A Vidarbha farm widow who gained fame after appearing on a special episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati last month has written to Sonia Gandhi and threatened suicide. Aparna Malikar, 27, says she has asked Sonia to rein in her brother-in-law Raghunath, an NCP-turned Congress leader, whom she accuses of harassing her and her parents so that “I give up my claim on (my) farmland and house”. In the three-page letter, written in...

"Will you come in now?" screams 50-year-old Tanhibai Kale of Ganeshpur village in Jhari Jhamni tehsil of Yavatmal, the heart of Vidarbha's suicide country. Lightening streaks across the darkened skies, followed by loud thunder. Her drenched nine-year-old grandson Nandu comes in from the downpour and tries to slink in but not before getting two slaps. "Next, you'll fall ill and we'll have to go looking for money to treat you,"...

At a time when the Anna-tide has swept the people across the country against the anti-corruption campaign, sadly, the agrarian crisis continues to take a heavy toll on farmers in Vidarbha. Unable to put up with crop failure, crippling debts and not getting remunerative price for their produce, six more distressed cotton-growers have committed suicide in Vidarbha over the last 48 hours. Reports reaching Nagpur on Thursday said six cotton growers...

New Delhi: The Vidarbha farmer's widow whose plight was highlighted by Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi in Parliament, has complained about the Congress led-government in Maharashtra to BJP's Rajnath Singh. With Rahul Gandhi citing her example, Kalavati soon became the face of struggling widows of Vidharbha's suicide zone in Maharashtra where thousands of farmers have died in the last one decade. Kalavati's grouse is that 4,000 other widows have not been given...

-Salem-News.com   (NAGPUR)-We have reported in the past an alarming suicide rate among farmers in India that is connected to the failure of American GMO (genetically modified organism) cotton seeds. Monsanto, the U.S. company responsible for Agent Orange, a cancer-causing chemical sprayed on the jungles of Vietnam, is now in the GMO food and seed business. Monsanto stands accused of having an international monopoly of the notorious bio-engineered Bt cotton seeds. Advocates for the...