Modi in Punjab

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi addressed three election rallies in Punjab in two days against the backdrop of farmers’ protests. His visit to the state came more than two years after the Ferozepur fiasco of January 2022, when a road blockade by protesters had forced him to turn back without addressing a rally in the run-up to the Punjab Assembly elections. The PM has had a troubled relationship with the state’s farming community ever since the Centre enacted three contentious farm laws in September 2020. The legislation had triggered a year-long agitation by farmers of Punjab and other states at Delhi’s borders, where they braved the elements with remarkable resilience. What peeved the protesters was the apparent indifference and apathy of the powers that be. It was only in November 2021 that the Modi government finally relented and decided to repeal the laws.

However, even this historic climbdown has failed to placate the state’s farmers, whose main demand is a legal guarantee for the procurement of all crops at the minimum support price (MSP). The ruthless scuttling of the Dilli Chalo march in February further widened the trust deficit. Talks on the MSP issue have proved inconclusive, even as BJP candidates have been facing stiff opposition in many villages, where the saffron party is being accused of betraying farmers.

Amid such bitter resistance, PM Modi chose to play the Sikh card in Punjab, patting himself on the back for the opening of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor in 2019. He added that had he been the PM in 1971, he would have taken Kartarpur Sahib from Pakistan before releasing their 90,000-odd soldiers in the wake of the Bangladesh war. He also lauded his government for reopening files of cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. But his outreach to Sikhs may cut no ice with the irate farmers, who are in no mood to forgive the BJP for the humiliation and vilification suffered by them, especially during the 2020-21 stir.

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