NEW DELHI: The threat by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to join the protesting farmers’ “tractor parade” in the national capital on Republic Day could be a deja vu moment. This is the second time in seven years when the party has threatened to hold an agitation on January 26.
The Punjab unit of AAP on Tuesday said it would join farmers' “tractor parade” on January 26 in Delhi. AAP state unit president Bhagwant Mann made the announcement while claiming that the ongoing farmers' protest has become the “largest agitation in the world” with the participation of such a large number of people in a peaceful manner.
Mann said his party volunteers from every village across the state would join the parade with tractors. “The AAP will join this agitation not as a political party but as a farmer,” said the Sangrur MP in a statement while also claiming that the AAP is a party of common people, who are mostly farmers and labourers.
Delhi chief minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had on January 21, 2014 issued a threat of disrupting the Republic Day celebrations that year. While protesting against the Delhi Police and demanding safety for women, Kejriwal, in his first stint as Delhi CM, had sat on a protest near Parliament and outside Rail Bhawan area on January 20.
Upping the ante, Kejriwal had threatened to flood Rajpath, the venue of Republic Day celebrations, with lakhs of supporters demanding action against policemen who refused to carry out a raid on an alleged drug and prostitution ring. He ruled out any negotiations to scale down the protest, saying the safety of women in the capital is not a matter of negotiation.
Kejriwal, along with his six cabinet colleagues and scores of supporters, had spent the night outside the Rail Bhavan, the venue of their protest, braving the cold winter. Kejriwal slept on the road under the open sky while some of his supporters spent the night singing and raising slogans around a bonfire. A number of cabinet ministers also slept on the road. Kejriwal had threatened that "if the demands are not met then lakhs of our supporters will come to Rajpath. They (the centre) must listen to the people".
Attacking the home minister, he had said he will not shift to Jantar Mantar as requested by the police and the Centre will have to accept his demand for action against the policemen who had refused to act against the alleged drug and prostitution racket.
However, he called off the protest after negotiations with the Centre. Defending his dharna, Kejriwal, who once rebelliously called himself an "anarchist", said his protest was for the safety of women.
"It was for the first time that a chief minister had protested for women's safety, but by imposing Section 144 (that prohibits assembly of five or more people), the central government proved that they were not serious about the issue," he had said.
In fact, the then President late Pranab Mukherjee had made a veiled attack on Kejriwal's street protests saying government is not a "charity shop" and "populist anarchy" cannot be a substitute for governance.
Without taking the name of AAP leader, he was critical of Arvind Kejriwal's style when he said "elections do not give any person the license to flirt with illusions".
Addressing the nation on the eve of 65th Republic Day, Mukherjee had said if Indians were enraged, it was because they were witnessing corruption and waste of national resources. However, he said equally dangerous is the rise of hypocrisy in public life. Elections do not give any person the license to flirt with illusions. Those who seek the trust of voters must promise only what is possible, he said.
Mukherjee further said government is not a charity shop. Populist anarchy cannot be a substitute for governance. False promises lead to disillusionment, which gives birth to rage, and that rage has one legitimate target: those in power, he said.
This year, Mann has asserted that this fight was not only to repeal the three “black laws” of the centre but also to “save” the constitution of the country. He said that it was the constitutional right of farmers to take out the tractor march in a peaceful manner which the government was trying to “take away”.
He accused the BJP-led government of trying “all sorts of tricks to crush” farmers' movement.
Mann said the AAP had been opposing the “anti-farmer” laws enacted from day one. He said the Modi government should give up its “stubborn” attitude and immediately accept farmers' demands and repeal the three laws. Various farmer bodies protesting against the Centre's farm laws had said they would go ahead with their proposed “tractor parade” in Delhi on the Republic Day.
They announced to take out a “tractor parade” on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi.
(With agency inputs)