The ‘farmers’ have been protesting at various entry points leading to the national capital for over 60 days now. While many from ‘Godi media’ have been trying to caste aspersions that these protests are politically motivated by opposition and these are actual farmers, here is a lowdown of how it is not so.
All weather protestor Yogendra Yadav
So what if he was part of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Committee under the Manmohan Singh government? Yadav was the member of the NAC on Right to Education. Of course, he’s apolitical. No wonder he was also a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party along with Prashant Bhushan. From Citizenship Amendment Act to abrogation of Article 370 to farm laws to everything under the sun. If it is a reform, Yadav is there to protest against it.
Agents of chaos aka Aam Aadmi Party
Arvind Kejriwal, who on most days cries that despite being the chief minister he has no powers, has obviously not sniffed a political opportunity here. The fact that Punjab, where Aam Aadmi Party is primary opposition, goes into state elections in 2022 has obviously nothing to do with Kejriwal’s bent over backward support to the protestors. That he provided free WiFi (which he had promised Delhi residents but never fulfilled) and deployed his ministers at Delhi borders obviously is not politically motivated.
Darshan Pal is a purely farmer leader
Of course. Pal was a doctor who took to farming a few years ago, the media reports said. What they conveniently forget to add is that he is a Maoist leader. Darshan Pal was one of the founders of People’s Democratic Front of India (PDFI). PDFI is a constituent of the Maoist movement, the left-wing terrorism in the country.
Darshan Pal was the convenor of the 51-member executive committee of PDFI. Apart from Pal, other founder members of PDFI included known anti-National and anti-BJP names like Varvara Rao, Kalyan Rao, Medha Patkar, Nandita Haksar, SAR Geelani, BD Sarma etc.
Pal’s participation in the anti-farm law bills is clearly apolitical.
Rakesh Tikait
Rakesh Tikait is son of Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Mahendra Singh Tikait who had considerable influence in Western UP. In 2014, Tikait joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in 2014 and contested the 2014 elections from Amroha. This was seen as a move to please the Jat community after the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013.
RLD has been part of the Congress-led UPA since 2011.
And it is an absolute lie that Bharatiya Kisan Union demanded the exact opposite of what they are demanding right now just few months back. That their demands were exactly what the new farm laws give.
Congress, the most innocent of them all
So what if Rahul Gandhi goofs up and does not know that the ‘protestors’ are at Singhu border and not at some imaginary ‘Shambhu border’?
So what if Congress leaders have been giving explicit support to the ‘farmers’ from Punjab? And really, so what if Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Adani-Ambani’ rhetorics led to destruction of 1500 Jio mobile towers in Punjab? That he has given a call to farmers across the country to join the protests is obviously not politics.
Not that Congress ever promised the same reforms in its manifesto as per new farm laws, right?
Note: The above article is high on sarcasm.