Major khap panchayats and farmer unions of western Uttar Pradesh have adopted a wait-and-watch policy for now with Delhi Police making massive arrangements at the Ghazipur and Chilla borders to stop farmers from the region entering the Capital in support of agitating peasants from Haryana and Punjab. They want to see whether the BJP walks the talk after bestowing the Bharat Ratna on Chaudhary Charan Singh.
“It is a test of how much the government believes in the ideology of Chaudhary Charan Singh and what role our leader Chaudhary Jayant Singh [Charan Singh’s grandson and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief] would get to play after he joined the National Democratic Alliance,” said Shyam Singh of Gathwala khap. He said farmers of western U.P. identify with the demands of their counterparts in Punjab and Haryana. “We are waiting for directions from the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU).”
The Tikait faction of the BKU that led the protests in the region in 2021 is assessing the situation before giving a call to farmers to reach the Delhi border. The Tikait brothers, Naresh and Rakesh, have appealed to the government to talk to farmers and fulfil the unkempt promises, particularly the legal guarantee of minimum support price.
BKU national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said the union would participate in the Samyukt Kisan Morcha’s call of Bharat Bandh on Friday and added that a panchayat had been called in Muzaffarnagar on Saturday to decide the future course of action. He, however, sidestepped questions on RLD joining the NDA.
BKU (Airajanaitik), formed after the U.P. Assembly polls in 2022 after the division in the Tikait faction, has also criticised the government for heavily barricading the borders to stop farmers from raising valid demands. “The government should not treat farmers as citizens of a neighbouring country,” said Dharmendra Malik, its spokesperson.
However, there is a sense of disquiet on RLD, the political arm of a large section of farmers in the region, shifting sides at a time when farmers have returned to the borders.
Gaurav Baraut, the nephew of the chiefs of Desh and Balyan khaps, who has done his PhD on the impact of farmers’ agitation, felt the RLD had missed an opportunity: “The BJP lost four out of five Assembly seats in Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha and all three in Shamli district. Before that, it won Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, and Baghpat Lok Sabha seats by thin margins. The perception has been that the administration helped them win these seats. Ironically, now, both the dubious winner and credible loser are on the same side.”
He said unless Mr. Singh made the ruling party see sense in the demands of farmers and pushed it to tweak the Agniveer scheme, his followers would feel cheated by the sudden shift.
Meanwhile, the RLD leadership is giving a sense that the BJP had tied up with it because of its base among farmers and minorities and how the Samajwadi Party (SP) was trying to pressurise them by fielding its candidates in RLD pocket boroughs. They feel they could help in BJP’s outreach towards minorities the way Apna Dal (Sonelal) contested the Suar bypoll and successfully fielded a Muslim candidate without any base in western U.P.
For a long time, political analysts have seen parallels between the RLD chief and AD(S) president Anupriya Patel. Both are well-educated and represent the dominant Jat and Kurmi communities in West and East U.P. “The proof of our strength lies in how the Congress had to abandon its west U.P. leg of Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra,” said a senior leader requesting anonymity.
RLD spokesperson Mohd. Islam asserted the party would not shift from its stated position on farmers and secular ethos. For now, the party’s two Muslim MLAs have shown faith in the leadership of Mr. Singh. Siwalkhas MLA Ghulam Mohammad said he had been able to mend the social fabric in his constituency and still had three years to go. In politics, he said, when two seemingly different ideologies come together, there is a possibility of give and take.
On Thursday, however, as the news of BJP fielding an eighth candidate for U.P. Rajya Sabha polls spread, Mr. Singh called the nine MLAs to Delhi to rule out the possibility of give and take with the SP, his partner till recently.
