Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, which partnered with the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2019 on Monday, told Interior Minister Amit Shah that his party would reconsider its association with the BJP if the Center did not withdraw all three agricultural laws. Beniwal also demanded that the Center implement the Swaminath Commission’s recommendations and hold a dialogue with farmers in Delhi in the right spirit.
Hanuman Beniwal, who was once in the Bharatiya Janata Party, introduced his party before the 2018 state elections and became part of the National Democratic Alliance just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Beniwal won the Lok elections Sabha de Nagaur in 2019. His party had won 3 seats in state elections the previous year and fought hard in a few others.
The Jat leader’s threat to consider exiting the NDA is considered to indicate unrest within the regional party over protests that erupted against the three farm laws enacted by the BJP-led coalition in the Center that change the way the Indian farmers do business by creating free markets, unlike a decades-old network of government-controlled agricultural markets.
The laws allow companies to freely trade agricultural products outside the so-called “mandi system” controlled by the government, allow private traders to store large quantities of basic products for future sales, and establish new rules for contract farming.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other high-level ministers have tried to allay concerns around the three laws, saying they had opened up new opportunities for growers.
But the leaders of the farmers who have been marching against the law towards the national capital, Delhi, are not convinced and have insisted that their agitation will continue. Thousands of farmers have been camping on the borders of Delhi and on the city’s Burari grounds since November 27, a day after the Delhi Chalo upheaval was launched from Punjab. Since then, the protests have also spread to the pockets of other states.
In a series of tweets that followed with a letter to Amit Shah, Hanuman Beniwal said his party would be forced to reconsider its alliance if swift action is not taken as farmers and youth formed the main support base of his party.
In a previous video message, Beniwal said that the RLP had protested against the three farm laws through social media and on the streets. “Today I wrote to Shah telling him that if the laws are not withdrawn, we will reconsider our alliance with the NDA,” he said.
“We are with the farmers and, if necessary, we will march to Delhi. The Prime Minister and the Shah must maintain a dialogue with farmers and provide a space to celebrate dharna in the capital. If any kind of mistreatment is inflicted on farmers, farmers across the country will be on the streets of the gherao in Delhi, ”he said.
Beniwal’s tweets came a day after Prime Minister Ashok Gehlot wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the withdrawal of the agricultural laws.
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