22 august 2024 : Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu on Tuesday said people are being fed propaganda that the farmers in Punjab were angry with the saffron party and claimed that union leaders and not the actual farmers were behind agitation at the now repealed agri laws and the one ongoing at Shambu border.
“The union leaders are behind the agitation, not the actual farmers. A wrong message is being spread that Punjab’s farmers are unhappy with the BJP. The actual farmers are busy in the fields and are happy with the schemes of the central government. The farmer union leaders are behind this agitation and they are getting foreign funding for the same. They are the ones who are misguiding the farmers. Actually speaking, people are fed up of these union leaders, factories are running in losses, and many are leaving Punjab after closing their units,” Bittu said.
Union Minister of State for Railways and Food Processing Industries was speaking to media in Jaipur after filing his nomination parers for Rajya Sabha bypoll in Rajasthan.
He said recently Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had written a letter to Punjab chief minister apprising him about the problems being faced by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in the state. “Farmers are ready to give their land, but these union leaders are getting in the way by misguiding them and even blackmailing them. They are not allowing to get highways and railway tracks constructed. Development will happen in Punjab if these projects are completed.”
On the foreign funding allegations, Jagjit Singh Dallewal, coordinator of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political), said, “The central government is led by the BJP, why can’t they get an inquiry done about funding. They need to talk about real issues rather than defaming the farmers.”
Sarwan Singh Pandher, coordinator of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), said, “Bittu is levelling baseless allegations. Not just farmers of Punjab, even those from UP, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar are also protesting over low prices for their land which is being acquired for building highways. So, blaming Punjab farmer union leaders is unjustified. The farmers know the true face of the BJP very well.”
SKM (non-political) and KMM have been spearheading the ‘Dilli Chalo’ march by farmers to press the government to accept their demands, which includes a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
Talking about farmers’ demand for marching to Delhi, Bittu said, “No one is stopping them from going to Delhi. A number of farmer union leaders from Punjab and other parts of the country had gone to Delhi where they met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Parliament. So, when no one stopped them from going inside the Parliament, how can they justify the BJP is stopping them from going to Delhi? But if anyone comes with stones, bombs or weapons, they won’t be allowed. The farmer union leaders have been calling themselves ‘non-political’, but they have met Rahul Gandhi not once but twice.”
For the record, Pandher, Dallewal and a few others had met Rahul Gandhi on June 24 in Delhi and had given him a memorandum to raise the issue of MSP in the Parliament.
Talking about MSP, Bittu said, “Farmers may be getting lower prices for wheat and paddy in other states, but in Punjab and Haryana, the BJP government is picking every single grain of wheat and paddy, and paying Rs 70,000-crore worth MSP to the farmers. If we include sugarcane and cotton, the amount will be over Rs 1 lakh crore. So, it is a false propaganda that farmers are unhappy.”
Pandher said, “Now that he himself has admitted that MSP on wheat and paddy is being given only in Haryana and Punjab, so what about the rest of the states? Our fight is for the country.”
Talks on opening Shambhu border
On Wednesday, talks were held regarding opening of Shambhu border. Farmers, Punjab Police, Patiala administration and Haryana Police participated in the meeting.
Pandher said, “We conveyed to the officials that we don’t have any issues. Borders can be opened any day. Haryana has closed the borders, not the farmers. They asked us to go to Delhi without tractor trolleys, but we can’t do that as then ‘where will we sleep in case of adverse weather conditions’? We conveyed our point of view clearly.”
