The central government’s decision to withdraw the three contentious farm laws it had introduced last year has exposed the underlying dissent within Bharatiya Janata Party allies, with the saffron brigade’s coalition partner in Haryana now seeking aid for ‘martyred’ farmers who died during the year-long agitation since November 2020.
Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Digvijay Chautala, Haryana BJP’s key ally, on Saturday publicly extended support to the protesting farmers and urged the Centre to provide financial assistance to the families of those who died during the protests.
“I request the Central government to provide adequate financial compensation to the families of the farmers who were martyred in the protest and the cases filed against the farmers should be revoked so that their faith in the government increases more and they return to their homes happily,” Chautala said on social media platform Twitter.
His statement is of huge significance a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the repeal of the laws in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament.
The JJP has come under a lot of power for not for severing the alliance with BJP over the farmers’ protest issue, just to ‘cling to power’. The ally had joined hands with the BJP, which won 40 seats, just six short of the majority mark.
Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Chautala has also been maintaining silence over the issue.
A day back, Chief Minister ML Khattar said that the state government will take “a positive initiative” to withdraw cases registered against agitating farmers.
“Some cases are general while in some incidents, cases are registered under serious sections. Now, a positive initiative will be taken from the state government’s side too and there will be no controversies,” Khattar told reporters in Chandigarh.
