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Journalism of Courage
After two hours of talks and no closer to breaking the deadlock, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday walked out of a meeting in Chandigarh with farmer leaders of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s (SKM) Punjab chapter. Mann, who had himself invited the farmers’ group ahead of their planned weeklong sit-in in Chandigarh, left the meeting in a huff, telling the SKM members to go ahead with their protests.
In the aftermath of the failed talks on Monday was a police crackdown on farmer leaders. On the intervening night between Monday and Tuesday, and throughout the following day, the Punjab police detained over 350 farmers to prevent their march towards Chandigarh on March 5. Among those in detention are Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) chief Balbir Singh Rajewal, and its leaders Omkar Singh Agoul and Rulda Singh Mansa.
Mann’s decision to walk out of the meeting wasn’t taken in isolation. The government has been preparing to act against the farmers’ agitations. Cabinet minister and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) state chief Aman Arora, while rejecting the draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing in the Assembly, had appealed to the protesting farmers to clear the blockades at the Shambhu and Khanauri along the Punjab-Haryana border. “I appeal to farmers to clear the blockade. Traders and industrialists are suffering losses worth crores as investors are turning away,” Arora said in the Assembly on February 25.
On the same day as Arora’s remarks, Mann had met a delegation of industrialists from Jalandhar, who requested him to ensure the border blockades were cleared. Traders and business owners have long been decrying the negative impact of the farmers’ agitation at the borders.
On Tuesday, Mann broke his silence on the walkout. “I am a custodian of 3.5 crore people of the state. I have to look after everyone’s interests. Punjab is losing economically… and is being nicknamed as a state of dharnas (agitations). My softness should not be considered my weakness… I have been telling them (protesting farmers) not to indulge in traffic and rail blockades. But they have not been listening,” Mann said.
Mann added that he was unhappy that the SKM was unwilling to call off their March 5 protest. “At the meeting, I asked them about their plan for the March 5 protest. They said it will continue. I then asked them why they made me sit for over two hours. Their demands were not related to the state. They were related to the Centre. The protest will continue, but they will talk to me for two hours! Is it justified? I walked out. They told me that had they not announced the protest, I would not have called them for the meeting. I told them I have not held this meeting because I was scared of their protest. I have held several meetings with them,” Mann said.
Sources privy to the government’s action against farmers said that the thinking in the administration is that the farmers have “lost the common man’s support”. “Despite the Opposition bashing the CM, there is a feedback that the people of Punjab are sick of agitations by farmers. Punjab is paying a price. Mann told this to farmers at the meeting. He told them that a delivery portal had increased the delivery fee in Punjab because of these agitations. Mann appeared soft on farmers, but now he has taken a strong stand that is likely to continue,” a source said.
But Mann’s walkout has given a new talking point to not only farmers but also the Opposition. Rajewal, the SKM’s Punjab chief, said the group was presenting an 18-point memorandum and that farmers from across Punjab’s 23 districts participated in the meeting before it was cut short by Mann.
“The CM threatened us. I am sad that the CM got provoked. There was nothing to get provoked. The discussion was taking place in a pleasant environment. Half of the points on our memorandum were discussed when he said he has to see a doctor for his eye infection… We have been meeting the Prime Minister and CMs. This is the first time that I saw a CM getting hyper and walking out,” Rajewal said.
BKU (Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan echoed similar sentiments. “We have met CMs in the past, including Parkash Singh Badal, Captain Amarinder Singh and Charanjit Singh Channi. But this is a first.”
The Assembly’s Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, a Congress MLA, slammed Mann for his “aggressive and arrogant behaviour”. “Mann has apparently got drunk with power and the people of Punjab will certainly teach him a lesson,” Bajwa said.
Sukhbir Singh Badal, senior Akali Dal leader and former deputy CM, said, “First CM Bhagwant Mann threatened farmer leaders he had invited for talks (on Monday). Early Tuesday morning, the police started raiding residences of farmer leaders and detained many of them in a crude attempt to foil the March 5 protest. Such dictatorial methods can never stifle the voice of the annadata (farmers). The SAD expresses solidarity with the protesting farmers and their cause.”
