Farmers Protest: Haryana government defeated the No-Confidence Motion by 23 votes yesterday
New Delhi/Chandigarh:
Hours after a no-confidence motion against the BJP-led Haryana government was defeated, ruling party MLAs have begun to face farmers’ fury. A protest broke out today outside a ruling party MLA’s residence in Chandigarh while an independent, too, bore the brunt. Yesterday, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmers’ organisations that has over the past few months spearheaded the protest against three contentious farm laws, called for the social boycott of those legislators who voted in favour of the state government.
Farmers today protested outside the Ambala residence of local MLA Aseem Goel. During his speech in the Assembly yesterday, he had referred to the January 26 Red Fort violence implying that the protesting farmers were “anti-national” elements. The MLA later clarified that he was referring to controversial slogans raised by some New Delhi Jawaharlal Nehru University and that he never targeted farmers.
A video has also surfaced of a protest outside the home of independent Sirsa MLA, Gopal Goyal Kanda, who heads the Haryana Lokhit Party, and voted for the government.
SKM leaders, meanwhile, referred to the support that Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and other independent MLAs provided to to Chief Minister Khattar’s government, calling it “a great betrayal of the farmers and their cause”.
“The motion which got passed yesterday exposed the JJP and independent MLAs. Especially the JJP leaders who come from a family of pro-farmer leaders. Chaudhary Devi Lal would have been supportive of the farmers and his children have also been pro-farmer,” Dr Darshan Pal said today on behalf of the SKM.
The JJP, which he referred to, is viewed as a party with strong roots in the farming community. With 10 MLAs, it is in alliance with the BJP in Haryana and led by Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, the great-grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal and grandson of former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala.
The farmer body has now called upon the people, especially the farmers, to socially boycott these MLA, show them black flags, and not let them hold meetings.
Gurnam Singh Chaduni, another SKM leader, said, “Yesterday, we had requested all the MLAs of Haryana…requesting your vote for just this one time. We have always voted for you, but this time we want you to vote us, for our economic independence.
“But they have voted for capitalism. In future…if they come to our villages, we must oppose them, socially boycott them and these MLAs must not be invited in our social gatherings. If the try to come, we will not let them enter.”
Earlier, the SKM had said it will send its leaders to the poll-bound states of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil, Nadu, and Kerala to appeal to farmers there to defeat the BJP in assembly elections, PTI had reported.