Chandigarh: For a party that rose to power in Punjab by winning the goodwill of farmers who had protested for months against the farm bills at Delhi’s borders, the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) ties with the farming community now seem to have frayed.
Farmers across Punjab clashed with police Wednesday at multiple locations as they attempted to march toward Chandigarh for a week-long sit-in protest against the state government and the Centre for not agreeing to their demands, which include a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Prices (MSP) on crops, loan waivers, and higher farm incomes, among other issues.
In a statement issued by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), agitating farmers have begun sit-in protests at the places they were stopped. “These are continuing in more than a dozen places since yesterday, and we will take a decision regarding what to do next later in the day today,” P. Krishna Prasad of the All India Kisan Sabha told ThePrint Thursday.
In an unprecedented crackdown, Punjab Police had detained hundreds of farmers Tuesday, including several top leaders of the SKM, sending some to jail. An SKM statement issued Wednesday claimed that almost 350 farmer leaders had been detained across the state.
Police lined both sides of main roads, stopping farmers from leaving their villages with tractors. Various entry points to Chandigarh were sealed and heavily guarded by Chandigarh police.
Mann’s response to the farmers’ protests now stands in sharp contrast to his party’s stance during the 2021 SKM-led agitation at the Singhu border. Back then, he and other AAP leaders had openly supported the protesters, while the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government provided extensive logistical support to farmers during their year-long sit-in at the border.
Repaying the party, the rural peasantry had voted in favour of the AAP during the 2022 assembly elections, leading to them coming into power for the first time in the state, winning 92 of the 117 seats.
Speaking to the media Tuesday, Mann asserted that he was not the chief minister of just one section of the population. “I am the custodian of not just the farmers but 3.5 crore population of Punjab, and farmers were causing inconvenience to traders, businessmen, students and employees,” said Mann.
The sit-in protest set to begin Wednesday was intended as the third front in an ongoing agitation by farmers. Two permanent protests, led by breakaway factions of the SKM, have already been underway at Shambhu and Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border since February last year.
The protest at the Khanauri border in Sangrur is led by farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who heads the SKM (Non-Political), a breakaway faction of the SKM. Dallewal has been on a hunger strike at the protest site for 100 days. Due to serious health concerns, he agreed last month to transition to a medically assisted hunger strike.
Meanwhile, at the Shambhu border in Patiala, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher is leading the agitation under the banner of the Kisan Majdoor Morcha (KMM).
Both organisations are demanding, among other things, a legal guarantee for MSP on crops.
The two organisations were working in tandem for most of last year, but following differences between the two leaders, Dallewal along with his followers shifted to Khanauri.
The joint protest by the two organisations is not supported by the SKM, the umbrella body of farmer unions in Punjab, due to differences over their methods of agitation.
CM Mann Tuesday lashed out at SKM leaders for turning Punjab into a “state of dharnas” (protests) leading to “economic losses” and countless inconveniences to the people.
Talking to media persons in Kharar, a visibly angry Mann said all talks with farmers were “over” and they could “go ahead and sit on dharnas”. “Why waste my time on table talks when there is going to be no let up in dharnas?” said Mann.
“The farmers unions are indulging in competitive protests in a bid to outshine one another. They are being funded by people in villages who are using them to sort out issues not even related to farming. The farmers unions are running a parallel government,” added Mann.
Mann’s tougher stance against farmers came a day after he stormed out of a meeting with leaders of the SKM, a coalition of over 30 Punjab-based farmer unions that had led the 2021 protest against the three central farm laws, which were later repealed by the Narendra Modi government.
Experts view this development as indicative of broader political shifts. Professor Kuldip Singh, former faculty member of the political science department at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, said to ThePrint that the chief minister’s actions toward the farmers were not accidental but a carefully planned move.
“The CM believes that the farmers have lost the sympathy from the other sections of society. Secondly, he knows that there is a large amount of discontent in the rural areas against him and his government. It is a planned move to now stand with the urban sections, which he is trying to do by saying that farmer protests are causing inconvenience to the rest of Punjab,” he said.
However, Singh, author of the widely acclaimed Punjab River Waters Dispute in South Asia published last year, added that no government in Punjab can hope to govern successfully without addressing farmers’ concerns.
Mann’s ‘strategic’ move?
The SKM had last month announced a 6-day sit-in protest in Chandigarh against both the AAP government in Punjab and the Modi government at the Centre for failing to meet their long-pending demands. The farmers had put forth nearly 18 demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP on crops, farm loan waivers, and measures to increase farm income.
