Three years after the BJP-led Centre was forced to withdraw the three controversial farm laws following a year-long farm agitation, the party has found itself at the receiving end of Punjab farmers’ anger.
“The BJP should have learnt from the 2020-21 farmers’ movement and taken a more proactive approach in trying to resolve their ongoing protests. Like in 2020-21, the party has yet again failed to assess their anger,” a Punjab BJP leader told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity.
The ongoing farmers’ protests being held under the aegis of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political) at Khanauri and Shambhu on the Punjab-Haryana border since February 13 last year, have so far not created a resonance like the 2020-21 agitation.
But the continuing hunger strike of SKM (non-political) convener Jagjit Singh Dallewal – whose fast-unto-death entered its 44th day on Wednesday –has kept the government and other stakeholders on the tenterhooks. Pointing to 70-year-old Dallewal’s deteriorating condition, several farmer leaders have demanded that the Centre resume a dialogue with the agitating farm unions, but are yet to get any response.
In 2020, the farmers’ agitation began before they first marched towards Delhi on November 26 that year. The Centre’s June 2020 ordinance to bring the three farm laws first triggered small-scale protests in Punjab. During June-November 2020, farmer unions organised tractor marches and rail blockades besides protesting outside the houses of the leaders of the BJP and its then partner Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) which walked out of the NDA alliance in September 2020 over the issue.
Despite continuous farmer protests in Punjab as well as on the Delhi borders during 2020-21, the BJP had failed to act until November 19, 2021, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an address to the nation, announced the repeal of the three farm laws.
The KMM and the SKM (non-political) had on November 23, 2023 announced that they would march towards Delhi if the Centre does not respond to their demands – which include a legal status for minimum support price (MSP) for crops and farm debt waiver, among other things – by February 13, 2024. This time too, the Punjab BJP apparently did not make any moves to reach out to the farmers.
“During these three months, no efforts were made by the Punjab BJP to coordinate between farmer unions and the Centre to pacify them even as more farmers started joining the protesters. The BJP should have made moves to arrange for such negotiations to stop or delay the farmers’ march towards the national capital. The Centre held only four rounds of meetings with them with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann being the mediator,” a Ludhiana-based industrialist said, adding that if the farmer protests continue, the state’s industry would suffer losses.
BJP sources said the state party unit was not even aware of three Union ministers arriving in Chandigarh for the first round of talks with the agitating KMM and SKM (non-political) early last year. Only after the protesters camped at Khanauri and Shambhu, BJP leader and ex-CM Capt Amarinder Singh met PM Modi to discuss “current happenings” in the state.
State BJP president Sunil Jakhar, who has held that farmers need support, has appealed to Dallewal to call off his fast, but has maintained that the MSP law would not be “feasible”.
Also, state BJP leader and Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu has targeted the protesting farmer union leaders several times. Ahead of the November 2024 Assembly bypolls in the state, Bittu called for a probe into farmer leaders’ properties.
During its campaign for the Lok Sabha polls earlier last year, the BJP had faced stiff protests from farmers. Several BJP leaders and party candidates were denied entry into many villages for campaigning. The party drew a blank in the polls despite registering an increase in vote share. Its performance in last year’s bypolls and local body polls was also dismal.
“The entry of BJP leaders into Punjab villages seems difficult given how the party is treating the farmers. We will burn effigies of Modi on January 10 to register our protest,” KMM coordinator Sarwan Singh Pandher said.
State BJP spokesperson Pritpal Singh Baliawal has slammed the farmers for not questioning the AAP-led state government over their demands. Baliawal took to X on January 4 – the day when farmers held the Mahapanchayat at Khanauri and Tohana – to say that decisions on agricultural issues are taken by the state government as it is a state subject.
“Haryana has enacted a law on MSP. Why is the demand not directed at the Punjab government? The Central government had decided to provide MSP on five more crops to Punjab farmers, but you refused it. Who did you consult before making this decision?” Baliawal asked.
Slamming the AAP government, Baliawal claimed that Amarinder and Jakhar had provided compensation to the families of those who lost their lives in the 2020 agitation, adding that the former did not do the same. Both Amarinder and Jakhar were then part of the Congress dispensation.
On its part, the AAP has maintained that the demands of the protesting farmers fall under the Centre’s ambit.
BJP’s national executive member Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi said the Centre was “always ready for talks to resolve the issue”. “However, farmer unions need to arrive at a consensus as the legal guarantee on MSP does not pertain to just one state. The Centre needs to think about the entire country while keeping in mind legal complexities and ground realities,” he said.
The Congress, meanwhile, has extended support to the farmers’ demands with former CM Charanjit Singh Channi, the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, giving Dallewal a copy of his panel’s recent report favouring legal guarantee for MSP.
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