In Punjab, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party government and protesting farmers appeared to be at odds, as the two sides locked horns during their heated meeting prior to the “Chandigarh Chalo” march which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, March 5. The protest has been organised by the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM).
On 4th March, farmer leaders reported that the state police had arrested several demonstrators in a midnight raid ahead of their scheduled agitation in Chandigarh, one day after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann abruptly left a meeting with SKM which is an umbrella organization of 37 unions of farmers. Mann confirmed the development and added that he did so when SKM leaders announced plans to protest starting 5th March.
CM Mann conveyed, “Yes, I left the meeting and we will detain them as well. Won’t allow farmers to sit on tracks and roads.” He also disclosed that he had requested that farmers end the strikes, arguing that the state could not be held hostage. “I told farmers that every day you hold ‘rail roko’, ‘sadak roko’ protest. This is causing immense losses to Punjab. The state is facing economic losses. Punjab is becoming a state of ‘dharna.’ Don’t take my soft-heartedness into thinking that I do not take action,” Bhagwant Mann further warned.
Mann clarified that he had informed the farmers that ‘morcha’ and meetings couldn’t exist together which is why he rushed out “without provocation.” He expressed, “But if you tell me that morcha will continue along with the meeting, I cancel the meeting, and you can continue with the morcha,” and left the meeting, following which midnight raids transpired.
Gurmeet Singh Mehma, the state general secretary of the Krantikari Kisan Union, claimed that after Mann left the meeting, the authorities started searching the homes of farmer leaders. He added that he was taken under preventative detention by the cops after they picked him up from his home in Ferozepur. Many farmers went underground after the crackdown. Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) vice president Mukesh Chander Sharma condemned the police conduct, claiming that his residence was also raided at 4 am.
AAP spokesperson Malwinder Kang defended the move and stated that the chief minister listened patiently to the complaints of the farmers before exiting for a doctor’s visit that was prearranged. “We are the first to lead the talks positively. Our doors are open for talks,” he alleged. The Punjab Police, he added, made the decision to detain farmer leaders. The BKU launched the “Chandigarh Chalo” demonstration in an attempt to force the government to fulfil its commitments and the suggestions provided in the Swaminathan Commission report.
Interestingly, the then AAP-led Delhi government openly backed the farmer protest against the now-scrapped farm laws. “You people are struggling so much. I will help in every way through my party and my government,” former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had responded when Naresh Tikait thanked him for “providing basic facilities to the farmers at the Ghazipur Protest site.”
After the demonstration descended into chaos in the national capital, AAP maintained its support for the agitation. Kejriwal sent Satyendar Jain, the minister of urban development and Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister, at the time, to visit the farmers near Delhi border and make sure they had access to water and sanitary services.
Sanjay Singh led a group of AAP MPs in a sit-in protest in the Parliament, calling for the repeal of the farm laws. AAP was one of the opposition parties that boycotted the President’s speech in the Parliament over the same matter. Singh also spoke on behalf of the AAP at the Kisan Mahapanchayat rally in the Muzaffarnagar region of Uttar Pradesh.
“The demands of the farmers are genuine. Secondly, it is the Constitutional right of every citizen to make a peaceful protest. It is, therefore, incorrect to arrest the farmers. The central government, in fact, should invite them over for talks and try to find a solution of their genuine problems. Farmers of the country are our ‘annadata’ and treating them in this way by arresting them would be like rubbing salt into their wounds. We cannot be a party to this decision of the central government,” then Delhi Home Minister Kailash Gehlot stated.
