Background of the Issue
A severe shortage of urea fertilizer for the ongoing rabi crop season has gripped Madhya Pradesh. Farmers are forced to stand in long queues for hours at cooperative societies. No facilities — not even drinking water or shade — are being provided by the government in these lines during biting cold. Hungry, thirsty, and frustrated farmers are clashing almost daily with district officials and representatives of the Collector.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav had decided that the entire state government would camp in Khajuraho, Chhatarpur district, on 8th and 9th December to review several departments and hold a cabinet meeting - an exercise meant to send a positive message of “government reaching the people.”
Farmers Blocked the Cabinet’s Path
On Monday, 8 December, as Cabinet ministers were heading toward Khajuraho by road, farmers staged chakka jams at several points including Bamitha (near Khajuraho), Sujanpura, Kurrai, and Baksawaha. The farmers were in an extremely agitated mood and the situation could easily have turned ugly.
The positive optics that the government wanted to create through the Khajuraho cabinet meeting could have turned into a full-blown public relations disaster and a law-and-order embarrassment. However, local BJP leaders from rural areas, along with police personnel, acted swiftly and managed to control the situation before it escalated.
Reports suggest that BJP workers also passed messages to the ministers to slow down their convoys so that local leaders could get time to pacify the protesting farmers. Whatever the exact sequence of events, the outcome was relieving — a potentially explosive confrontation was averted.
It is now critically important for the government to immediately open channels of dialogue with the farmers and reassure them that urea fertilizer will be distributed fairly, transparently, and without any corruption or favoritism.
