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Opposition parties rallied behind farmers who marched from Delhi’s historic Ramlila Maidan to Jantar Mantar on Friday, with Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and a host of others foregrounding the raging agrarian crisis.
The Trinamool Congress, SP and RJD were among other parties that pledged support to the protest.
Addressing the Kisan Mukti Morcha, a protest rally organised by 210 farmers’ organisations, almost all Opposition leaders pledged support to two Bills aimed to ensure guaranteed remunerative prices and complete loan waiver for farmers. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, however, dismissed the protest as “drama and confusion”.
Some farmers marched with skulls of family members who had committed suicide while others braved the Delhi winter bare-chested as a mark of protest.
Rahul, who has focussed his ongoing campaign for Assembly polls in five States on rural distress, said: “The BJP government has waived ₹3.5 lakh-crore worth loans of the 15 richest people over the past four-and-a-half years.
“(Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley have termed another ₹12.5 lakh-crore as non performing assets, to waive them in the future.
“If this amount can be waived, farm loans of crores of farmers can also be waived.”
Divisive politics
Yechury said whenever there is talk of alternative policies, the BJP comes up with divisive and communal politics. “Now they have again taken up the Ram Mandir issue,” he said.
Modi and BJP President Amit Shah “are like (Mahabharata characters) Duryodhan and Dushasan, and they will be defeated by the unity of farmers”, he added.
Pawar, a former Agriculture Minister, said the issues can be addressed through the two Bills drafted by farmers’ organisations. UPA-I had successfully waived farm loans after taking inputs from farmers on how to go about it, he added. Kejriwal expressed hope that farmers will unseat Modi in 2019.
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