Farmers Movement Archive

Political ambition fuels Charuni’s rise as Haryana farmer leader

Gurnam Singh Charuni, 60, the face of the farmers’ agitation in Haryana and chief of the state’s Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), nurses political ambitions that has fuelled his rise during the stir. A commission agent-cum-agriculturist, Gurnam Singh belongs to Charuni Jattan village in Shahbad tehsil of Kurukshetra district. He unsuccessfully contested the 2019 assembly elections from Ladwa as an independent candidate. He finished a poor eighth and forfeited his security deposit, getting less than 1% of the 1.37 lakh votes polled. Charuni’s wife, Balwinder Kaur, also unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Kurukshetra constituency on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket. His primary area of influence is the paddy bowl of Haryana, comprising the northern districts of Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Karnal. Charuni was nowhere in the forefront till the time firebrand Haryana BKU president Ghasi Ram Nain was leading the union. However, he gradually filled the void after Nain became too old and later passed away in 2017. Charuni shot into prominence during the 2010 Ganna Andolan when he led the farmers protests against the then Congress regime to press for an increase in state advised price (SAP) of sugarcane. He has been leading agitations against private sugar mills in Haryana who failed to pay the cane dues of the farmers. “Charuni was a little-known farm leader around 10 years ago. Ambitious and outspoken, he has been over the years able to position himself as the emerging voice of the farmers rights and issues,’’ said a Congress leader from Jind who has seen his ascendancy closely. According to his poll affidavit, Charuni has spent considerable time in jail having been convicted and sentenced by the court in three cases — for attempt to murder in 1979, voluntarily causing grievous hurt in 1982 and for disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant in 2002. His sentences were reduced by the Punjab and Haryana high court in the 1979 and 1982 convictions. The BKU leader nurses political ambitions and has been on the lookout for an opportunity to jump onto the political bandwagon, his tryst with the AAP, which fielded his wife for the Lok Sabha elections, stands testimony to the fact. During the ongoing farmers’ agitation against the three farm laws, the BKU leader has made headlines every now and then –the BKU activists showing black flags and blocking the cavalcade of chief minister ML Khattar at Ambala and the recent episode of disrupting Khattar’s programme to hold a kisan mahapanchayat in Kamila village in his own assembly constituency, Karnal. The ruling BJP though has tried to negotiate with him on the issue of farm laws, holding a series of parleys with him at the political and officer’s level. However, he has been unyielding, adamant that the laws be repealed. BJP leaders say Khattar also probably made a tactical mistake by blaming him after the Kaimla kisan mahapanchayat disruption episode, an accusation which Charuni gleefully lapped up. “It became chief minister versus Charuni and the latter enjoyed the leverage he got out of it,’’ said a BJP functionary.

Hindustan Times

28-01-2021

Chandigarh