The Farmers’ Plea

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Hey brethren, why did nothing change for us?

Why are we always at square one?

Why has the goddess of wealth

Never showered her prosperity towards us?

How is it that though everyone here

Who eat their full due to the toil of our hands

Never ever gives a second thought to our plight?

We are the ones who work with nature

We are the ones who are at her mercy

We are the ones who go hungry

When our harvest fails us

Yet we, the sons of the soil never deter in our task

To take the risk of another harvest

With no money at our disposal

It’s not an easy task, yet we take the risk

By giving ourselves to money lenders

For the pittance they call loans.

 

Many lives, which reached the brink of nowhere

Decided to take away their lives

When nature played truant with them

And money lenders gave them an ultimatum

On one strong branch of a tree which they tended

The loop of the rope saw their end.

 

Yet you, my brethren did not give a sigh

You never gave a thought as to why

The sons of the soil ended their lives.

 

Hey brethren, even we go through depression

It is this depression that makes us see no hope

And take the ultimate step of ending our lives

Yet, we are hardly in news

Is it because we are not Page 3 celebrities?

With painted faces and branded accessories

The mud on our faces is our makeup

And the sweat because of our work, is our perfume

Why does no media take up our case?

Why do no commoners like you all demand

A CBI inquiry into deaths?

Is it because our deaths cannot be used?

For the political benefits and to win elections

Prima facie, our deaths may look like suicides

But in reality, we are murdered

Murdered because of the apathy of the system

A system which never cared for its farmers.

 

Our dear brethren, with every passing day

As one or the other from us gives away hope

It’s going to be not just our loss

It’s going to be the loss of an entire universe

For we are the sons of the soil

Every single thing that you require

Starts with us, for we are the providers

And without us, everything will die

So be empathetic to our plight

Raise your voices against the atrocities we face

Don’t you think that we too deserve justice?