Before winding up his two-day State visit, BJP’s key strategist and Union Home Minister Amit Shah conveyed a message to the faction-ridden State unit of the party on Sunday: “Don’t bring all issues to Delhi”.
“Issues within the party should be resolved locally. Village issues should be resolved at village levels, district issues at district level, and State issues at State level. There is no need to bring every issue to Delhi. You should develop a method of decentralised decision making,” Mr. Shah said at a meeting of party leaders held in Belagavi after his public rally.
This was part of his response to concerns raised by Abhay Patil, MLA, and other leaders that dedicated workers who had worked for the party for decades were not getting their due. Mr. Shah dismissed this, saying such issues needed to be discussed at the State-level forums headed by party president Nalin Kumar Kateel or a the State-level core committee, party sources said.
Govind Karjol, Deputy Chief Minister, confirmed that Mr. Shah had asked leaders to resolve local issues at that level.
Farm laws
Two MLAs said at the meeting that they needed help to understand the farm laws better, according to sources.
“There is so much of talk in mainstream and social media about the alleged ill-effects of farm laws that we don’t know if they are in favour of farmers or against their interests,” the leaders said. They suggested that the party give them material or provide training to understand the implications of the laws.
Mr. Shah maintained that the laws were very much in favour of the farmers and that the confusion was being created by vested interests. Some people are misleading farmers. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to them not to be misled. But, the protesting farmers are not listening to us. They are putting their fingers in their ears,” Mr. Shah said.
Iranna Kadadi, Rajya Sabha member, who attended the meeting, said that Mr. Shah told the legislators that the party was willing to listen to the agitating farmers. If they have genuine concerns and if they can be addressed by changing some provisions, then the government is willing to amend them. This is what Mr. Shah told us, Mr. Kadadi said.
