Delhi, 9 January 2025- The BJP-led Centre was being forced to revoke the three contentious farm laws after a year-long agitation by farmers.
“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,” The Indian Express quoted anonymous Punjab BJP leader.
Since February 13 of last year, farmers have been protesting at Khanauri and Shambhu on the Punjab-Haryana border under the umbrellas of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political). However, they have not yet gained the same level of traction as the 2020–21 agitation.
Visuals of Farmers protest from 2020-21
However, the government and other stakeholders have been on edge due to the ongoing hunger strike of SKM (non-political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, whose fast-unto-death entered its 44th day on Wednesday. Several farmer leaders have called for the Center to reopen talks with the protesting farm unions, citing the declining health of 70-year-old Dallewal, but they have not received a response.
The farmers’ agitation started in 2020, and on November 26 of that year, they made their first march towards Delhi. Small-scale demonstrations in Punjab were initially sparked by the Center’s June 2020 ordinance introducing the three farm laws. In addition to demonstrating outside the homes of the leaders of the BJP and its then-partner Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which left the NDA alliance in September 2020 over the issue, farmer unions organized tractor marches and rail blockades between June and November 2020.
The BJP did not take any action until November 19, 2021, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared in a national address that the three farm laws would be repealed.
On November 23, 2023, the KMM and the non-political SKM declared that they would march on Delhi if the Center did not grant their demands by February 13, 2024. These demands include, among other things, a legal status for the minimum support price (MSP) for crops and the cancellation of farm debt. The Punjab BJP reportedly took no action to contact the farmers this time either.
“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 to The Indian Express, adding that if the farmer protests continue, the state’s industry would suffer losses.
According to BJP sources, the state party unit was unaware that three Union ministers had arrived in Chandigarh early last year for the first round of negotiations with the annoyed KMM and SKM (non-political). BJP leader and former chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh met with PM Modi to talk about “current happenings” in the state only after the demonstrators set up camp at Khanauri and Shambhu.
Dallewal has been urged to break his fast by Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar, who has maintained that the MSP law would not be “feasible” despite his belief that farmers require assistance.
Additionally, Union minister and state BJP leader Ravneet Singh Bittu has repeatedly attacked the leaders of the protesting farmer unions.Ahead of the November 2024 Assembly bypolls in the state, Bittu called for a probe into farmer leaders’ properties.
Farmers had fiercely protested against the BJP during its Lok Sabha election campaign earlier last year. In numerous villages, a number of BJP leaders and party candidates were refused entry to campaign. Even though the party’s vote share increased, the polls showed nothing. BJP also did poorly in the local body and by-elections last year.
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