Kang, who remained the president of Panjab University Students’ Council, had joined the BJP as an ordinary worker and had risen through the years to the post of general secretary of the state unit.Punjab BJP general secretary Malwinder Singh Kang, one of the few Sikh faces of the saffron party in state, Saturday resigned from the primary membership of the party in protest against the farm laws enacted by the Centre. Kang later said that that no one in the party was ready to listen to reason on the agri laws and alleged that the senior leadership did not have a pro-Punjab attitude.
“I raised the issue of farmers’ protests when the Ordinances were passed and subsequently too, as member of the core committee of the party, I tried to raise it in every meeting but I was snubbed. National general secretary Tarun Chugh termed me a Pakistani for raising the issue. He had to apologise when I protested against his language. This is the kind of attitude the BJP leadership has about those who talk in favour of farmers,” claimed Kang.
Kang, who remained the president of Panjab University Students’ Council, had joined the BJP as an ordinary worker and had risen through the years to the post of general secretary of the state unit. He is among the handful of Sikh leaders that BJP had in Punjab.
Kang said that he had broached the issue of farmers’ protest to Union Minister Hardip Singh Puri too when he had come to Chandigarh. “But he too brushed aside any suggestion of amendment to the Acts or to talk to farmers saying that these were misguided elements. The common refrain in the BJP leadership is that whatever Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing is fine,” he said.
In his resignation letter to party state president Ashwani Sharma, Kang said, “The farmers, arhtiyas, small traders and labour organisations have been democratically and rightly protesting against the new Acts passed by the central government.”
“As a general secretary of the state BJP and being a member of core group of the party, I raised my voice in support of the protesting farmers, arhtiyas, small traders and labour organisations at the party platform. While supporting the farmers’ agitation I resign from the post of general secretary, from core group and from primary membership of the party,” he further said.
There was no immediate reaction available from the state BJP leadership.
Kang’s resignation comes at a time when the BJP-led NDA government at Centre has deputed several of its ministers to hold virtual talks in Punjab to convince the farmers that the new laws are befecial for them.
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