News Analysis India

Tag: Agri Laws 2020

  • TMC reacts to PM Narendra Modi barb, tells him to show ‘Mamta’ to farmers

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The ruling TMC in West Bengal on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his hard-hitting comments against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and urged him to soften his stand on the ongoing stir against farm laws and show some “Mamta” (compassion) towards agitating farmers.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the day made a scathing attack at the TMC government, saying it has “criminalised politics, institutionalised corruption and politicised the police” and said the people of the state expected ‘Mamta’ from Mamata Banerjee but got ‘nirmamta’ (cruelty) instead in the last ten years.

    Reacting to Modi’s barb, Senior TMC MP and spokesperson Saugata Roy said the people of Bengal would show the BJP “Red card during the elections”.

    “Instead of blaming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Prime Minister should soften his stand on farmers issue and show some ‘Mamta’ towards the agitating farmers, who are protesting for the last 70 days.

    “So many farmers have died, but we could not see Modiji’s ‘Mamta’. When so many people died during demonetisation in 2016, we did not see any ‘Mamta’ from him. The less he talks about ‘Mamta’, the better it will be,” Roy said.

    While speaking about PM Modi claiming that “people will show ‘Ram Card’ as the TMC government has committed several fouls”, he said the people of Bengal would show “red card to the BJP in the assembly polls”.

    Referring to allegations that Banerjee lost her cool after hearing “Bharat Mata ki Jai” slogans, he said these are baseless allegations.

    “Mamata Banerjee has never lost her cool on hearing ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogans. It was when political-religious slogans such as ‘Jai Shri Ram’ are raised she gets angry. It is completely justified,” he said.

    Senior TMC leader and MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said when Uttarakhand’s people are battling calamity, PM Modi was busy doing politics in West Bengal.

    The CPI(M) leadership denied the allegations of “match-fixing” between them and the TMC and said it is the Trinamool Congress that has helped the saffron party grow in Bengal.

    “Why are both the TMC and the BJP bothered about the CPI (M)? Both have said that the Left has ceased to exist in Bengal.

    “The Left has never compromised with the TMC in Bengal, it is the BJP which had an alliance with the Trinamool Congress till a few years back,” CPI(M) Legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty said.

  • What can be bigger offer than suspending farm laws for 18 months: Union Minister Som Parkash

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Union Minister Som Parkash on Sunday said the government is ready for talks with the agitating farmers and asked whether there can be an offer bigger than suspending the contentious agriculture laws for 18 months.

    He said the government was making sincere efforts to resolve the issue.

    “The government is ready for talks,” Parkash said addressing a press conference here.

    “We offered to suspend the laws for one-and-half years and constitute a committee with farmers’ representatives on these laws. What can be a bigger offer than this?” he added.

    His statement comes a day after protesting farmer unions said they were ready to resume talks with the government, but asked it to come up with a fresh proposal as the existing offer to put the three farm laws on hold for 12-18 months is not acceptable to them.

    Parkash, the Union minister of state for Commerce, was part of the three-member ministerial team which held several rounds of negotiations with the farmers’ leaders.

    Parkash, who is a Lok Sabha MP from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur parliamentary constituency, said the farm legislations were passed by Parliament and a due process was followed.

    “The law is not framed by raising hands. There is a system in the country,” he added.

    The union minister said the government enacted the laws keeping in view the interest of the whole country.

    Thousands of farmers have been protesting since late November at the Delhi borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

    They have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations.

    To a question on the upcoming municipal polls in Punjab, Parkash said the farmers’ agitation should not be linked with the elections.

    The government had brought these laws in the interest of the farming community, he said.

    The minister slammed the ruling Congress in Punjab, accusing it of ‘orchestrating’ the protest against the BJP leaders in the state.

    “The police is acting at the behest of the state government,” he alleged.

    A group of farmers in Hoshiarpur on Saturday had shouted slogans against the BJP outside a venue where party leaders, including Parkash, had come for a public meeting.

    Elections to the eight municipal corporations and 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in the state will be held on February 14.

  • PM Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari should hold talks with farm unions: NCP chief Sharad Pawar

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Union ministers like Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari should hold talks with farmers’ unions to resolve the deadlock over ongoing protest against the three new agriculture laws.

