PATHANKOT, Punjab—The Hindu right-wing political outfit Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who is ruling in centre in India, might be dreaming of being voted to power in Punjab on its own as its leaders are making statements in this regard after its old ally the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) snapped ties with it, but in reality, it is facing severe wrath of the public over the contentious farm laws implemented by the centre despite stiff resentment of the farmers.
In a fresh example, the BJP took out a tractor rally in Pathankot district which is considered its biggest stronghold in Punjab, in favour of the farm laws today. This was led by Punjab BJP president Ashwani Kumar Sharma along with former BJP minister Master Mohan Lal and Sujanpur MLA Dinesh Babbu. The BJP leaders arranged several tractors for the rally to make it impressive.
In a much embarrassment for the saffron party, however, the public showed black flags to the rally in order to lodge their protest against the farm laws at several points where this rally passed through. They shouted slogans against the BJP and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in front of the BJP leaders.
Started at Pathankot’s cricket stadium, this rally also covered assembly segments of Sujanpur and Bhoa.
On October 2, BJP’s newly appointed national secretary Tarun Chugh reached out to the farmers at village Harchha Chhina near Amritsar along with party’s Sikh face Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina to explain “benefits” of the laws, termed as draconian laws by the farmers. They too faced protest there when farmers got a tip off about this plan and they appeared there with flags to protest against them.
Chugh was also heckled when he was addressing the gathering of a few people in the farm house of Chhina who is honourary secretary of Khalsa College Governing Council, Amritsar, and has contested parliamentary and assembly elections unsuccessfully on BJP ticket.
Notably, the BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh also faced protest by the farmers on October 2 when he went to a village of Amritsar to tell “benefits” of the farm laws. When the BJP leaders came out of the venue, the agitating farmers stopped their vehicles amid sloganeering. The agitators did not allow them to come out of the venue of the gathering, despite the BJP leaders requesting them to let them return. Lastly, they returned through fields before the backside of the venue.
Prior to this, Chugh stated while addressing the party meeting in Amritsar that the BJP would contest all 117 seats of Punjab in 2022 assembly elections and the Chief Minister from this party would swear in. Other party leaders also endorsed his statement.
On the other hand, the farmer unions are sitting on indefinite ‘morchas’ outside residences of the big BJP leaders including Rajya Sabha Member Shwait Malik in Amritsar.
But one thing to know is there are more than 40% of hindu population in punjab