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New Delhi: The BJP’s farmer leaders are cautioning the Modi government against using terms such as Khalistani and ‘tukde tukde gang’ to describe the protesters camped primarily at the Singhu border in Delhi, saying such a move will end up being counter-productive.
“This type of language should be avoided. We know there are many farmers groups that are Left-leaning but branding them tukde tukde gang and anti-national will not end the deadlock,” senior BJP leader Surjit Singh Jyani told ThePrint.
“This can be counter-productive. We should be sensitive to the demands of agitators. After all, they are our brothers and sisters. A dialogue is the only way out to end the deadlock.”
Jyani, who was a cabinet minister in the previous Akali-BJP government in Punjab, had headed an eight-member committee formed by the BJP, to speak to the farmers on the three controversial farm laws. Jyani held talks with the 35 farmer unions in Punjab but they failed to break the deadlock.
He further told ThePrint that using “insensitive language” amid the stalemate will only harm the party’s credentials among the farming community.
His views were echoed by Sukhinder Grewal, another BJP farmer leader from Punjab who was also part of the eight-member committee.
“On the one hand, we are talking to them and on the other, we are branding them as Khalistanis. This will not help us,” Grewal said. “Farmers in other states have sympathy with these agitating farmers. A few elements are trying to use this movement but we should be careful to corner only them, not the genuine farmers.”
And it isn’t just BJP farmer leaders from Punjab cautioning the party and the government against making “insensitive remarks”.
Gauri Shanker Bisen, who was the agriculture minister in the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh, also called on the government to be “sensitive”.
“There is no effect of this agitation in Madhya Pradesh but the government should always be sensitive and considerate,” Bisen said. “People have elected Modi to end their miseries and make their lives better. A message should not go otherwise.”
With the farmer protests showing no signs of abating, some 20 days after they landed up at the Singhu border, a number of union ministers have alleged that the agitation has been hijacked by “anti-national elements”.
On Sunday, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, speaking during a BJP farmers outreach programme in Bihar, said the ‘tukde tukde gang’ was taking advantage of the farmer protests.
“Let me make it clear that the Government of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi respect farmers and farmers also respect the Prime Minister,” he said. “But if in the guise of farmer protests, those breaking up the country, the tukde tukde people, fire from shoulders of the movement, then the government will take strict action against them.”
A day earlier, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had claimed that the protests had been “infiltrated by Leftists and Maoists”.
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has also stated that anti-Modi elements had joined the protests. BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya had earlier alleged a Khalistan angle to the protests.
Also read: Need continued talks, long-term solutions — what experts say on farmers protest
‘Can be counter-productive’
To counter the protests, the BJP has adopted a two-pronged strategy. It has launched a massive outreach programme to convince farmers in the rest of the country about the three farm laws. It is looking to launch a series of television advertisements while also sending bulk WhatsApp messages to farmers, whose numbers have been obtained from the database of the Kisan Credit Card and Kisan Samman Nidhi schemes.
Sources in the BJP said another strategy is to create fissures in the agitation by questioning the credibility of the protesters. The BJP has looked to take advantage of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) commemorating International Human Rights Day on 10 December by holding posters of detained activists such as Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Sudha Bhardwaj and Gautam Navlakha, among others.
In an address, the union’s state president Joginder Singh Ugrahan had even demanded that all civil society activists and intellectuals who are currently in jail should be released.
A day after this, several unions reiterated that the agitation is focused only on the farmers’ demands, and condemned “misuse” of the platform.
Now, some BJP leaders want the party to drop the strategy. Naresh Sirohi, the national vice-president of the BJP Kisan Morcha, said the strategy will boomerang if the protesters continue to show solidarity.
“This will create sympathy for them in other parts of India. They are braving the cold winter night and there is always the risk of the agitation spreading to other parts of the country,” Sirohi said. “So there should be more sensitivity in dealing with them. I have spent many years in farmer movements. If anyone is left-leaning, it does not mean they are Khalistani. We should focus on core issues not side ones.”
Banshidhar Gurjar, a BJP farmer leader from Madhya Pradesh, echoed the views. “A farmer is a farmer. The government should understand their viewpoint if they are raising any concerns.”
Also read: Protests against farm laws rooted in govt’s ‘communication failure’, say agri experts
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