The anger of farmers at the Ghazipur border swells, the impact of the protest against the three farm laws across western Uttar Pradesh is becoming evident, with banners coming up in villages of Bijnor, Shamli, and Ghaziabad voicing villagers’ anger against the BJP leaders and its supporters.
In Banthla village of Loni, a banner says the village boycotts Loni MLA Nand Kishore Gurjar. The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has alleged that Mr. Gurjar was present at the Ghazipur protest site on the evening of January 28 with his supporters and would have assaulted farmers.
In Bijnor’s Rashidpur Garhi, the banner takes a more aggressive tone.
The banners follow an oblique appeal at the panchayats (farmers’ gatherings) in Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat urging people to boycott those who were against the farmers.
At the Bajna panchayat in Mathura, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary made a similar appeal to socially ostracise those opposing the farmers.
While BJP agreed that Mr. Gurjar’s actions did hurt the party’s image in the sugarcane belt but add that the MLA has a tendency to comment on every issue and loves to court controversies.
After the incidents on January 28, Gurjar tried to present himself as a Gurjar leader but the BKU was quick to neutralize the attempt with Madan Bhaiya, a Gurjar heavyweight and a four-time MLA, coming out in support of protesting farmers, The banners are being removed by the administration.
On Monday, a meeting was organized in the Baldev area where about 1000 farmers participated.
Yudhvir Singh, general secretary of BKU said the banners were not put up by the outfit. “We don’t have the budget to put posters nor do we target supporters of any particular party. Our job is to raise issues of farmers irrespective of the government in power. It might be the doing of the locals.”
Singh reminded the Ram Temple issue was also an “emotional” one. “We are a country of emotional people. The government promised to double the income of farmers. That remains a tempting jumla. It has yet to come up with a formula to make it a reality,” he said.
After the budget announcement, Farmers called for blocking roads for 3 hours on 6th February.
Intensifying the two-month-long agitation against the farm laws, farmer union leaders on Monday announced a ‘Chakka Jam’ on February 6, during which the protesting farmers will block national and state highways across the country for 3 hours to mark their protest against the internet ban in several Delhi border areas and harassment allegedly meted out to them by authorities and harassment against journalists who were covering the farmers protest.
Balbir Singh Rajewal, a farmer leader from Punjab, said that the modalities of the ‘Chakka Jam’ on February 6 will be decided after discussing it with various unions unanimously, including those protesting at Ghazipur border site, the new focal point of the farmers’ movement against the new farm laws.
Farmer union leaders alleged that they have been ignored in the Union Budget 2021, and also slammed authorities for curtailing the power and water supply and also the removal of mobile toilets from their protest site.
Asserting that the government is committed to farmers’ welfare, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday proposed 10 percent hike in the farm loan disbursal target to Rs 16.5 lakh crore and introduced an Agri infra and development cess of up to 100 percent to create post-harvest infrastructure for improving farmers’ income.
The minister also proposed a higher allocation for the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund and Micro Irrigation Fund and extended Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to APMCs for augmenting infrastructure facilities.