Love affairs behind farmer suicides!

Dowry, love affairs and impotency were among the reasons for the deaths of over 1,400 farmers in India this year, Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said yesterday.  "According to the National Crime Records Bureau, causes of (farmer) suicides include family problems, illness, drugs ... dowry, love affairs and impotency," he told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question as to what caused the death of so many farmers in the country.  The minister's reply, however, did not rule out debt as one of the reasons. The remarks on suicide by over 1,400 farmers in the last one year, by the government's own admission, are bound to provide fresh fodder to a belligerent opposition, which has been targeting the Narendra Modi government on the controversial land bill, dubbed as "anti-farmer and anti-poor".  A total of 5,650 farmers committed suicide in 2014, with the maximum deaths reported from Maharashtra, Telangana and Chhattisgarh, official data revealed. Bankruptcy/indebtedness and family problems were major causes behind the suicides, accounting for 20.6 per cent and 20.1 per cent of the deaths respectively. Other causes included crop failure (16.8 per cent) and illness (13.2 per cent).