Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers protest: Govt’s firm stand based on feedback from BJP meets

NEW DELHI: As the deadlock with farm unions continues, the Centre’s firm no to the demand of repealing the three farm laws stems from an exhaustive feedback and consultation campaign BJP has conducted, party sources said. Starting from the first week of December till December 25, the birth anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which BJP celebrates as “Sushashan Diwas”, the saffron party has organised thousands of big meetings and over one lakh local “kisan panchayats” through which farmers were made aware of the changes brought through the three laws. The events were organised in three phases for which party cadres at block and village levels were mobilised. Digital copies of booklets were sent to them to be shared with the farmers. Senior BJP members are of the view that resistance of a certain group of farmers can’t be construed as the entire farming community’s sentiment. They argue that had there been resistance elsewhere, the party’s countrywide campaign in favour of the laws could not have been possible. “I personally addressed several farmers’ rallies during the campaign period … did not come across any example when someone spoke against the three farm laws,” said BJP general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Arun Singh. Referring to a time in 2008 when farmers of Punjab and Haryana had protested sale of wheat at the MSP, BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said there seems to be a crisis of credibility even of some of the farmer leaders. “In 2008 protests were staged that farmers of Punjab and Haryana were being forced to sell on MSP whereas wheat sale prices in the international market was far higher,” Trivedi recalled, saying the farm leaders protesting the recent laws should revisit their own stance of the past. He took a swipe at BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, claiming that the latter had welcomed the farm laws and had also on several occasions demanded that the government liberate farmers from middlemen. Singh said BJP workers organised consultations and ‘kisan panchayats’ in villages also but farmers never raised their voice against the new farm laws barring some places in Punjab. On the occasion of “Susashan Diyas” on December 25, senior party functionaries were physically present among villagers to listen to the PM’s address together. Home minister Amit Shah was at Kishangarh village and Defence minister Rajnath Singh was among farmers at Nazafgarh.

The Times of India

2021-01-10

India