Suicide rallies on Vidharbha Farmers

Even as the nation revels in Holi festivities, there is no colour for debt-ridden farmers in Vidharbha in Maharashtra.

Three farmers — Gorakh Nikam, Atmaram Patil and Gokul Pawar — took their lives for not being able to pay back moneylenders.

Nikam is from Nashik while the others are from Dhule. All three had reportedly borrowed from moneylenders. According to Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, 216 farmers committed suicide in 2008 alone.

One suicide is reported every eight hours from the suicide belt of Vidharbha, and this despite the government’s Rs 60,0000-crore farm loan waiver.

According to experts the loan waiver is of little help as less than half of the marginal and small farmers, owning up to two hectares, are expected to benefit. Reports say more than 22 farmers who have taken their lives in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region had over five acres of land.

In Vidarbha, of the 63 families, only 13 qualify for the government's loan waiver.

The rest have more than five acres of land and debt ranging from Rs 15,000 to 20,000.

Rahul Gandhi impresses Tony Blair

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair showered praise on the Nehru-Gandhi family scion Rahul Gandhi, saying he stood out as the ''most talented'' and ''insightful'' of the younger generation of politicians worldwide.

''He (Rahul) has got a first class mind and great commitment to India... And you know he is one of those politicians that can take a step back and look at, what I call the big picture, and he's definitely someone who does that,'' Blair said.

He was responding when asked if Rahul Gandhi impresses him as a possible Prime Minister of India.

Blair, who himself was a young generation Prime Minister, described Gandhi as ''the most talented, able and insightful of the younger generation of politicians worldwide.''

ABROAD Is SAFE : TASLIMA

Controversial Bangladesh author Taslima Nasreen today (March 19) left India for an unknown destination and has reached London, as she voiced her bitterness against the Indian government accusing it of being no better than "religious fundamentalists."

Talking to a news agency at the London's Heathrow Airport before taking a connecting flight after she left New Delhi this morning on a British Airways flight, the 46-year-old author refused to disclose where she was heading saying she did not want to "compromise" on her security.

Taslima is understood to heading towards Toronto in Canada. "If I disclose my destination my security will be compromised. My face has now become recognisable and I could be target of religious fundamentalists," she said.

Taslima, whose India visa was extended for further six months last month, alleged her human rights was infringed in the last four months when she was brought to Delhi after being hounded out from Kolkata.

Taslima said she will not hesitate to discuss what she said the traumatic experience she allegedly went through during various international seminars lined up in Europe in the next few months.

"I was put under tremendous stress but I could not speak out as I was under their(government) surveillance and could be harassed by them," she said in a choked voice from the British Capital. "The government(Indian) is no better than religious fundamentalists," she said.

Nasreen said she used to call the Government safe-house in Delhi where she was put up as the "torture chamber".

"I gradually came to realise that it was the chamber of death instead," Taslima said, adding she was forced to leave India because of "extreme stress" that she went through the last four months.