GURGAON, Oct 14: Sonia Gandhi's visit to a village in Narwana, where several farmers had committed suicide after they had got into debt has put this issue on the national agenda.Stating this, president of the Haryana Parishad Samaj, Shamsher Singh Surjewala said that the visit by the AICC president will force the Central and the state Governments to think about what they called a grave problem.
Surjewala said that no other political party or farmers' organisation has bothered to take up this issue for so long. He added that it was due to the sustained efforts of the Haryana Krishak Samaj that this issue had remained alive.
The former Rajya Sabha MP felt that Sonia Gandhi's visit to the affected villages is ``politically significant''. He also admitted that some factions within the Haryana Congress had tried to downplay the issue ``but at least now they are fully convinced,'' he added.
Surjewala lamented that the state Government was yet to institute a study to ascertain the magnitude of the problem. A study was conducted by the Punjab Government recently to determine the genesis of the problem.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.