Mahatma Gandhi once described ancient India as a conglomeration of villages, and so, adhered to the idea of “Gram Swaraj”, a self-governing village. However, times have changed and the first Prime Minister of India called in for strict industrialisation and called the dams and factories of India the temples of the nation on which the visionary wanted to build a modern India.

This happened all over the country and in due course of time urbanisation came around, and to a large extent, paved the way for the economic decline of rural India as people were fast migrating to towns and cities. After independence in 1947, the country was governed by different governments under the leadership of various leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Narasimha Rao, Dr Manmohan Singh and now Narendra Modi.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee tried and succeeded to a certain extent to improve the miserable condition of the poor farmers, however, his efforts did not see fruition and resulted in debt traps, unseasonal rains, lack of irrigation facilities and downright neglect from the government.

On top of all the previous problems that farmers have had to endure came the latest unkind cut of all — Modi’s Land Acquisition Bill. The aim with it is to please the rich to make corporate buildings at the expense of the life of the starving millions of Indian farmers. However, the nexus between the corrupt Indian politicians and the rich overwhelmed and destroyed the dreams of the poor and the marginalised. This nexus has been the bane of Indian democracy at all times and unless the farmers are saved from this misery, India is in for trouble and revolts.

The government should take immediate steps to stall the proposed Land Acquisition Bill and save them from losing their ancestral land and other properties. Only a satisfied agricultural sector can keep the country united and safe, and the Prime Minister Modi will remember well that a peasantry once destroyed, can never be replaced.

— The reader is an Indian writer based in Kochi, India