    He said differences regarding the implementation of agriculture reforms can be resolved through deliberations.

    Pawar was speaking to reporters in Baramati, his hometown in Pune district.

    “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior ministers like Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari should hold talks with farmers’ organisations,” he said.

    “Piyush Goyal is from Mumbai and I don’t know how much he knows about agriculture,” he said.

    Goyal and a few other union ministers have been holding talks with the farmer representatives to break the impasse.

    Pawar said agriculture was a state subject and laws should be enacted after consultations with the state governments.

    “There can be differences over implementation of agriculture reforms, which can be resolved through deliberations,” the former Union agriculture minister said.

    According to him, laws for agriculture reforms were being discussed since 2003 when Vajpayee was the prime minister.

    “In my time, discussions used to take place with the state governments since agriculture is a state subject. A committee of agriculture ministers of nine states was formed to study and prepare a draft law, which was headed by the then Maharashtra minister Harshvardhan Patil.

    “The draft was prepared and states were asked to discuss it. But the present government has prepared its own law and got it passed in the Parliament amid chaos and without discussion,” he said.

    “There was no consultation and the states were not taken into confidence. Agriculture reforms have to be done when required. Differences if any can be resolved through talks,” he said.

    When asked about BJP leader Narayan Rane’s remark that Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Sindhudurg on Sunday would be a good omen to pave the way for fall of the MVA government in the state, Pawar said, “Rane is an old colleague and I didn’t know that he cracks such jokes. His remarks should be seen as a political joke and nothing more than that.”

  • At Singhu border, Rakesh Tikait’s cutouts, posters and badges of farmers stir draw crowd

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The demand for cutouts of Rakesh Tikait at Singhu border underlines the growing popularity of the farmer leader credited with reviving the farmers’ movement against the Centre’s farm laws following violence during a tractor rally on Republic Day.

    Roadside stalls selling badges, posters and other literature related to the farmers stir are a common sight at Singhu border.

    Wasim Ali, who has set up such a stall at the protest site, says hand-held cutouts of Tikait are a big hit among the crowd.

    “Each cutout of Tikait is priced at Rs 20. I have been selling the cutouts since the last few days as they are in high demand,” he said. Around 700-800 such cutouts are sold every day, said Ali, a resident of Bawana in north west Delhi.

    ALSO READ: No ‘ghar wapsi’ till farmers’ demands are met, says BKU leader Rakesh Tikait

    “I usually buy these cutouts from Sadar Bazar and sell them here. These are the most demanded items at my stall,” he added.

    Tikait’s image received a massive boost after he defiantly announced to continue the agitation, even as a large posse of Uttar Pradesh police personnel gathered at Ghazipur protest site after the Republic Day violence, with rumours rife that he might be arrested.

    A section of protesting farmers had entered Delhi and reached up to ITO and Red Fort in the heart of the national capital during their tractor rally on January 26.

    In clashes between police and farmers, scores were injured and property, including buses, were vandalised.

    The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader was unwell when a large number of UP police personnel gathered at Ghazipur border where he had been camping for over two months in protest against the contentious farm laws.

    ALSO READ: Ready to take agitation across the nation, says Rakesh Tikait

    A cornered Tikait, however, addressed a huge crowd at the protest site, which has now become a focal point of the agitation, after his teary-eyed speech was beamed by news channels amid dwindled presence at Ghazipur border after the January 26 violent clashes.

    He had reaffirmed the resolve of the farmers, saying “they won’t relent or retreat”.

    Tikait’s emotional appeal galvanised thousands of farmers from western UP as well as Punjab and Haryana, who took to road to join the agitation that had faced the threat of petering out in the wake of the January 26 episode.

  • Villagers bring food, water for Rakesh Tikait as BKU digs heels at Ghazipur border

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Villagers brought water in clay pots and home-made food for Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Saturday in a show of support for the ongoing stir against the new farm laws, even as local authorities sent tankers of drinking water and mobile toilets at the protest site.

    Tikait urged the government to restore internet services, which have been banned by the Centre at protest sites on Delhi’s borders Saturday.

    A little boy from a Ghaziabad village reached the protest with a tiffin filled with homemade ‘parathas’ and pickle along with water.

