Farmers Movement Archive

What happened to your promise to farmers: Diggy asks Rajnath

Bhopal: With the ongoing farmers’ stir in Delhi, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Friday reminded defence minister Rajnath Singh about a speech on farmers he had given in 2013.Singh took to the social media and uploaded a video of Rajnath’s speech in New Delhi to a farmers’ gathering with Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait standing behind him. In that video shot during the UPA regime, Rajnath is heard saying that the country’s biggest strength is the agrarian community and no ruling party should challenge it.“Rajnath Singh-ji, I am again reminding you that you assured Rakesh Tikait about the importance of farmers. I have previously put that video on social media as well,” Digvijaya Singh tweeted. The video was taken a year before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when the UPA government was led by Dr Manmohan Singh.“If you are not being able to convince Modi-ji, to withdraw the anti-farmer laws (I believe that you must have tried, but Modiji may not have listened to you), then shouldn’t you resign from the cabinet?” Digvijaya Singh asked on Twitter.In the 2013 video, Rajnath Singh is seen telling farmers: “I did not know that there was a protest here. Had I known, there is a protest here then I would be here the day this protest was launched to support it. I don’t see which party and organisation is holding such a protest. What I see is that if it is a farmers’ protest, then the party and organisation is irrelevant,” the senior BJP leader is seen saying in the video.“On the one hand, I am happy to be here to support you. And on the other, I am disturbed that you are having to protest for three days under the open skies,” Rajnath Singh is seen saying. “So many days have passed, Parliament is nearby. The Prime Minister must have been informed of this by the intelligence department. But he did not take the trouble to send someone and ask what is the issue and demand. The Prime Minister should know that the day India’s farmer comes to the street, no power can stop that enthusiasm. Even the very powerful will have to bend before them.”“The majority population in the country is of farmers, the agrarian community is this nation’s public strength and no ruling party should challenge that strength,” the defence minister is seen saying in the video.

The Times of India

2021-01-30

Bhopal