The one-year old government led by BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar have had registration of hundreds of cases against the farmers for violence, breach of barricades and causing disruption in discharge of duty by government employees.
BJP alliance partner JJP President and Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala has been maintaining stoic silence in public over the issue,
Ajay Singh Chautala is a son of four-time Chief Minister and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) President Om Prakash Chautala and a grandson of Chaudhary Devi Lal, a former deputy prime minister of India.
Ajay Singh has two sons Dushyant Chautala, incumbent deputy chief minister of haryana and Digvijay Chautala
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Till party chief Dushyant Chautala is Deputy Chief Minister, he won’t let the MSP be discontinued, added a party spokesperson.
If farmers had to suffer due to MSP, Chautala will resign from his post, the party added.
Where as his firebrand younger brother Digvijay Chautala has demanded that the cases against farmers must be withdrawn.
“We will talk to the Chief Minister and the Home Minister to tell them to withdraw cases against farmers so that situation does not worsen and any kind of mistrust is not created,” Digvijay Chautala told the media on Thursday.
Without mincing words, he added: “To protest peacefully is the fundamental right of the farmers.” Digvijay, who heads the youth wing of the JJP, said senior party leaders have been waiting for the outcome of the meeting of farmers with the government.
In a veiled threat to BJP he categorically said the party will discuss its future course of action after the meeting.
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Besides the JJP’s 10 legislators, seven independent MLAs had also extended support to the BJP, helping it reach a tally of 57 seats in the 90-member Assembly.
Earlier Independent legislator Sombir Sangwan and Independent MLA Balraj Kundu had also withdrawn his support to the Khattar government. owing to the farmers’ agitation.
Coming out openly for the first time with the protesting farmers, JJP national chief and former MP, Ajay Singh Chautala, on December 2 said the Centre should give, in writing, an assurance on the minimum support price (MSP) to the protesting farmers that largely comprises from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
“When Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Agriculture Minister are repeatedly saying the MSP will continue, what is the harm in adding that line,” Ajay Chautala told the media.
“We want that there should be a solution to this at the earliest. We have requested those in government that a solution to the farmers’ problems should be found,” he added.
Political observers believe pressure on the JJP within the party to withdraw its support to the state government has been gaining as the BJP Central leadership has been adopting ‘tough posture’ on its three new agricultural laws even at the end of four rounds of talks that remained inconclusive so far.
The farmers have been insisting to scrap the ‘black’ farm laws in totality, but the Central government is willing to amend a few provisions of laws.
“The demand to quit the government has been getting louder with a large number of farmer and employee organizations and even locals have been coming out openly to support the farmers who have gathered along borders of the national capital for last nine days,” a senior JJP functionary admitted
He said even decision of 130 khap panchayats (community courts) to join the ongoing farmer agitation on Delhi borders is an issue of concern for the party.
The importance of the khaps, especially in the politically dominant Jat community, is such that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a rally in Jind, had to seek their blessings for the BJP for the October 15, 2014 assembly elections.
Also, believe political observers, the JJP is facing an ‘internal rumblings’ as its leaders have been saying if BJP’s Punjab ally Akali Dal could reject the lure of office and stand up for its principles to “to save the beleaguered peasantry”, then why not the JJP.
