KCR calls upon farmers\' leaders to join politics to resolve agri issues

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao asked leaders of farmers unions to take the plunge into politics to secure solutions to the problems facing them. Merely holding agitations would not help in achieving the desired results, he said.

Rao said that history had made clear that movements and struggles taken up without involving legislative bodies were not successful.
Addressing farmers unions of 25 states at Pragathi Bhavan on Sunday, Rao said he could achieve Telangana statehood by combining agitations with politics, after realising that the earlier agitations had failed because they had no political strategy.

Rao said political decisions will influence people's lives, and the Legislative Assemblies and Parliament are the platforms for this.
Rao said doing politics was not wrong. "Why should not farmers who feed the country go to the legislature bodies," he asked.

"There is no need for confusion on entering politics... Every problem can be solved  only through the democratic parliamentary method by taking up
specific activities in specific situations and continuing the movement," he said and again cited the statehood agitation.

The meeting adopted a resolution that Chandrashekar Rao should take the lead in uniting the farmers from the village level upwards. Following Saturday's resolution to float a national farmers united front, the farmers decided to meet again soon and draw up the modalities.

Rao proposed to establish farmer offices to connect North and South India, including Delhi and Hyderabad. "Let us start the struggle at once with a uniform agenda for the farmers. Let's make the country's farmer an 'Awwal Darja Kisan' who rises up with self-respect," he said.

The meeting discussed the NDA government's "faulty agricultural policies" which affected the farming sector, and ways to address them. The leaders of the farmers' associations requested Rao to prepare an  action plan for the movement, a blueprint to unite the farming community and a strategy to move forward.

The CM asked the leaders of farmers' associations to discuss the outcome of the meeting and collect the feedback which could be analysed at the next meeting. “Let's build a united event at the national level. Let us show the unity of the farmers to reach every village," the CM said. He asked the farmer leaders to speak with scientists, economists, intellectuals and journalists for inputs.