Chandigarh: Battle lines are visible between protesting farmers and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government after Punjab police, on the orders of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, evicted agitating farmers from two protest sites on the Punjab-Haryana border.
Reacting to police action during which hundreds of farmers squatting on the Khanauri and Shambhu borders were removed the previous day, agitating farmers Thursday issued a call for a nationwide protest outside the offices of deputy commissioners and a ‘chakka jam’ across Punjab. They also equated the arrest of more than two dozen farmers’ leaders with the Mann-led AAP government “backstabbing” them.
Later in the day, protesting farmers clashed with the police in Moga and Gidderbaha when they tried to move towards the deputy commissioner’s office and block roads.
Their demands include immediate release of leaders detained while entering Punjab from Chandigarh after a meeting with Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
Political commentators ThePrint spoke to said the shift in AAP’s stance signals a change in Mann’s approach, but added that the ‘calculated move’ could pit Punjab’s urban population against farmers and may even turn into “political suicide” for AAP in the assembly polls.
But the Mann government has made it clear that it will not allow protesters to hold the state to ransom. “Punjab’s borders have been blocked for over a year, leading to significant economic losses, reduced investments and decline in tourism,” AAP MP Malvinder Singh Kang said Wednesday, adding that the demands can only be resolved by the Centre.
This is for the first time since the beginning of the farmers’ agitation in 2020 that AAP has taken a clear, unambiguous stance in opposition to “endless agitations causing inconvenience to others”. AAP’s Kang in the video statement said, “The people of Punjab have always stood with the farmers and will continue to do so; however, we must ensure that our strategies do not harm Punjab’s growth and prosperity.”
ਜਿਹੜੀ ਕਾਂਗਰਸ ਨੇ ਸੰਸਦ 'ਚ ਅੱਜ ਤੱਕ ਕਿਸਾਨਾਂ ਦੀ ਅਵਾਜ਼ ਨਹੀਂ ਚੁੱਕੀ, ਉਹ ਅੱਜ ਕਿਸਾਨ ਹਿਤੈਸ਼ੀ ਹੋਣ ਦਾ ਦਿਖਾਵਾ ਕਰ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ ਪਰ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਲੋਕ ਭਲੀ-ਭਾਂਤ ਜਾਣਦੇ ਹਨ ਕਿ ਸਰਕਾਰ 'ਚ ਹੋਣ ਸਮੇਂ ਇਹਨਾਂ ਨੇ ਕਿਸਾਨੀ ਨਾਲ਼ ਧੋਖਾ ਕਮਾਇਆ ਅਤੇ ਇਹਨਾਂ ਦੀ ਕੀਤੀ RDF ਦੀ ਦੁਰਵਰਤੋਂ ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਹੁਣ ਤੱਕ ਭੁਗਤ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ।
ਸੂਬਾ ਸਰਹੱਦਾਂ… pic.twitter.com/FKrNQ0yLQ8— AAP Punjab (@AAPPunjab) March 20, 2025
In a move that took protesting farmers by surprise, Punjab police had dismantled makeshift structures erected at the two protest sites and forced agitators into buses. Protesters moving in private vehicles were detained.
The protesters had been sitting at the two sites for the past one year.
At Khanauri, the protest was led by Jagjit Singh Dallewal of SKM (non-political) while Sarwan Singh Pandher of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha led the charge at Shambhu. Other outfits part of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) chose to maintain their distance from the protest.
In a bid to contain the renewed fervour among the agitators following the police action, Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian has invited SKM leaders for a meeting in Chandigarh Friday to deliberate upon the issues that can be dealt with by the state.
Reacting to the police action, the Opposition in Punjab has come out in support of the protesting farmers, condemning AAP for letting them down to appease the business community in Ludhiana West where an assembly bypoll is around the corner. “The action against the farmers is aimed to woo the business and trading lobby in Ludhiana. The ultimate aim is to win the election so that a Rajya Sabha seat is vacated for Arvind Kejriwal,” state BJP chief Sunil Jakhar said Thursday during a presser in Chandigarh.
“It was Bhagwant Mann who forced farmers to first sit on dharna when it suited AAP during Lok Sabha elections. And it is the same Bhagwant Mann who is now trying to take credit for vacating Shambhu and Khanauri to garner votes ahead of Ludhiana bypoll,” he said, holding Mann responsible for loss of life, revenue and jobs caused during the blockade.
It was at behest of Punjab CM @BhagwantMann that Punjab was held to ransom and allowed to bleed financially and economically for 400 days due to a dharna which was never in Punjab farmer’s interests.
CM Bhagwant Mann has used, abused, and humiliated farmers for votes and is now…— Sunil Jakhar (@sunilkjakhar) March 20, 2025
The Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) too have lashed out at Mann for “backstabbing” and “betraying” farmers.
तुमसे यही थी उम्मीद, “बेईमान”
किसानों की पीठ में छुरा मारा @BhagwantMann pic.twitter.com/r9rusA73ev— Partap Singh Bajwa (@Partap_Sbajwa) March 20, 2025
▪️It is for the first time in the history of the State and country that Kisan leaders were called for talks by the State and Central govt and then lathi charged and arrested.
