BJP MP Nishikant Dubey Falsely Claims That No Farmers Died By Suicide Since BJP Came To Power At Centre

Nishikant Dubey, BJP Member of Parliament, said that no farmer suicides has taken place over the last eight years from the time NDA government came to power.

In a discussion on 1st August in Lok Sabha, Dubey claimed that there had been no discussions on farmer suicides in Lok Sabha as no farmer suicides had occurred since the BJP-led NDA government was elected.

Claim:

Nishikant Dubey shared a video on his Twitter page which showed his reply to a discussion on the price rise in Parliament.

The post is captioned as follows on Twitter, "Today the farmer is self-sufficient. We are standing with them; Prime Minister is standing with them. It is for this reason, with everyone's cooperation, we (BJP) won with a thumping majority in Uttar Pradesh, won Uttarakhand, and won in Goa. But the Congress, which has played politics taking the name of farmers, had to face defeat everywhere".

"Didn't we use to mention farmer suicides in Parliament before? Now, for the past eight years, has there been any question related to farmer suicides? This is because farmers suicides are not happening. We (BJP) have given power to the farmers to fight for their rights. Despite protests for the past, the BJP has strengthened farmers in such a way that none of them have committed suicide. We have strengthened them in such a way that the farmer is ready to fight against the government for their rights. During your government, (Congress-led UPA) they used to beg and you couldn't even waive off their loans. This drove them to commit suicides. Now, shouldn't you thank us for this change?".

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian Fact Check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. 5,579 farmers died of suicides in 2020 alone.

We conducted a keyword search for 'farmer suicides in India' for 2022 and 2021. We came across articles by The Times of India and Financial Express which gave details about farmer suicides occurring in India for the past few years.

The Times of India report published on January 21, 2022, stated that in Maharashtra alone, 2,498 farmers died by suicide from January to November 2021. Details from an RTI query by RTI activist Jeetendra Ghadge, revealed that farmers continued to die by suicide as they were unable to repay loans.

The Financial Express reported published on Feb 8, 2022 that more than 17,000 farmers in India died by suicide from 2018 and 2020, as per data provided by Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra to the Lok Sabha. The FE report mentions that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) publishes data on accidental deaths and suicides in the 'Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India' (ADSI) report.

This prompted us to conduct another keyword search following which we came across this ADSI report published by NCRB in 2020.

The report noted, "A total of 10,677 persons involved in farming sector (consisting of 5,579 farmers/cultivators and 5,098 agricultural labourers) have committed suicides during 2020." The ADSI report also notes that the suicides committed by persons working in the farming sector accounted for 7.0% of total suicides. "Out of 5,579 farmer/cultivator suicides, a total of 5,335 were male and 244 were female", the report adds.

We also came across the ADSI report for 2019 which states that 10,281 persons involved in farming sector, comprising of 5,957 farmers/cultivators and 4,324 agricultural labourers, committed suicides during 2019. These suicides accounted for 7.4% of total suicides victims in the country. "Out of 5,957 farmer/cultivator suicides, a total of 5,563 were male and 394 were female," the ADSI 2019 report added.

We went on to search for the ADSI reports for years 2014 to 2018. As per NCRB data, in 2018, out of a total of suicides by 10,349 persons working in the farming sector, 5,763 were farmers or cultivators.

In 2017, a total number of 10,655 persons from the farming sector died by suicide, out of which 5,955 were farmers or cultivators which rose to 6,270 persons farmers or cultivators committing suicide in 2016.

The reported farmer suicides were at 8,007 in 2015, which rose significantly from 5,650 farmers dying by suicide in 2014. The ADSI 2015 report lists several reasons for the farmer suicides, out of which bankruptcy or indebtedness is the leading reason for causing suicides followed by family problems and illnesses.

After we went through this data, we examined whether the issue of farmer suicides was brought up in Lok Sabha. We came across this questions asked by Dr Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, a member of the BJP, Dinesh Chandra Yadav, a member of JDU, and other members of the Lok Sabha.

The MP's enquired about the number of farmers suicides reported during the last three years and whether the Government has carried out any study to assess the causes of suicides by farmers. The question was answered on 30 November 2021, by Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, in Parliament.

In the response, Tomar notes that Maharashtra is the state with the highest number of farmer suicides, followed by Karnataka. It is also noted that Government had undertaken a study named 'Farmers Suicide in India: Causes and Policy Prescription' which covered 13 states of the country. "The study concluded that frequent crop failure due to vagaries of monsoon, absence of assured water resources and attack of pest and diseases are the most important causes of farmers' distress," Tomar further said.

We also came across another question answered by Ajay Kumar Mishra, MoS in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The question was regarding whether the NCRB maintains records of farmer's suicides and was answered on 8th February 2022. In the document, Mishra quotes data from the ADSI report by NCRB for the years of 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Another query regarding the farmer suicides after 2016 was answered on 18th December 2018 by Radha Mohan Singh, a Member of the BJP and Lok Sabha. Singh also refers to ADSI data published by NCRB.

We also came across several incidents of farmer suicides during the Farmer's Protests that took place last year. As per this The Print report published on 7 March 2021, a farmer took his own life and left a suicide note saying that the Centre should fulfil his last wish by repealing the legislation.

Conclusion:

We found that there have been 5,579 farmer suicides in 2020 alone with death by suicides rising to 8,007 in 2015, as per the NCRB data. NCRB has noted several reasons for the farmer suicides, in which bankruptcy or indebtedness is the primary reason followed by family problems and illnesses.

The matter was also actively discussed in Lok Sabha by various members of parliament. We also noticed some incidents of farmers taking their own lives during the Farmer's Protests that took place last year. Thus, we can conclude that the claim that no farmer committed suicide for the past eight years is false.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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