    Some villagers from western Uttar Pradesh including places like Muzaffarnagar, Greater Noida, and Meerut also reached Ghazipur border with water and buttermilk in clay pots to feed the protestors.

    ALSO READ: Ghazipur border – Resolve grows stronger, farmers say movement not affected by January 26 incident

    Water and power supply at the protest site was disrupted by the local administration two days ago following an ultimatum to protestors to vacate the spot by Thursday night, prompting Tikait to say he would drink water only when farmers bring it from their villages but continue the stir.

    Overwhelmed by emotion, tears welled up the eyes of Tikait, who had proclaimed he would rather commit suicide than end the protest for farmers.

    “A conspiracy is being planned by the BJP to weaken the agitation of farmers,” Tikait claimed, a day after a BKU member filed a complaint at Kashambi police station here against two BJP MLAs for allegedly orchestrating violence at the protest site.

    A senior police official confirmed to PTI that the complaint was made against Loni MLA Nand Kishor Gujjar and Sahibabad MLA Sunil Sharma but FIR has not been lodged.

    ALSO READ: R-Day violence – Team of forensic experts visits Red Fort to collect evidence

    Tikait also urged the Centre to restore internet services at protest sites so that farmers could put forth their views and demands on social media.

    Besides sending water tankers, the Ghaziabad civic bodies have also re-stationed mobile toilets at the protest site on Saturday, as support for the farmers’ protest swelled with more villagers pouring in at the Delhi- Meerut highway in Ghazipur on the border with Uttar Pradesh.

    The Bharatiya Kisan Union-led protest against the Centre’s new farm laws here looked like it was going slim on Thursday but more protestors have joined the stir, following a mahapanchayat of farmers on Saturday in Muzaffarnagar, while supporters also joined in from Haryana and Rajasthan districts.

    “The movement was and is strong,” BKU’s Meerut Zone president Pawan Khatana told PTI.

    Khatana, who is at the demonstration site with BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, said there has been continuous support for the “peaceful protest” against the farmers’ demand for removal of the new agri laws.

    “This is not a political protest. Anybody who shares the ideology of the BKU and Rakesh Tikait are welcome here. But it is our appeal to those who do not wish to support the movement till the end that please do not come only to leave in between,” he said.

    ALSO READ: Violence on Republic Day scripted by BJP to discredit farmers’ movement – AAP

    Asked about estimated crowd size at the site, the farmer leader from western Uttar Pradesh said, “Farmers are coming in to show solidarity and leaving. It is not a stagnant crowd.”

    On Friday night, the BKU office-bearers had estimated a crowd of around 10,000 people at Ghazipur while the Ghaziabad police officials pegged it around 5,000 to 6,000.

    Heavy security deployment, including personnel of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), Rapid Action Force (RAF) in anti-riot gears and civil police, was made at the protest site.

    Meanwhile, the Delhi Traffic Police said to and fro movement on the National Highway 24 (Delhi-Meerut Expressway) has been closed.

    Thousands of farmers have been protesting at Delhi’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

    The protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations.

    However, the government has maintained that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and introduce new technologies in agriculture.

  • People in villages cried, couldn’t sleep when Rakesh Tikait wept: Farmers

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: BKU leader Rakesh Tikait’s emotional outburst over the dim situation of the ongoing farmers’ agitation touched such an emotional chord with people in villages in western Uttar Pradesh that many of them were also moved to tears and felt so restless they couldn’t sleep that night, say several farmers.

    On Thursday night, Tikait, son of legendary farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, wept at the Ghazipur border while talking about the farmers’ protests, whose image took a beating after the violent clashes on January 26.

    But his tears galvanised people, as on Saturday a large number of farmers and other supporters came to the protest site at the Delhi-UP border from not just his home state of Uttar Pradesh but from Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand as well to show solidarity with the movement.

    “Our village spent a sleepless night. How could we sleep? His gesture had touched our hearts. That night itself people started flocking towards the Ghazipur border protest site to offer water to Tikait ji. His tears had brought tears in our eyes too,” said Pankaj Pradhan, 52, head of Charaura village in Bulandshahr.

