Chandigarh: With farmers from Haryana led by khap panchayat leaders expected to arrive at the agitation sites at Tikri and Singhu borders with Delhi Wednesday, trouble seems to be brewing for the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), an alliance partner of the ruling BJP in the state.
The JJP is primarily a rural Jat-centric party with the peasantry as its core vote base. And as the farmers’ stir gains ground, the party’s top leadership is having a hard time explaining its stance. Many of its other nine MLAs have come out in support of the farmers’ cause, and pressure is mounting on Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala to clarify his stand on the issue.
Farmer unions have demanded that Chautala should withdraw JJP’s support to the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government. However, he has backed the BJP’s stand on the new farm laws, saying he will resign only if the minimum support price (MSP) regime fails to protect farmers after their implementation.
But in the face of fresh volleys of criticism, Dushyant’s father and JJP president Ajay Chautala — grandson of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal — said since Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi have already assured that the MSP system will continue, “why not add it as a sentence in these acts?”
किसानों की मांगों पर केंद्र करे विचार. जो भी सर्वसम्मत हल हो उसे जल्दी से लागू कर किसानों को परेशानी को दूर किया जाना चाहिए. MSP को एक्ट में शामिल करने पर भी विचार करे केंद्र सरकार.#FarmersProtests pic.twitter.com/hAEmAQ4jHn
— AJAY SINGH CHAUTALA (@DrAjaySChautala) December 1, 2020
Also read: Farmers’ unions reject govt offer to set up committee, next round of talks Thursday
Mounting pressure
Demands for the JJP to withdraw its support to the BJP government gained further ground after Punjab MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the Modi cabinet over the issue, and her party Shiromani Akali Dal withdrew from the ruling NDA.
Last month, hundreds of farmers protesting outside Dushyant’s residence in Sirsa were removed from the spot, with the police using tear gas shells and water cannons on them, which led to an opposition outcry.
The JJP’s top leadership has also not said much on the manner in which the Khattar government treated the agitating farmers from Punjab and Haryana as they pushed their way through extraordinary barricading to reach the Delhi border.
But Ajay Chautala’s younger son Digvijay, who heads the youth wing of the JJP, was at pains to insist during a press conference Tuesday that it is a party of farmers and will always remain one.
हमें उम्मीद है कि केंद्र सरकार और किसानों की बातचीत का साकारात्मक नतीजा निकलेगा. pic.twitter.com/SXaxC6yS1x
— Digvijay Chautala (@DVJChautala) December 1, 2020
On 28 November, Digvijay had posted a video message after the agitating farmers reached Delhi border and decided to stay put.
केंद्र सरकार से हमारा आग्रह कि किसानों से बात करे, उनके भ्रम और शंकाएँ दूर करे. ठण्ड और कोरोना के चलते मुलाक़ात में देरी न हो और मुलाक़ात को 3 दिसम्बर की बजाय आज ही किया जाए. #जयकिसान pic.twitter.com/kfSZNoLBni
— Digvijay Chautala (@DVJChautala) November 28, 2020
“Whatever we have seen on television channels and the manner in which these events have unfolded has caused immense pain to everyone. Since it is very cold and the farmers are sitting out in the open, I urge the Government of India not to wait till 3 December to hold talks, but hold them now,” he had said.
But Deputy CM Dushyant has been criticised for his “defeaning silence” on the farmers’ agitation, by many opposition leaders, including Karan Singh Dalal of the Congress leader.
Congress’ chief spokesperson and Haryana leader Randeep Singh Surjewala also said Chautala had “backstabbed” farmers.
“Haryana history will never forget the backstabbing of Dushyant Chautala. The farmers he wooed for votes against BJP, whose loans he promised to waive, are on the roads today facing police lathis and tear gas shells. But JJP continues to sit in the lap of the BJP just to remain in power,” Surjewala tweeted on 28 November.
हरियाणा का इतिहास दुष्यंत चौटाला की गद्दारी को कभी भूलेगा नही!
जिस किसान कौम से बहला-फुसला कर भाजपा के खिलाफ वोट लिए,
जिस किसान का कर्ज माफ करने का वचन दिया,
आज वही किसान सड़कों पर,
पुलिस की लाठियों और अश्रु गैस के बीच,
और….
जज़पा सत्ता के फ़ेविकोल से चिपक भाजपा की गोद में! pic.twitter.com/hcggt4GIMb
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) November 28, 2020
Also read: Covid fear looms at protest site but farmers say ‘Modi’s black laws’ greater threat
JJP MLAs’ vociferous support for farmers
JJP MLAs Jogi Ram Sihag, Ram Niwas Surajkhera and Devinder Babli (Tohana) have been the most vociferous in their support of the farmers.
Ram Kumar Gautam, the party’s MLA from Narnaund, told ThePrint that he should also be counted among that list.
“The Modi government should take personal interest in the matter and make the required changes in the acts to reassure the farmers,” Gautam said.
Others, including Minister of State Anoop Dhanak, Ishar Singh and Amarjeet Dhanda, have also supported the farmers, but toed the party line set out by Ajay Chautala.
On Monday, independent MLA from Dadri, Sombir Sangwan, withdrew support from the BJP-JJP government over the farmers’ issue, and is to lead a contingent of farmers to Delhi.
“More than 200 khaps have decided to support the farmers’ agitation and are moving with their supporters to the Delhi borders. Most of them will arrive by tonight,” Sangwan said Wednesday.
‘MLAs should listen to their conscience’
Meanwhile, in two separate statements issued Wednesday, Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja and Surjewala both appealed to independent and JJP MLAs to look within and listen to their conscience before continuing to support the “anti-farmer” government.
Surjewala congratulated Sangwan for withdrawing support, saying there will be several other MLAs who will be worried about their political future if they do not come out in support of the farmers.
Asked specifically if the Khattar government is in any danger, Surjewala said it was always a “minority government”, and so, was always in danger.
Sources add that former CM and current leader of the opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda is also in touch with some independent and JJP MLAs over the farmers’ issues.
In the 90-seat Haryana assembly, the BJP has 40 seats and is in power with the support of 10 JJP MLAs and five (out of seven) independent MLAs. The Congress has 31 seats. One seat each belongs to the Indian National Lok Dal — which the JJP broke away from — and the Haryana Lokhit Party.
Also read: Acupuncturist, ex-Army man, doctor — 5 farmer leaders who shaped protest against farm laws
(This report has been updated with fresh statements that the Congress released Wednesday evening)