BJP’s Kangana problem: Actor-MP’s remarks on farm bills hits BJP in poll-bound Haryana

PTI Leh/Jammu: The three withdrawn farm bills are back to haunt the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of Haryana assembly polls. A statement made on Tuesday (September 24) by BJP MP and actor Kangana Ranaut advocating for reinstatement of the three farm bills created ripples in Haryana, a state that was an epicentre of the massive protests by farmers over these bills back in 2020. “I believe the repealed farm laws should be brought back. I understand it may become controversial but I think these farmers’ welfare- oriented laws should be brought back.

Farmers should demand these laws themselves. There should be no hindrance to their development,” Ranaut had said at an event to mark the final day of Keyod Mela, a local religious fair in her parliamentary constituency Mandi on Tuesday (September 24). “Farmers are an important pillar of our country. Just as the ‘One Nation, One Election’ initiatives would benefit bureaucrats and government employees, farmers too should demand the return of three farm laws, which were opposed only by a few states. I urge them with folded hands to ask for the restoration of these laws,” Ranaut had added. BJP distances itself from actor-politician’s remarks Even as the BJP’s media department distanced the party from the remarks made by Ranaut and later clarified that her remarks were her personal views not the party’s official stand, Congress and other opposition parties were quick to target BJP and term it as an ‘anti-farmer’ party.

During an election rally in Haryana’s Jhajjar on September 24, Congress MP Deepender Hooda challenged all BJP MPs who have plans to bring back farm laws and said that after the formation of the Congress government in Haryana, there would be no such power in the country that could re-introduce these laws. In its previous term (2019-24), the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had withdrawn these bills in 2021 after a year-long protest by several farmer unions from Punjab, Haryana, UP and other states outside the national capital in Delhi. The movement had again made a comeback ahead of general elections in February this year this time on the issue of legalising Minimum Support Price for crops. However, security forces under the watch of the BJP government in Haryana and the Centre used all means possible to prevent farmers from reaching Delhi, leaving one farmer dead and scores of others injured. This had political ramifications in general elections.

The post-poll survey by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)’s Lokniti program had revealed that farmers’ anger, as a result of their strong opposition against BJP on account of different farm movements, had hurt the party in several northern states and was one of the factors in preventing the BJP getting majority on its own.