Centre failed to keep promises to farmers, says AIKS leader
All India Kisan Sabha general secretary Vijoo Krishnan said on Monday that the BJP-led government had failed to fulfil its promises to farmers. Speaking at the 31st State conference of the Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association in Thoothukudi, he said pledges of a Minimum Support Price 50% above the cost of production, fertilizer and input subsidies and farm loan waivers were not implemented. He said corporate loans were being waived on a large scale while farm loans were not. CPI(M) State Secretary P. Shanmugam and AIKS vice-president Hannan Mollah attended.
Source
The Hindu — Cities · read the original report ↗
Desk check · compared with the source
What the desk checked (5)
- The BJP-led Union government failed to fulfil promises made to farmers. — Attributed to AIKS general secretary Vijoo Krishnan at the conference; opinion of the speaker, not independently verified.
- Promises of MSP 50% above cost of production, fertilizer and input subsidies, and farm loan waivers were not implemented. — Attributed to Krishnan in the source; no supporting documents or figures cited.
- Suicides among tenant, women and tribal farmers are not fully recorded in official data. — Speaker's claim; no dataset or numbers given in the source.
- Large corporate loans are being waived on a large scale while farm loans are not. — Unquantified assertion by the speaker; no figures or source cited.
- The 31st State conference of the Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association is being held in Thoothukudi, attended by P. Shanmugam and Hannan Mollah. — Event detail stated directly in the source report.
Analysts’ view opinion
Strip away the political framing and this is a claim about the farm sector's terms of trade: input costs and credit burdens on one side, administered prices and subsidy support on the other. The specific demands cited — an MSP set 50% above the cost of production, restored input and fertiliser subsidies, and loan waivers — are each fiscally heavy, which is precisely why governments of different stripes have moved slowly on them. The comparison with corporate loan write-offs is politically potent, but bank write-offs and a budget-funded farm waiver are not the same instrument, and the story does not establish comparable figures for either.
- A cost-plus-50% MSP would lift farm gate incomes but raise the government's procurement bill and, depending on pass-through, food prices for urban and rural consumers alike.
- Fertiliser and input subsidies are one of the larger recurring claims on the central budget, so any expansion trades directly against capital spending elsewhere.
- Farm loan waivers relieve distressed borrowers in the short run but tend to tighten formal credit supply afterwards, which hurts precisely the tenant and small cultivators the AIKS highlights.
- Tenant, women and tribal farmers often lack land title, leaving them outside both institutional credit and waiver schemes — an under-recording problem the story raises but does not quantify.
- The corporate write-off comparison conflates bank balance-sheet provisioning with direct fiscal transfers; who ultimately pays differs, and no numbers are offered here to test the equivalence.
What to watch — Watch whether these demands gain traction in the next round of MSP announcements and budget allocations for fertiliser and input subsidies, and whether protest activity broadens beyond the organisations named here.
This story reports one farmer organisation's assertions at its own conference; it contains no government response, no data on MSP levels, subsidy outlays or loan write-offs, and no independent verification of the suicide-recording claims.
Deep dive
Research brief · 8 facts · 3 dates · exam-readyThe brief
Context
The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the farmers' front associated with the CPI(M), used the 31st State conference of the Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association in Thoothukudi to attack the BJP-led Union government's record on agriculture. AIKS general secretary Vijoo Krishnan argued that pre-election pledges on Minimum Support Price, input and fertilizer subsidies and farm loan waivers remain unimplemented. He also flagged gaps in official recording of farmer and agricultural worker suicides, especially among tenant, women and tribal farmers, and contrasted the refusal to waive farm loans with large-scale write-offs of corporate loans.
Key facts
- AIKS general secretary Vijoo Krishnan said on Monday that the BJP-led government had failed to fulfil its promises to farmers.
- He spoke at the 31st State conference of the Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association, held in Thoothukudi.
- Unfulfilled promises cited: a Minimum Support Price 50% above the cost of production, subsidies for fertilizers and agricultural inputs, and farm loan waivers.
- Krishnan said the Narendra Modi-led government made these promises to farmers before coming to power.
- He said data on suicides among farmers and agricultural workers remained a matter of concern.
- Suicides among tenant, women and tribal farmers are not being fully recorded in official data, according to Krishnan.
