BJP joins ranks with farmers in protest against land pooling policy

Come Friday and Punjab’s political pot will be stirred again. As farmer unions in the state begin protests against the land pooling scheme of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, this protest is expected to redraw the political lines in the state.

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On Friday, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has invited representatives of all political parties to explain their stance on the land pooling policy, which they perceive will turn them from “landlords to landless”.

Along with other political parties, the BJP, too, has been asked to come for the meeting. In similar meetings convened by the SKM during the course of the 2020-21 farmer protests, BJP leaders were not invited.

As the season of protests restarts in the state, not only are the farmer unions engaging themselves in protests organised by civil rights groups, but because of these groups and the cause they espouse, at many places, the BJP leaders have begun to join these farmer leaders in protest against the government of the day.

Punjab BJP President Sunil Jakhar said since the Congress had failed to play the role of Opposition, reluctantly protesting against land pooling, and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) taking up the matter only after the BJP did so, the people of Punjab have started looking at the BJP as the only one standing up to the AAP government. It is the issue of their lands being taken away and the BJP leadership choosing to side by them that seems to be melting hearts, he added.

If the three farm laws, brought by the Centre in 2020, had drawn the political lines in this agrarian state, giving the BJP a big blow in rural areas, the land pooling scheme introduced last month, is redrawing these lines, with the BJP being part of the protests this time round and the AAP being at the receiving end.

In 2022, the AAP had stormed to power with an overwhelming majority, thanks to the tacit support of some farmer unions, especially in the Malwa region.

During the agitation against the land pooling policy in Ludhiana, organised under the aegis of the Zameen Bachao Sangharsh Committee, two BJP leaders, Gurdev Sharma Debi and Balkar Singh Sidhu, have already addressed farmers’ gatherings around Ludhiana. Though leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, who are opposed to the BJP, dismiss this as a one-off incident, the saffron party leaders’ sightings at many protests organised by farmer unions, along with other civil rights groups, has raised more than a few eyebrows. This, especially after five years of the BJP being considered a political pariah in the state.

In another protest at Goniana Mandi recently, against the alleged custodial death of a Bathinda man, a former BJP MLA shared the stage with farmer union leaders. In Ferozepur, after a sarpanch committed suicide, it was the BJP that first took up the matter for the family of the deceased, accusing a senior AAP leader of abetting the suicide. Leaders of Kirti Kisan Union and BJP were seen protesting and demanding justice for the victim. “The family of the victim wanted the BJP leader to address the gathering, and we did not protest. But we still feel that the BJP is only raising issues like land pooling for political gains,” says Kirti Kisan Union leader Rajinder Singh Deepsinghwala.