AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government’s much-hyped Rs 10,000-crore agricultural relief package, meant to soothe the wounds of farmers battered by unseasonal rains, has instead ignited political dissent across party lines. The controversy has snowballed, with opposition parties, BJP’s own leaders, and even the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh slamming the move as inadequate and insensitive to ground realities.

The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the farmers’ wing of the RSS, has openly questioned the credibility and criteria of the government’s compensation model. Its state general secretary, R K Patel, minced no words. He told the media, “It is unclear on what basis this relief has been calculated. The amount announced is nothing compared to the actual losses suffered by farmers.” He warned that if the farmers’ anger intensifies, “the Kisan Sangh will join their struggle.”

Patel further tore into the uniform relief formula, asking, “How can there be equal compensation for both 25% and 100% crop loss?” While acknowledging that large-scale assistance was welcome, he demanded that the government “rethink the structure and fairness of the package.”

He highlighted that farmers’ actual investment per hectare ranged between Rs 18,000 and Rs 28,000, while the current aid barely scratches the surface. “If the government calls this a historic package, then what exactly has reached the farmer’s hand?” he asked pointedly.

In a striking rebuke from within, BJP leader Chetan Malani, former general secretary of Savarkundla taluka and director of the APMC, resigned from all party positions in Amreli district, calling the package “a cruel joke on farmers.”

His resignation letter accused the state of showing “lavish indifference” toward the plight of cultivators devastated by monsoon damages. Declaring that he was acting “on moral grounds as a farmer’s son,” Malani said the government’s Rs 9,815-crore assistance “does not even touch the scale of farmers’ losses.”