- He said large corporate loans were being waived on a large scale while farmers' loans were not, and demanded a similar approach for farm loans.
- CPI(M) State Secretary P. Shanmugam, AIKS vice-president Hannan Mollah and members of AIKS and other farmers' organisations participated; report published September 28, 2026.
Timeline
- Before the BJP-led government came to power (year not stated in the source)Promises made to farmers on MSP at 50% above cost of production, fertilizer and input subsidies, and farm loan waivers.
- Monday (ahead of publication)Vijoo Krishnan addresses the 31st State conference of the Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association in Thoothukudi, alleging unfulfilled promises.
- September 28, 2026Report of the speech published at 08:54 pm IST.
Who has a stake
- All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) — Leading the agitation; says it will continue protests to protect farmers' rights, land ownership and livelihoods.
- BJP-led Union government / Narendra Modi-led government — Accused of not implementing promised MSP formula, input and fertilizer subsidies and farm loan waivers.
- Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association — Host of the 31st State conference in Thoothukudi and platform for the demands raised.
- Tenant, women and tribal farmers — Their suicides are allegedly not fully captured in official data, affecting recognition and relief.
- CPI(M), represented by State Secretary P. Shanmugam — Political backing for the farmers' movement and its demands.
- Indebted farmers and agricultural workers — Seeking loan waivers on par with the scale of corporate loan write-offs.
Why it matters
MSP linked to cost of production, input subsidies and farm indebtedness remain the core unresolved questions of Indian agriculture, and farmer organisations are keeping them politically alive through state-level conferences. The charge that corporate loans are waived while farm loans are not raises questions of equity in credit policy. The claim that tenant, women and tribal farmer suicides go unrecorded points to a data gap that shapes whether distress is even acknowledged.
UPSC angle
Prelims pointers
- All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) is the farmers' organisation associated with the CPI(M); Vijoo Krishnan is its general secretary and Hannan Mollah a vice-president.
- The demand cited is for MSP fixed at 50% above the cost of production.
- The 31st State conference of the Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association was held in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu.
- P. Shanmugam is the CPI(M) State Secretary who attended the conference.
- AIKS alleges under-recording of suicides among tenant, women and tribal farmers in official data.
- Story published September 28, 2026.
Mains framing
The AIKS critique at Thoothukudi frames three linked grievances in Indian agriculture: remunerative prices, input costs and debt. The demand for a Minimum Support Price set 50% above the cost of production reflects the long-standing argument that announced MSPs do not cover the full economics of cultivation; unfulfilled promises on fertilizer and input subsidies compound the cost-side squeeze; and the refusal of farm loan waivers, juxtaposed with large-scale corporate loan write-offs, is presented as an equity problem in credit policy. A second, quieter issue is statistical: if suicides among tenant, women and tribal farmers are not fully recorded, official data understates distress precisely among cultivators who lack recognised land titles, which in turn weakens their claim to relief and institutional credit. The way forward suggested by the source is limited to the organisation's own stated course — continued mobilisation to protect farmers' rights, land ownership and livelihoods, and a demand that the approach taken to corporate loans be extended to farm loans; specific policy remedies beyond this are not stated in the source.
Key terms
- All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)
- A national farmers' organisation, associated with the CPI(M), whose general secretary is Vijoo Krishnan.
- Minimum Support Price (MSP)
- The price at which the government assures procurement; farmers here demand it be set 50% above the cost of production.
- Farm loan waiver
- Write-off of agricultural loans; AIKS says these are denied to farmers while large corporate loans are waived.
- Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association
- State-level farmers' body whose 31st State conference was held in Thoothukudi.
- Tenant farmer
- A cultivator who farms land owned by another; AIKS says such farmers' suicides are not fully captured in official data.
Practice questions
- Critically examine the demand for a Minimum Support Price fixed at 50% above the cost of production. What are the fiscal and market implications of such a guarantee?
- "Farm loan waivers treat the symptom, not the disease of agrarian indebtedness." Discuss with reference to the comparison often drawn between farm loan waivers and corporate loan write-offs.
- Why do tenant, women and tribal cultivators remain invisible in official agricultural distress data, and how does this affect policy design?
Grounded only in the source report — figures and dates are the source's, not inferred.