Mann invited the leaders for a meeting on 3 March, ahead of the protest, but halfway through the meeting, the CM asked the farmers to give up the plan for the dharna. “I sat with the farmers for over 2 hours, after which I told them that since most of their demands had been discussed, they should give up the idea of sitting on a dharna but they said that the plan for the dharna remained as is. Then why waste my 2 hours? They should either come for talks or hold dharnas,” the CM said Tuesday.
However, farmer leaders who attended the meeting claim that the CM behaved in an erratic manner during the meeting.
“He suddenly became hyper and left the meeting in a huff. He wanted us to give him an assurance that we will not hold our dharna. We told him that the decision not to hold the dharna or postpone the dharna could be taken collectively only after the outcome of the meeting became clear, not before that. But he got very angry and got up and left saying that whatever demands he had agreed to by that time, too, stood nullified,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, heading BKU (Rajewal), while speaking to media persons after the meeting.
Rajewal was among the leaders arrested in a series of operations by the police in the early hours of Tuesday. Other leaders who were arrested include Ruldu Singh Mansa, Jangveer Singh Chouhan, Gurmeet Singh Bhatiwal, Nachhttar Singh Jaiton, Veerpal Singh Dhillon, Binder Singh Golewal, Gurnam Bhikhi and Harmesh Singh Dhesi.
Wednesday Joginder Singh Ugrahan, heading the largest BKU in the state and SKM constituent, was also detained.
Agriculture expert Ramandeep Singh said to ThePrint that there was an urgent need for the farmer unions to give up their individual agendas and get united. “The voice of a divided house is diluted and not taken seriously. The unions need to come together and take up their causes in one voice,” said Singh.
Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur of the DAV College Sector 10 Chandigarh said that there was no doubt about the fact that large sections of the urban and semi-urban Punjab had lost sympathy for the farmers.
“Farmer unions need to wake up to this,” she said to ThePrint. “There is no unity among them. It is being openly said that certain unions are carrying out divisive agendas for the powers that be, who want to delegitimise the farmers’ movement. The chief minister also needs to make his stand clear once and for all. He acted out of annoyance at SKM, even though his government has been very, very placatory towards the protest at the Khanauri border.”
Opposition blasts Mann
The unprecedented police action against the farmer leaders has led to a barrage of criticism from the opposition against the Mann government.
Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly and Congressman Partap Singh Bajwa said that the CM’s behaviour had touched new heights of arrogance and asked AAP to replace Mann with somebody more “sophisticated”.
In a post on X, he wrote: “It is highly deplorable that the @AAPPunjab govt is raiding the locations of farm union leaders to stop them from staging a protest on March 5 in Chandigarh. Isn’t CM @BhagwantMann turning Punjab into a dictatorial state? Punjab is an agriculture-dominated state. It is very unfortunate for Punjab to have a CM, who is not even ready to listen to the woes of the farmers and farm labourers….”
It is highly deplorable that the @AAPPunjab govt is raiding the locations of farm union leaders to stop them from staging a protest on March 5 in Chandigarh. Isn't CM @BhagwantMann turning Punjab into a dictatorial state? Punjab is an agriculture-dominated state. It is very…
— Partap Singh Bajwa (@Partap_Sbajwa) March 4, 2025
BJP MP from Ludhiana and Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu said Mann had created an “Emergency-like” situation in the state.
Congress MLA Pargat Singh accused Chief Minister Mann of acting like a dictator, claiming he was advancing the BJP’s divisive agenda at the Centre.
“Chief Minister @BhagwantMann first invites farmers for talks, then misbehaves, runs away from the meeting, and later incites hatred against them through tweets! Now, he’s ordering their arrests—this is pure dictatorship. This isn’t just an insult to Punjab’s farmers but a clear execution of BJP’s divisive agenda in the state. Punjab won’t tolerate this!” Pargat Singh wrote on X.
Sukhpal Khera, another Congress leaders, in a post on X said that Mann had turned Punjab into a police state and condemned the midnight arrests of SKM farmer leaders.
Former President of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Sukhbir Singh Badal reiterated his party’s commitment to standing behind the farmers.
In a post on X, he wrote: “First chief minister @BhagwantMann threatened Kisan leaders whom he had invited for talks at Chandigarh yesterday. Today early morning the police started raiding residences of Kisan leaders & has detained many of them in a crude attempt to foil the March 5 Andolan of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha. Such dictatorial methods can never stifle the voice of the Annadata. The @Akali_Dal_ expresses solidarity with the protesting farmers & their cause and will do its utmost to ensure all their demands are accepted by this corrupt & arrogant @AAPPunjab govt.”
Senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia said that the CM’s behaviour showed that he needed “medical help”.
“His behaviour is unbecoming of a chief minister. His actions are shameful,” said Majithia to media persons.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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