Concerned over the growing resentment and intensified protests against the Centre’s three new agriculture-related laws, a senior BJP leader and former MP Avinash Rai Khanna on Friday urged the Centre to counter the “disinformation campaign” by the opposition parties in Punjab by distributing literature on the bills in Punjabi language to the protesting farmers.
Khanna, BJP’s former national vice-president, has written to the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar suggesting to get the three farm Acts — The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 — printed in the “language of Punjab’s farmers” and distribute among them.
He asked the Union Minister to print the three acts, against which the farmers are on roads and railway tracks in Punjab, in Punjabi language and distribute among them to tackle the problem of misinformation.
“…it is important that the laws are printed in Punjabi in the government press and distributed among organizations and institutions in Punjab via the government set-up so that farmers of Punjab know the truth and they are able to see through the Opposition lies,” said Khanna in his letter.
He asserted that misinformation is being spread regarding the Acts by the Opposition and its root cause was that “only copies printed in English and Hindi were available…It is because of this very reason that whatever the Opposition tells them, farmers believe it and participate in agitations against the laws.”
Even though the farmers from all across the country have been opposing the farm legislations, the intensity of protests is highest in Punjab considering that it is an agrarian state. Already left by its age old ally in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the state BJP unit is struggling to reach out to the farmers and convince them that the new laws are “for their benefit”.
Punjab BJP leaders have all along been alleging that the state farmers are being misguided regarding the agri laws. To counter the same, the party had decided to launch an awareness programme, going village to village, personally reaching out to the farmers. But that was suffered a major blow when several village panchayats announced their decision, by passing resolutions or putting up banners, to boycott of BJP leaders and not allowing them to enter their villages.
Punjab’s senior BJP leader, requesting anonymity, admitted that the party is facing major problem in reaching out to the farmers to tell them about the benefits and advantages of the Acts.
The leader maintained that senior leader Khanna’s suggestion to make available the copies of the Acts in Punjabi could help to a great extent to make the farmers understand the laws.
The protesting farmers in Punjab had set October 15 as deadline for the Congress led State Government to convene the special Assembly session to repeal the Centre’s three laws, declaring that otherwise protest dharnas would be staged outside the houses of state Congress leaders.
At the same time, the farm unions had also rejected the Centre’s offer to initiate a dialogue and resolve the issue maintaining that they would not hold any talks with bureaucrats.