    ALSO READ: Violence on Republic Day scripted by BJP to discredit farmers’ movement – AAP

    Pradhan arrived at Ghazipur in the afternoon in a car along with seven others.

    “We were all awake, watching Tikait ji crying. Some were glued to TV sets, others on mobile phones, and we all felt restless. I was moved to tears too, and women too got emotional. His tears touched a chord with everyone and made them connect stronger to the movement,” Pradhan said.

    Gyanendra Singh, who also came to the protest venue from Bulandshahr on Saturday, said he too got emotionally overwhelmed after watching Tikait’s emotional outburst.

    “It was not his tears alone, it was tears of all of us struggling farmers. That’s why I decided to come here again. I had gone back after the Republic Day tractor parade, not because I had lost faith in the movement after the unfortunate incident on Tuesday but because we had come just for the rally,” he said.

    A multitude of green-and-white caps and flags of unions and tricolours planted on tractors, symbolic of the unions fronting the battle, dot the highway at Ghazipur.

    ALSO READ: R-Day violence – Team of forensic experts visits Red Fort to collect evidence

    On various tractors and camps, photos of legendary leaders such as Chaudhary Charan Singh and Mahendra Singh Tikait, and slogans like ‘I Love Kheti’ and ‘Garv se Kaho Kisan ke Putra ho’, seek to pump up the energy among the farmers whose enthusiasm had ebbed away a bit in the wake of the Republic Day violence and fears of a crackdown by security forces on the night of January 28.

    D P Singh, member of the Central Kisan Committee of All India Kisan Sabha who addressed the crowds on Saturday, said Tikait’s emotional outpouring swept people off their feet and “connected them to the common cause even stronger”.

    “Yes, we were emotionally hurt by the incident and all the aspersions cast on us after it. But that incident has not hurt our movement which has only grown stronger, with more solidarity coming from people,” he said.

    Many of the farmers who came from Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and other parts of Uttar Pradesh addressed the crowds at the protest site.

    Some sang songs in Punjabi to boost the morale of the people and to praise Tikait.

    All of them alleged that “attempts were made to malign this movement” and “defame it”.

    They said the agitation has “come out stronger” after such “attempts”.

    Anil Chaudhary, who also came from Bulandshahr, rued what happened at the Red Fort and on the streets of Delhi on January 26, saying “it did hurt our morale”.

    “But, we feel stronger now. Tikait ji’s tears brought me here. Every person in my village is touched by his emotional appeal. Our solidarity will only grow from here, even though they may stack up the odds against us,” he said.

    As the sun slipped towards the horizon in the biting cold, farmers shared tea and sympathy, and reaffirmed their resolve to keep fighting till they reach their goal of seeing the three farm laws repealed.

  • Ghazipur border: Resolve grows stronger, farmers say movement not affected by January 26 incident

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Solidarity among farmers at the Ghazipur border protest site here showed no signs of waning on Saturday with their leaders reaffirming their resolve to carry on the long-drawn movement against the new farm laws.

    Days after BKU leader Rakesh Tikait’s emotional appeal had galvanised farmers from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand to flock to the Delhi-UP border site, several farmers said, “the fight shall go on against all odds.”

    Tikait on Saturday addressed a huge crowd at the protest site, which has become a new focal point of the agitation after his teary-eyed speech when the number of farmers at Ghazipur border seemed to have thinned after the January 26 violent clashes.

    ALSO READ: Violence on Republic Day scripted by BJP to discredit farmers’ movement – AAP

    He reaffirmed the resolve of the farmers in this agitation, saying they have fought this battle for over two months now, and “they won’t relent or retreat”.

    A man from Amritsar offered water to Tikait on the dais, saying “The tears shed by Tikait ji were not just tears, they were tears of a farmer, from which solidarity has grown.”

    In various camps at Ghazipur border, farmers PTI spoke to still tremble at the mention of the infamous Red Fort incident of unfurling a religious flag from the ramparts of the national monument and the violent clashes that preceded.

    “Those people who did it, they are not our people. That faction had an ulterior motive, and what happened on January 26, seemed to be part of a plan by our detractors to defame and weaken our movement which has been going strong,” said 75-year-old D P Singh, member of the Central Kisan Committee of All India Kisan Sabha.

