Committed to farmers' welfare, says an uneasy BJP

The massive show of strength by farmers at a kisan mahapanchayat at Muzaffarnagar has triggered unease within the BJP with the party hitting out Rahul Gandhi “firing from the shoulders” of farmers at the Modi government.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra refrained from commenting on the farmers’ rally at Muzaffarnagar and merely stated that the Modi government was committed to the welfare of farmers.

Earlier, BJP leader Varun Gandhi had called for re-starting talks with the farmer leaders “in a respectful manner” and described the agitating farmers as “our own flesh and blood”.

“They are our own flesh and blood. We need to start re-engaging with them in a respectful manner, understand their pain, their point of view and work with them in reaching common ground,” Gandhi, a Lok Sabha member from Pilibhit, said.

BJP Lok Sabha member from Baghpat Satyapal Singh the farmers had laid bare their political ambitions by appeasing one particular religion and by dubbing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as “outsiders”.

Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha member Sanjeev Balyan voiced concern over the kisan mahapanchayat and recalled that a similar gathering eight years ago had led to communal riots.

Patra, at the party briefing, targeted Rahul Gandhi, calling him a “political cuckoo” who does not work on the ground and seeks to appropriate issues raised by others.

“Just as a cuckoo never builds her nest, Rahul Gandhi does not work hard to build his party organisation. It has become his habit to fire from others’ shoulders for his own political benefit,” Patra said.

Patra also accused Rahul of “spreading confusion and lies” by posting an old photograph of the farmers’ protest and trying to pass it off as that of the Sunday rally at Muzaffarnagar.

“That Rahul Gandhi has to use an old picture to claim success of the Mahapanchayat just shows how the propaganda to call it a well attended “farmer” agitation hasn’t worked. It is political. With religious slogans raised, it leaves no one in doubt, what the actual motivation is,” BJP IT Department head Amit Malviya said.