two Union Territories and 542 districts across the country participated in the Summit.