    ALSO READ: R-Day violence – Team of forensic experts visits Red Fort to collect evidence

    “Yes, we were emotionally hurt by the incident and all the aspersions cast on us after it, but that incident has not affected our movement, it has only grown stronger, with more solidarity coming from people,” he said.

    At Ghazipur , a multitude of green-and-white caps, symbolic of the unions fronting the battle, flags of unions and tricolours, planted on tractors, dot the highway.

    On various tractors and camps, photos of legendary leaders such as Chaudhary Charan Singh and Mahendra Singh Tikait, and slogans like ‘I Love Kheti’ and like ‘Garv se Kaho Kisan ke Putra ho’, seek to pump up energy among the farmers, whose enthusiasm had ebbed away a bit in the wake of Republic Day incident and fears of a crackdown by security forces on the night of January 28.

    However, the emotional outburst of Rakesh Tikait again galvanised people and many from parts of western Uttar Pradesh continued to stream in on Saturday too.

    Pankaj Pradhan, 52, head of Charaura village in Bulandshahr, who arrived in the afternoon along with seven other people to Ghazipur border protest site, became emotional, recalling the night of January 28.

    “We were all awake, watching Tikait ji crying, some were glued to TV sets, others on mobile phones, and we all felt restless. I was moved to tests too, and women too got emotional. But, his tears touched a chord with everyone, and made them connect stronger to the movement,” he said.

    Farmers also came from Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and other parts of Uttar Pradesh, many of whom addressed the crowd at the protest site.

    All of them alleged that “attempts were made to malign this movement” and “defame it”, but the agitation has “come out stronger”.

    Anil Chaudhary, who came from Bulandshahr too, rued what happened at Red Fort and in the streets of Delhi on January 26, and said, “it did hurt our morale”.

    “But, we feel stronger now, and Tikaitji’s tears brought me here. Every person in my village is touched by his emotional appeal. And, our solidarity will only grow from here, even though they may stack up odds against us,” he said.

  • Government shown shocking insensitivity on farmers’ issue: Sonia Gandhi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday launched a fierce attack on the Centre over the farmers’ agitation and said the government has shown “shocking insensitivity and arrogance going through the charade of consultations”.

    Addressing a crucial meeting of the Congress Working Committee, she alleged that it was now abundantly clear that the three farm laws were prepared in haste and Parliament was consciously denied an opportunity to examine in any meaningful detail their implications and impacts.

    “The agitation of farmers continues and the government has shown shocking insensitivity and arrogance going through the charade of consultations,” she said.

    The crucial meeting, being held virtually, will also finalise the plan for organisational elections, including that of the next Congress president.

    ALSO READ: Government under misconception that only Punjab, Haryana farmers in battle against agri laws, says Soren

    Gandhi said the Congress position on the issue of the farm laws has been clear from the very beginning.

    “We reject them categorically because they will destroy the foundations of food security that are based on the three pillars of MSP, public procurement and PDS.”

    Discussing the budget session of Parliament, she said there are many pressing issues of public concern that need to be debated and discussed, but it remains to be seen whether the government will agree to a discussion.

    On the purported WhatsApp chat leaks of Arnab Goswami, she said, “There have been very disturbing reports on how national security has been so thoroughly compromised.”

    ALSO READ: Rejection of Modi government’s ‘lollipop’ on farm laws signals farmers’ awakening – Congress

    “The silence from the government’s side on what has been revealed has been deafening. Those who give certificates of patriotism and nationalism to others now stand totally exposed,” she said.

    Gandhi expressed the hope that the process of the COVID-19 vaccination drive will continue and be completed to the fullest extent.

    The government, she added, has inflicted untold suffering on the people of the country by the manner in which it has managed the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “It will take years for the scars to heal,” she alleged.

    The economic situation remains grim and large parts of the economy like MSME and the informal sector have been decimated with the government refusing to extend a lifeline, the Congress president said.

    “When public expenditure has to be carefully prioritized, it is very painful to find huge amounts of money being  allocated and spent on initiatives that can only be described as ‘personal vanity projects’,” she said.

    “Panic privatization has gripped the government and this is something that the Congress party can never accept and support,” Gandhi added.

    The Congress chief also asked the party office bearers to list the schedule and modalities for organizational elections that has to get the CWC’s approval.

