WITH PRESSURE mounting on the BJP-JJP government in Haryana from farmers’ protests, Senior Vice Minister Dushyant Chautala offered on Thursday to act as a mediator between farmers and the Center to resolve the standoff.
This happened on a day when a group of villagers used shovels to damage a temporary helipad in their Uchana constituency in Jind, one of the districts that has seen farmers gather in protest against the three new farm laws, where they claimed that Chautala would visit. later in the day. They also posted videos of how the helipad was being dug up.
However, a JJP leader from Chautala denied plans to visit: “There was no official program from the Principal Vice Minister to go to Uchana today. Instead, he was speaking at a press conference here in Chandigarh. Then he flew to Delhi. Several times there are tentative programs, such as social engagements in the place of a party worker. The Uchana program could have been one of those… ”, he told The Indian Express.
Meanwhile, Chautala told reporters that protesting farmers should speak to the government and come to a solution. “You cannot reach a solution without talks,” he said.
“When the Union government is making efforts in this regard, the 40 farmers unions that are leading these protests should also come forward and participate in conversations for the betterment of farmers. I hope that talks will take place in the coming days and that this will lead to a positive outcome, ”he said.
In response to another question, he said: “It is necessary to make changes in the agricultural laws and in this regard written suggestions have been made to the Center and the Center also agreed to the same. The government is willing to include the MSP’s guarantee in writing, to make amendments to the Electricity Reform Bill, among other demands. If the Center gives me the responsibility to mediate changes that are not included, I am ready to do what is necessary ”.
In Ferozepur, farmers cut off the power supply to the cell transmission towers separately under the banner of BKU (Ugrahan) and BKU (Dakaunda).
Chautala’s remarks came even as farmers’ unions continued to increase pressure, raising anti-government slogans outside the residences of top BJP and JJP leaders in their respective constituencies.
The offer to mediate takes on significance as BJP leader and former Union minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, with whose family the Chautala have been involved in political battles in recent decades, has announced his support for protesting farmers. In fact, Singh sat in a dharna in Hisar on Thursday, which was organized by his Chaudhary Chhotu Ram Vichar Manch in support of farmers. This came a week after he joined a similar dharna in Rohtak district.
The Chautala and Singh families, who claim to advocate for farmers’ causes, have fought electoral battles from the Uchana Kalan assembly seat and Hisar constituency for many years. Most recently, Chautala defeated Singh’s wife, Prem Lata de Uchana, in the October 2019 Assembly polls. A few months earlier, Birender Singh’s son and BJP candidate Brijendra Singh defeated Chautala de Hisar.
Singh’s open support for protesting farmers may put pressure on Chautala, as neither he nor his lawmaker mother, Naina Chautala, have joined any such protest so far.
Singh, however, has yet to receive a warm response (there was little attendance at Thursday’s dharna), largely because his son MP has not yet been in favor. Brijendra Singh was part of a three-member panel of BJP MPs formed a few months ago to speak to the agitators. Birender Singh’s support for the unrest is being seen as an attempt to pacify angry farmers, at least in the Hisar constituency, where some Khap groups have announced a social boycott of both him and Chautala.
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