Maharashtra Farmers Suicide Issue: The monsoon session of the Maharashtra Assembly is over. This time the monsoon session was full of controversies. Be it the Hindi vs Marathi controversy or the scuffle between the supporters of two MLAs inside the Vidhan Bhavan premises. Many such incidents took place which raised many questions. Now another video from inside the assembly has surfaced. Which has created a big political controversy in the state.
On one hand, farmers in Maharashtra are continuously committing suicide. This number is increasing year after year. On the other hand, those who are responsible for the farmers of the entire state, those who have been sent to the assembly by the people by voting for them to serve the state, were seen playing games on their mobile phones in the assembly.
Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Manikrao Kokate was allegedly caught playing a rummy game on his mobile phone in the state assembly. A video of which was shared on social media by Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) MLA Rohit Pawar.
MLA Rohit Pawar has attacked the ruling party by sharing this video on his social media account. He said in his post that the Nationalist Congress Party in power cannot do anything without asking the BJP. That is why, when countless issues to agriculture are pending, and 8 farmers are committing suicide every day in the state, even then no work is being done, then the time has come to play rummy on the Agriculture Minister.
Let us tell you that during the monsoon session, the government had released the data of farmer suicides. The government told the assembly that 520 farmers have committed suicide in 8 districts of Marathwada region from January to June 26 this year. This number is 20 percent more than the 430 cases of suicide registered in the same period last year.
After the video went viral, opposition parties criticised minister Kokate and the Mahayuti government. Reacting to the criticism, Manikrao Kokate said that the game was not rummy but solitaire. He claimed that the opposition was trying to defame the government.
Minister Kokate said that “This must be a video of the Legislative Council. There are CCTV cameras installed in the hall. I know the rules of the House. So I cannot do anything like this. The House was adjourned. Then I turned on my phone and started watching what was going on in the Upper House on YouTube. Then a Junglee Rummy advertisement came. I was skipping it immediately. This is the video of that time. This is a 10 to 12 second video. When the advertisement was not being skipped, I tried two-three times. And the advertisement was skipped.”
