The tragic incidence of suicide by two farmer brothers of Punjab on 23rd March, 2026, by jumping in front of a moving train has not only left behind a devastated family —their wives, two young daughters aged 8 and 10, and elderly parents with diminished hope seeing an uncertain future through their numb eyes, but has also raised a question mark over the government policies– which claim that the government has not only doubled the farmers’ income but increased it multifold.
All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the largest farmers’ union in India, states in a press release issued on March 26, 2026 that it has been reported that the two sibling farmers from Punjab’s Kotkapura had been under severe mental stress for a long time due to mounting agricultural debt, which had doubled from Rs 25 lakh to nearly Rs 50 lakh. Despite continuous efforts, including cultivating crops like potatoes, they were unable to recover costs as market prices remained low, further aggravating their distress. Finally, out of sheer helplessness, they took the extreme step.
This incident is neither the first nor the last. As per the latest available National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, flashed by the media, in India on an average, more than ten thousand farmers and agricultural workers adopt the path of suicide to end their life– 2018-10349, 2019-10281, 2020-10677, 2021-10881, 2022-11290, and in 2023-10786.
Why do the farmers take this terrible decision?
The Times of India, posted on its web portal on February 22, 2024, that a Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) report indicates small farming families (approx. 2.7 acres) incur an annual debt of nearly ₹1.31 lakh, driven by high input costs and low returns. The study was conducted by agricultural economist Vinay Mahala in 2022-23 to understand the financial dynamics of farmer families of the state. This highlights the severe economic distress in Punjab and Haryana, which rank among the states with the highest farm debt burden.
Farmer leader and RTI activist, Dr. Balbir Singh states — “Agriculture has turned into a loss-making occupation and the government’s agricultural policies are pushing the farmers out of agriculture, instead of making farming viable and farmer-friendly, causing debt trap and suicides.”
Commenting on the Budget on February 4, 2026, Vinay Mahala, the Agricultural Scientist and Economist wrote on his FB page in Hindi, which translates into —” For years, villages, farms, and farmers have existed merely in name within budgets and policies; the reality on the ground, however, is excruciatingly painful. Even in this latest budget, nothing concrete was visible for farmers or the rural sector; after all, a policy can only be formulated if the intent is truly present. Over the past eight years, the economic backbone of cotton farmers has been shattered, while input costs for other crops continue to rise relentlessly. The income situation is so dire that farmers are barely scraping by on borrowed money—some are even being forced to sell off their land. And now, to top it all off, comes the agricultural agreement with the USA. The US Secretary of Agriculture has stated that India’s villages and farms represent a massive market for them; indeed, for them, our farmers, fields, and rural areas may well serve as nothing more than a marketplace. But the critical question remains: What will become of our own farmers? Farmers are already enduring a period of ruin and utter helplessness; why, then, does everyone still seem so intent on squeezing the very lifeblood out of them?”
AIKS alleges that farmer suicides have intensified in the last twelve years. The suicides by farmers, agricultural workers, and migrant workers in the last twelve years have crossed 5 lakh.
On the other hand, AIKS adds, a day after two heavily indebted Punjab farmers jumped in front of a train and lost their lives, Union Minister of Agriculture Shivraj Singh Chouhan told the Lok Sabha that farmers’ income in the country had doubled. During the Question Hour, he claimed that production has increased and various measures, including the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops.
On the same day, 23 March, that the two farmers – Jaskaran Singh and Jaswinder Singh – died by suicide, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman coldly told the Parliament that there was no proposal of a complete loan waiver for farmers under consideration. Both these statements reflect the BJP-led NDA government’s apathy towards the conditions of farmers in the country today.
The government claims time and again that it is providing Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi first made the claim of doubling farmers’ income in 2016. But, AIKS states that this MSP policy that Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Rural Development, Shiv Raj Singh Chauhan, was proudly citing in the Parliament is one of the biggest causes of the falling incomes of farmers. In twelve years of BJP Rule, not once has this government provided MSP to farmers according to the Swaminathan formula of C2+50% (1.5 times the production cost). The cost of cultivation surveys shows that the average price received by paddy farmers was 36 per cent lower than the MSP that is arrived at by the government’s formula (A2+FL).
AIKS pleads that the long-term data on MSP released by the Ministry of Agriculture shows a deceleration in the growth of real MSP for almost all crops. Out of the 16 MSP crops studied, 9 crops showed a sharp slowdown in real MSP growth between 2014-15 to 2025-26. The unremunerative MSP announced is also notional for the huge majority of the farmers since there is no guaranteed system of procurement across the country, and below 15% of the production is procured based on the declared MSP.
With market prices at a low equilibrium and rising cost of production, a stagnant MSP can only mean that the losses of farmers have doubled, not their incomes. Coupled with this, the attitude of not even considering a loan waiver, which was last announced in 2008, betrays the absolute insensitivity of the BJP-led NDA government when it comes to the interests of rural India, alleges AIKS. Demanding adequate compensation by the government for the family of the victim Punjab farmers, the farmers union states that repeating a catchphrase that farmers’ income has doubled will not bring back the two Punjab farmers, and lakhs of others whose livelihoods were destroyed due to the government’s anti-farmer policies.
Taking a serious note of the suicide step by the two Punjab farmers, Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta Dakounda has described the suicide of the two brothers of village Hari Nau as a murder committed by the government and termed it as a slap in the face of the Indian rulers, and alleged that farmers’ debt has increased due to the wrong policies of the government.
The farmers’ union alleged that the destruction of the potato crop and the suicide of such conscious farmers, unable to bear the brunt of the fifty lakh rupees debt, is an indication of the disastrous failure of the current agricultural model.
In a press statement on 26th March, 2026, issued by Angrez Singh Bhadour, the State Press Secretary, Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta Dakonda, the union leaders reportedly quoted that for the last several years, farmers’ organizations have been demanding a law to guarantee the MSP and purchase of all crops. It has also been demanded that the MSP be given at the rate of C-2+ 50% as per the Swaminathan Commission report. In the absence of this, the farmers’ commodities are sold at the price of crores and overall, their expenses are not met, but the debt burden is increasing year after year. The land of the brothers of Hari Nau, who committed suicide, had also been sold due to debt, and now both brothers were in great worry due to the loss of the potato crop. The leaders said that all this is the result of the government’s policy of failing the agriculture sector to ensure the profits of the corporates. That is why the suicide of the farmer brothers of the village Hari Nau is a deliberate murder by the government.
Will the central government review its farmer policy and frame it by studying the ground reality and provide debt relief as the previous Congress floated in 2008 to save the debt-ridden farmers or just continue humming the lyrics of it’s so much publicised and hyped ‘Doubled Income’?