Centre must appear keen to hear out farmers

Even as the second phase of the farmers’ agitation has continued into the New Year, causing concerns over the deteriorating condition of one of their leaders, Jagjit Singh Dallewal fasting since November 26, a curious battle has broken out between the BJP and the AAP over the farmers’ issues ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls. BJP’s renewed aggression against its niggling opponent has been perceptible these days even as the latter has dug its heels in, dependent as it is on doling out freebies for all sections, this time for priests in temples and gurudwaras.

In upping the ante, the BJP, however, seems to have unwittingly waded into a new territory where it wants AAP stretched thin. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has lashed out at Delhi Chief Minister Atishi Marlena, squarely blaming her government for not implementing several pro-farmer schemes of the NDA government in the national capital region under the state.

Chouhan’s harsh tone naturally elicited a strong riposte by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and the CM. While the CM compared BJP’s charge to Dawood Ibrahim giving a sermon on non-violence, saying farmers lot was worse under the NDA rule, Kejriwal pointed out that the Narendra Modi government was not even interested in a dialogue with the agitating farmers. “They should at least talk to them. They are farmers of our own country,” it was a serious poser to the Centre.

After bowing to the farmers’ demands after a year-long agitation on Delhi borders in 2020-21, the Modi government scrapped the three contentious laws. It even expressed its willingness for talks with the farmers. Three years later, restive farmers left their fields and hit the road. Farmers from Punjab and Haryana are enforcing road blockades at Punjab’s Shambhu border. They demand talks on providing legal assurance for minimum support price (MSP) for all crops and complete waiver of loans for all farmers.

Why is it so difficult for the Central government to initiate talks, soothe the exasperated farmers’ tempers, and find a solution acceptable to all? A Supreme Court bench has pointedly asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta why the government wouldn’t consider the genuine demands of farmers and talk to them about their grievances. The court’s query to the government came up on a PIL for a direction to the government to follow up on its December 9, 2021 proposal to form a committee on MSP, upon which the farmers called off their protests.

It may be recalled that the SC bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan on September 2, 2024 constituted a high-powered committee headed by former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Justice Nawab Singh to resolve all issues amicably.

It is perplexing why the Modi government risks being seen as reluctant to keep its word on the promised committee on legal guarantee to the MSP. As a result, not only the SC set up a committee on the issue, PILs are being moved before it to direct the government to initiate talks. Should the government be dithering on its assurance whether the court will consider such appeals or not? In a way, it has itself brought the situation to such a pass, and triggered the second phase of agitation.

Now, even a beleaguered Kejriwal is taunting the Modi government with allegations that it was trying to bring back the three repealed farm laws through the backdoor by calling them a ‘policy.’

“The Center has sent copies of this policy to all states to get their views,” he claims. On its part, the Centre merely told the apex court that it cannot initiate talks with a section of farmers, while the issue pertains to the ryots across the country. Then, who is stopping it from implementing its assurance to the farmers on the promised committee?