Vivek Gupta (Wire India)
New Delhi, September 26, 2024
The three withdrawn farm bills are back to haunt the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of Haryana assembly polls.
A statement made on Tuesday (September 24, 2024) by BJP MP and actor Kangana Ranaut advocating for the reinstatement of the three farm bills created ripples in Haryana, a state that was an epicentre of the massive protests by farmers over these bills back in 2020.
“I believe the repealed farm laws should be brought back. I understand it may become controversial but I think these farmers’ welfare-oriented laws should be brought back. Farmers should demand these laws themselves. There should be no hindrance to their development,” Ranaut had said at an event to mark the final day of Keyod Mela, a local religious fair in her parliamentary constituency Mandi on Tuesday (September 24, 2024).
“Farmers are an important pillar of our country. Just as the ‘One Nation, One Election’ initiatives would benefit bureaucrats and government employees, farmers too should demand the return of three farm laws, which were opposed only by a few states. I urge them with folded hands to ask for the restoration of these laws,” Ranaut had added.
BJP distances itself from Actor-Politician’s remarks
Even as the BJP’s media department distanced the party from the remarks made by Ranaut and later clarified that her remarks were her personal views, not the party’s official stand, Congress and other opposition parties were quick to target BJP and term it as an ‘anti-farmer’ party.
During an election rally in Haryana’s Jhajjar on September 24, 2024, Congress MP Deepender Hooda challenged all BJP MPs who have plans to bring back farm laws and said that after the formation of the Congress government in Haryana, there would be no such power in the country that could re-introduce these laws.
In its previous term (2019-24), the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had withdrawn these bills in 2021 after a year-long protest by several farmer unions from Punjab, Haryana, UP and other states outside the national capital in Delhi.
The movement had again made a comeback ahead of general elections in February this year this time on the issue of legalising Minimum Support Price for crops.
However, security forces under the watch of the BJP government in Haryana and the Centre used all means possible to prevent farmers from reaching Delhi, leaving one farmer dead and scores of others injured.
This had political ramifications in general elections. The post-poll survey by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)’s Lokniti program had revealed that farmers’ anger, as a result of their strong opposition against BJP on account of different farm movements, had hurt the party in several northern states and was one of the factors in preventing the BJP getting majority on its own.
In Haryana, anger of farmers a major election issue
CSDS-Lokniti’s findings for Haryana revealed that over 61% of farmers voted for the Congress-led INDIA bloc while 35% voted for the BJP.
As a result, Congress massively improved upon its polls performance in the state due to the consolidation of farmers in general and the Jat community in particular. Jats are the dominant caste in Haryana’s agrarian economy.
BJP has been ruling Haryana since 2014. With Haryana voting again to elect a new state government, overcoming farmers’ anger has been a huge poll challenge for the BJP to form its third consecutive government in the state, believe several poll analysts.
This is when consolidating farmers in general and Jats, in particular, has been part of Congress’s main poll strategy. In view of this, Ranaut’s latest comments advocating the bringing back of the three farm bills is something the BJP least wanted at this stage.
This gave Congress an unexpected handle to further build an anti-farmer narrative against the BJP, said Poll Analyst Kushal Pal.
Ranaut’s statements continue to embarrass BJP
A day after her statement raked up huge controversy and BJP was quick to disown her, she apologised and took her statement back.
Poll Analyst Pal said that while Ranaut withdrew her statement, being a BJP MP, how can her views on the issue be termed as ‘personal.’ Her constant brushes with controversy is turning Ranaut into a big liability for the party, he added.
However, it was not the first time her comments put BJP on the back foot.
Last month, The actor-MP claimed that the farmer protests in 2020 were a build-up to a “Bangladesh-like situation” in India and several killings and rapes were reported from the protest sites.
That time too, there was a huge outcry over her statements with leaders of Haryana BJP finding it difficult to encounter the resulting barrage of attacks from opposition parties, particularly Congress and farmers’ unions. Much like the latest instance, back then too the BJP had distanced itself from Ranaut’s remarks.
After Ranaut’s latest statements, the Haryana BJP is worried and hoping for no major damage to the fallout of Ranaut’s repeated controversies on Haryana polls.
Congress mounts attack on BJP over Ranaut’s statements
Congress’s top leadership has attacked the BJP over Ranaut’s statements just before the Haryana elections.
“Even after the martyrdom of 750 farmers, the anti-farmer BJP and Modi government did not realise their grave crime! There is talk of re-implementation of the three black anti-farmer laws. The Congress Party strongly opposes this,” Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge reacted to Ranaut’s video on X.
https://x.com/kharge/status/1838798387262394527/
Kharge added that 62 crore farmers will not forget that the Modi government crushed farmers under a vehicle, and used barbed wire, and teargas from drones, nails and guns against them.
“This time, poll-bound states, including Haryana, will give a befitting reply to insulting remarks,” Kharge said in the post on X in Hindi.
The article and photo, which appeared on the Wire India website have been published under a Special Agreement.