  • The ‘Nays’ have it, government offer rejected

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH : The government’s hopes of ending the deadlock over the farm laws before Republic Day were dashed on Thursday with the farmers unions rejecting the proposal to suspend the laws for two years or more and forming a joint panel to examine the entire gamut of issues. 

    In a statement issued after two rounds of meetings, the first among the 32 Punjab unions followed by all the organisations under the Samyukt Kisan Morcha banner, the farmers said “the proposal put forth by the government yesterday was rejected.” 

    “A full repeal of (the) three central farm laws and enacting a legislation for remunerative MSP for all farmers were reiterated as the pending demands of the movement,” the morcha said.

    But sources said the decision was not unanimous, with some smaller unions, who were in a minority, in favour of accepting the Centre’s proposal but with several conditions, while the bigger ones, mainly from Punjab, firm on continuing with the agitation.  The sources said the majority view to reject the proposal was mainly two-fold.

    First, the protest was peaking and if they withdrew at this point, they may not be able to build up another movement in the future for a repeal of the laws in case the proposed committee rejects this demand. Second, 143 farmers had died during the agitation and if they were to accept the offer without getting the laws repealed, their sacrifice would have gone in vain. 

    The split in opinion led to some heated exchanges during the meeting, the sources said, forcing a vote over the issue.

    “The consensus was that we should stick to our stand of repeal. Voting took place in the meeting of all the 40 unions in which most voted for rejecting the proposal,” a leader said. Joginder Singh Ugrahan, the leader of the largest union, said, “we want the Centre to enact a legislation for remunerative MSP and also a law with the provision that the government procures these crops at MSP as it has been doing to date.”

    “The Punjab unions decided to reject the Centre’s proposal. They informed this at the joint meeting. There was a feeling that 143 farmers have sacrificed their lives and there is no point in settling for anything less than a repeal,” said All India Kisan Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah  The morcha paid homage to the farmers who have died in the movement so far. 

    Tractor rally talks

    Meeting between farmer union leaders and the Delhi Police on tractor parade on Republic Day inconclusive Farmers firm on holding the rally on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi, while police wary of disturbing law and order, want them to call it off Thousands of tractors for the rally from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan already parked on Delhi’s borders

  • Tactical retreat for fear of losing ground, with eye on future gains

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hard-selling the contentious farm laws for months, its potential political cost appears to have weighed high in the government’s considerations to resort to a tactical retreat.

    Pressure from Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), apprehension of ceding space to Congress in Haryana, and risk assessments in the poll-bound states appear to have prevailed over the BJP to buy peace with agitating farmers, with an offer to keep the laws in abeyance for a year and a half.

    While the offer to keep the farm laws in suspended animation for a while may not be called a complete surrender by the government, the NDA at the Centre in the past had given up after pushing hard for amendments to the land acquisition law. After three ordinances, PM Modi had announced the intent of the government to allow the legislative intervention to lapse in the face of widespread protests by farmers.

    The prolonged farm agitation had put the BJP-JJP (Janata Jannayak Party) alliance government in Haryana staring at the prospects of Congress plucking off vulnerable MLAs from the ranks of the deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala-led outfit.  Twice Chautala met the Union Home Minister Amit Shah to raise concerns about the farm laws.

    In the last meeting, he was accompanied by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Within the BJP, it is being observed that Congress is gaining back the support base of the Jats (agrarian caste) in Rohtak-Sonipat regions. In the past few weeks, the government and the BJP sought to build a case that farmers in other states were in support of the farm laws.

    However, party leaders admitted that the response had largely been lukewarm. Even if farmers weren’t up in arms in the poll-bound states of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, BJP was wary of a possible dent in support, with political rivals drumming up an anti-farmer narrative against the saffron outfit. Importantly, RSS wasn’t seen as overzealous about the farm laws, with its affiliates, particularly the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) being vocal about the assurance on MSP (Minimum Support Price) made mandatory for private procurement of grains. 

    The RSS is learnt to have also been cautious of reports about growing anger against BJP in Punjab. For RSS, insiders believe, the farm laws weren’t worth frittering away the organizational gains in all parts of Punjab, and a special bond with the Sikh community.