Chandigarh: The eviction of the protesting farmers by Punjab police from the Shambhu and Khanauri borders Wednesday night did not come as a surprise; Nor the change of heart of the chief minister Bhagwant Mann – a staunch supporter of farmers till a month ago – was sudden as he had made it amply clear to them about a fortnight ago.
A showdown between the farmers and state government was looming since March 4, last, when the meeting between farmer leaders and Mann fell through and he stormed out of the meeting after farmers told him that they would go ahead with their scheduled March 5 protest in Chandigarh to press for their various demands including minimum support price and debt waiver, irrespective of the meeting with him.
The Punjab police carried out raids across the state that very night and detained over 200 leaders.
After the March 4 meeting, Mann had told newspersons that he left the meeting as farmers remained adamant that they would continue their protest till their demands were met. Rueing frequent protests and demonstrations in the state, he said that Punjab was turning into a “dharna state’’. He told farm leaders that Punjab was suffering massive economic losses due to frequent road blockades or rail blockades.
The stand-off between protesting farmers and ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government escalated further as not only the AAP government thwarted the farmers from entering Chandigarh, but even detained more senior leaders Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Mukesh Sharma, Balbir Singh Rajewal and Ruldu Singh Mansa on March 5.
March 19 gave Mann-government another chance when several senior farm leaders including Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher were in Chandigarh to attend the meeting with three Central ministers including Shivraj Singh Chauhan and even the presence of farmers at the two barriers was thin. The Punjab police, which had deployed heavy police at the two protest sites and suspended the internet services, evicted the farmers and detained some more leaders, though amid mild confrontation between the two sides.
The move, the political observers opine, was given a final shape after the recent meeting of the Ludhiana industrialist and traders with AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and Mann on March 18 last in Ludhiana, in the wake of upcoming Ludhiana west assembly by-election. The seat had fallen vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi on January 10 at his home of a gunshot injury after his licensed weapon went off accidentally.
Mann and Kejriwal were reportedly told by the business community members that AAP would not win the seat as the blocked highways at Shambhu and Khanauri barriers had been causing humungous losses to them for over a year. Political analyst Prof Ashutosh Kumar, faculty at the department of political science, Panjab University, Chandigarh, agrees that huge financial losses to the state because of the highways’ blockade could be a reason behind the government decision.
The AAP MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer who held that the AAP has always supported farmers and will continue to do so, said that due to the border closures, an environment has developed where even the industries that were established in Punjab are now leaving.
He urged the farmers to open one side of the border, stating that the BJP government sitting in Delhi will not suffer any losses due to this. Instead, it is directly harming Punjab, causing the state government to lose hundreds of crores in revenue, and industries are leaving Punjab.
