Farmers and the Centre face-off threaten stability of Khattar Govt in Haryana

A handwritten suicide note in Punjabi was found inside the car in which Sant Ram Singh, a priest from a Gurdwara in Karnal (Haryana), shot himself dead on Wednesday at Kundli on the Delhi-Sonipat border. He was making sacrificing his life to express the anger and the pain of farmers at the injustice meted out by the Government.

The priest was said to have been upset at the plight of farmers camping for the past three weeks at Kundli braving the cold.

“I have witnessed the plight of the farmers who are on the streets struggling for their rights. I am hurt to see that the Government is not giving them justice. It is a crime. It is a sin to oppress and it is a sin to suffer…,” the note reportedly read.

But while thousands of farmers continued to camp in the cold, the Government seemed in no mood to relent. Neither willing to repeal the farm laws nor enact a new law to guarantee a Minimum Support Price for agriculture produce, the twin demands made by the farmers, the Government this week asked Intelligence agencies and the IT departments to enquire into the funding of the farmers’ agitation.

Convinced that the agitation is being funded by political parties, Khalistan supporters and foreign powers, the Government has been sparing no effort to discredit the farmers. On the one hand the Prime Minister and Union Ministers have been keeping up the chorus that farmers have been misled, on the other petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court to ask protestors to lift the alleged blockade of Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again reiterated this week what he has been saying since late last month. In his home state Gujarat he told a group of farmers in Kutch that protesting farmers were being misled by the opposition. The Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar dismissed the agitation as confined to ‘only one state’ while old Modi faithful and Union Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala ruled out incorporating MSP in a law.

Addressing the media in Gandhinagar Rupala said, “When we are the ones who introduced MSP, it is not something which requires legal support. It is part of the government system that we created, our Modiji created. There is no need to bring it under legal framework.”

Incidentally it was Indira Gandhi who introduced MSP in 1966-67 to enable farmersreceive an assured price. Dual pricing for food grains, sugar etc. was also introduced in the sixties to enable consumers receive essential food grains at subsidized prices.

Attempts to discredit the agitation by alleging it to be sponsored by Khalistanis failed when the oldest ally of the BJP, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal calling BJP the “tukde, tukde gang” an epithet normally used by the BJP against others.

Diverse groups of farmers are also being encouraged to endorse the farm laws. A delegation of All India Kisan Coordination Committee (AIKCC) called on the Agriculture Minister on December 14. AIKCC represented farmers from Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra and Bihar, said the minister.

BJP MPs and MLAs from Haryana were prompted to raise the dead but divisive issue of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. It is a half a century old dispute between Punjab and Haryana, which even the Supreme Court has failed to resolve. The SYL canal was proposed to be constructed to channelise Sutlej water to Haryana and connect with the Yamuna flowing through Haryana. Farmers of Punjab feel this was aimed at depriving them of the rightful share of water from a river that flows through their state and fields. The issue was raised to drive a rift between the farmers of the two states.

In the last assembly election in Haryana, BJP failed to secure a clear majority and the BJP government is dependent on the support of 10 MLAs of Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) led by Deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, a grandson of INLD leader and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and on Independent MLAs.

Seven independent MLAs and one from Haryana Lokhit Party are also supporting the BJP government of Manohar Lal Khattar. But Independent MLA Sombir Sangwan announced withdrawal of support from the Khattar government. This week two more MLAs Dharam Pal Gonder from Nilokheri and Randhir Golan, from Pundri also urged the government to address farmers’ demands without delay. Two other independent MLAs Rakesh Daulatabad and Nayan Pal Rawat attended a meeting held by the independent MLAs at Panchkula. Also present there was a JJP MLA Jogi Ram Sihag.

While the Khattar government still enjoys a majority in the 90-member House, its situation is becoming increasingly precarious by the day. Dushyant Chautala is under pressure by farmers in the state to pull the plug on the Khattar government.

The suicide by Sant Ram Singh, a Haryana farmer may have added to Khattar’s political stability and to Tomar and Modi’s worries.