A day after Punjab BJP issued a show-cause notice to its senior leader and former Minister Anil Joshi for his “anti-party” activities, the former legislator from Amritsar North segment on Wednesday slammed the State unit for giving “incorrect feedback” to the Centre on farm laws, and severely impacting the State party unit by “misguiding” the central leadership.
Mincing no words to attack the State’s senior leadership in wrongfully dealing with the issue of farmers’ agitation over the controversial laws, Joshi demanded the resignation of the State unit president Ashwani Sharma.
“State BJP president Ashwani Sharma should admit his failure and resign rather than issuing me notices. He should resign for failing in securing the party leaders and workers in the State, who are feeling suffocated or suffering. He failed to stand by the party MLA who was thrashed and stripped,” said Joshi who was asked to respond to notice in two days explaining why repeatedly he has been making anti-party statements and acting against the interests of the party.
“They are sending me notices for raising the voice of the party workers,” he added.
Joshi maintained that the state party leadership did not conveyed the real picture of farmers’ issue to the high command but always “misguided the Centre”, projected common people as farmers by making them wear turbans during video conference meetings with the central leaders;
Joshi claimed that initially, farmers protesting against the farm laws had a few demands that could have been handled had the BJP’s Punjab unit not projected that all was hunky-dory in the State.
“The state BJP unit was giving the feedback to the Centre that farmers were happy and only a handful were unsatisfied. When central ministers held virtual meetings, they presented fake farmers in those meetings and claimed they were happy with the laws,” said Joshi.
He said that the state unit, led by Ashwani Sharma, “lied to the party’s senior leadership by telling them that they had made farmers in villages understand the benefits of the farm laws by holding programmes and functions, whereas the truth was that farmers were sitting on toll barriers and railway tracks to protest these laws”.
Joshi said that initially, farmers protesting against the farm laws had only a few demands.
According to the farm laws, the sub-divisional magistrate's court is the final authority for dispute resolution. The farmers were demanding that they be allowed to approach the higher courts. Besides, they were demanding a guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for their crops, he said.
“These demands were not so big that they could not have been handled. Punjab already procures wheat and paddy at MSP while the provision of approaching higher courts in case of dispute could have been agreed to," he added.
Joshi said that this issue could have been limited to Punjab and resolved in the state itself. It could have been prevented from spreading to Delhi borders and the rest of the country. “Protests (against farm laws) have been held not only in the country but elsewhere in the world, affecting the party's image,” he said.
Scores of farmers have been camping at Delhi borders since November last year demanding that the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee MSP for their crops.
Joshi said that Sharma “should admit his failure and resign rather than issuing notices to me”.
He claimed that he had told Sharma, who was appointed as the Punjab BJP chief in January 2020, to take feedback from the party's sitting and former MLAs on farm laws and other issues but he never called a meeting.
Joshi said that the BJP's state unit should have stood in support of the agitating farmers. This way, it wouldn't have faced protests from farmers and other sections supporting them in the state as is the case now.
“More than 500 farmers died in this agitation but not even once they (BJP state unit) say anything,” he said.
“Congress, SAD, AAP all extended their support to the farmers. Why did the BJP's Punjab unit not stand in support of the farmers? We could have said while the Centre may take any decision, we are with the farmers,” he added.
According to the show-cause notice issued to Joshi on Tuesday, the Punjab BJP asked him to explain within two days as to why disciplinary action should not be taken against him for his "anti-party" activities.
Notably, Joshi had shown support to the farmers’ agitation by saying that they have to contest the elections in Punjab and they cannot ignore the voice of people from Punjab. Joshi had held state leaders of BJP responsible for the condition of party workers and attacks on them.