Jannanayak Janata Party’s Karnal district President Inderjit Singh Goraya on Tuesday quit the party in solidarity with the farmers protesting against the new agriculture laws, reported PTI. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Jannayak Janata Party are coalition partners in the state.
“The stir against these farm laws has become a people’s movement but the Centre is not accepting the farmers’ demand to repeal them,” Goraya said. “Thousands of farmers are protesting for the past 70 days at various Delhi border points against these laws. I am a farmer first and I decided to resign from my post and quit the party to stand with them.”
Goraya added that he saw no point in staying with a party which has failed to ensure the welfare of farmers, according to The Indian Express.
The politician said he had asked JJP leader and Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala to exert pressure on the Narendra Modi government to roll back the “anti-farmer laws”. “When I met Dushyant last month, I also told him that we need to openly stand in support of farmers,” he added.
But instead of accepting the farmers’ demands, the Centre is using tactics to defame their agitation after January 26, Goraya alleged, referring to the tractor rally of farmers in the Capital on Republic Day. The Delhi Police have filed 44 cases and arrested over 120 people in connection with the violence so far. Several farmer union leaders have been named in the police cases.
Goraya also warned Jannanayak Janata Party against its lukewarm approach to the agitation, saying party leaders “won’t able to enter into the villages if they don’t stand by the farmers today”.
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“I was hurt with the attitude of party leadership over their stand on the issue of farmers’ agitation,” he added. “Dushyant Chautala should have stood by the farmers like [his great grandfather and former deputy prime minister] Devi Lal used to.”
Asked about Indian National Lok Dal’s lone legislator Abhay Singh Chautala resigning from the Haryana Assembly due to the farm laws, Goraya said that this was not enough. “Leaders from across parties should openly come out in support of farmers so that the Centre could be persuaded to roll back the farm laws,” he said.
Several politicians in Haryana have quit their positions in solidarity with the farmers. On January 31, Haryana BJP leader and former MLA from Fatehabad Balwan Singh Daulatpuria had quit the party against the farm laws.
Before that on January 28, Haryana BJP leader and former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Rampal Majra had resigned from the party.
In September last year, Haryana BJP leader Shyam Singh Rana had also quit the party for the same reason. Rana, who was the chief parliamentary secretary in the first term of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s government, had then said he was quitting the party keeping the farmers’ demands in mind.
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