▪️The AAP govt has gone back on its commitment to engage with the farmers to find a resolution to their… pic.twitter.com/Up5ITReZat
— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) March 20, 2025
The matter is also expected to rock the first day of the budget session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha that begins Friday.
Bye-election to the Ludhiana West assembly seat is expected to be held later this year. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Gogi who accidentally shot himself while cleaning his weapon.
While the Election Commission is yet to announce the dates for the bye-election, AAP has already declared its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora, a Ludhiana-based industrialist, as its candidate for the bypoll. It has been the talk in political circles for some time now that if Arora wins the bypoll, he will vacate his Rajya Sabha seat for AAP national convener and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. On Tuesday, Kejriwal and Mann met representatives from Ludhiana’s business community to hear their concerns.
Also Read: How CM Mann’s stance on Punjab farmers has shifted, with Chandigarh protest the latest flashpoint
‘Even when nations are at war…’
AAP’s handling of the protests stood in sharp contrast to its stance during the 2021 agitation at the Singhu border led by Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM). Kang and other leaders were at the forefront in supporting the protesters, while the then Kejriwal-led government in Delhi arranged logistics for the year-long sit-in by farmers at the Delhi border.
Acknowledging their role, the rural peasantry had voted in favour of AAP during the 2022 assembly elections, thrusting them to power in the state with 92 of Punjab’s 117 assembly seats. Three years later, protesting farmers have now branded Mann a betrayer.
In a video message Thursday, farmers’ leader Joginder Singh Ugrahan said the order for police action at Khanuari and Shambhu borders “was nothing short of cheating”. He added, “Even when nations are at war and talks are going on, the leaders of the negotiation are never treated in this fashion.”
Ugrahan, who heads the Bhartiya Kisan union (Ugrahan), urged his cadres to stage demonstrations against the Punjab government across the state.
Earlier this month, Punjab police had detained hundreds of farmers ahead of a statewide protest planned by the SKM. Heavy police presence was ensured across the state on 5 March, the date of the protest and farmers were prevented from leaving their villages with tractors. Various entry points to Chandigarh were sealed and heavily guarded by the police.
Speaking to the media then, Mann had 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 people of Punjab, and farmers were causing inconvenience to traders, businessmen, students and employees,” he said.
Professor Kuldip Singh, former faculty member of the department of political science at Amritsar’s Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar, told ThePrint, “Traditional wisdom suggests that no political party can afford to annoy the farmers. That still stands. But continuous wooing of the farmers has led to widespread public resentment and the government has decided to take a calculated risk in acting against the farmers.”
“Farmers’ bodies too need to understand that it is not in their interest to have so much public anger against them,” he added.
Professor Kuldip Singh also saw this as a change in the traditional political paradigm. “The number of Jat Sikhs has reduced over the years. Inward migration of non-Jats and outward migration of Jat Sikhs has only accelerated in the recent past. The aim of any political party in power is to act in a manner that helps it maintain power and return to power.”
According to him, police action against the farmers was not a spontaneous outburst but part of a “scripted, a well thought-out strategy”.
“Farmers are not a homogenous group but a divided lot. Acting against two of the smaller organisations is not a bad bargain for the government. It is trying to show that it is effective and has started acting, especially when you combine this action against farmers with the action taken against drug peddlers. The government is able to show that it means business even when no additional resources are being used,” Professor Kuldip Singh added.
Harjeshwar Singh, a professor of history at Chandigarh’s Sri Guru Gobind Singh College (SGGS), too was of the opinion that the crackdown on farmers marks a strategic rebranding of AAP under Mann—positioning itself as a tough, no-nonsense government waging war on drugs, corruption, and now, even farmers, in pursuit of a “Rangla Punjab.”
“The government’s preferred tools in this mission appear to be the Punjab police and the bulldozer, with Mann emerging as a “chhota Yogi” of Punjab, echoing the hardline governance style of UP CM Yogi Adityanath,” he said.
Professor Harjeshwar Singh added that by adopting this new political avatar, AAP is clearly eyeing urban and non-agrarian voters—both as part of its short-term strategy to win the Ludhiana West bypoll and its long-term ambition to challenge the BJP on its own turf. “However, this aggressive polarising approach clearly pits Punjab’s urban and trading class against farmers and risks alienating Punjab’s rural population, particularly in Malwa—AAP’s core stronghold—and in Majha, where civil society and farmers’ unions continue to wield significant influence.”
Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur, professor of political science at Chandigarh’s DAV College (Sector 10), told ThePrint that Mann earlier this month clearly indicated he does not want Punjab to get the tag of a “dharna state”.
“There is no doubt that the urban Punjab is expected to give a thumbs-up to this action. But how it will play out politically for Mann will be clear only in the coming days,” said Dr Kaur. She added that the two farmers’ outfits who faced police action do not enjoy the trust of the SKM.
But, she said, “if this action of the government unites the farmers against AAP, there would be political repercussions in the next assembly elections and this could turn into political suicide”.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: Why ailing Dallewal has landed Mann govt in tricky spot despite backing farmers’ stir in Punjab