BJP’s Taranjit Singh Sandhu faces protests by farmers

Amritsar, May 28

The BJP candidate for Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Taranjit Singh Sandhu faced protests by farmers who gathered outside his residence in Ranjit Avenue area here.

The farmers, under the banner of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, have given a call to stage a sit-in for a day outside the residences of BJP candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls for non-fulfillment of their demands. The farmers have been seeking a law on minimum support price (MSP) for crops, among others.

Sandhu, however, said that he was never scared of such demonstrations and that those who were protesting were not true farmers, but so-called leaders of ‘jathebandis’ (union) having vested interests.

“I don’t bother about such protests organised by the ‘jathebandis’ whose sole objective would be to bring their ‘leadership’ into limelight. Such protests could never scare me,” he said.

Sandhu said that he has come up with concrete proposals specifically for the Amritsar region that could increase the income of farmers.

“No one, among these leaders, ever responded to that. My goal is very clear for the real farmers who work in the fields. I focus on increasing their income through cooperatives or industries. Diversification of crops in Amritsar, like peas, vegetables and fruits already existed. I aim to channelise their product overseas to increase their income. I am a farmer too and meet farmers of our region and apprise them about my plans and they never protested against me. Farmers are always welcome but with a constructive approach,” he said.

On the other hand, Sarwan Singh Pandher of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) said that whatever Sandhu was saying was not viable. “He does not possess any power in policy-making. He can only spruce up the local development works keeping in view the funds an MP gets. We can believe only if the PM or HM make announcements. Sandhu’s plans would only be on paper,” he said.

Pandher said that the Delhi-2.0 Morcha at Shambhu border has crossed 100 days. “We were not concerned about which party forms the government at the Centre. We only wanted to sensitise the voters that on June 1, when they cast their votes, they should remember the atrocities being committed on the farming community and that our protest was on. The BJP-led Central Government had assured of legal guarantee on MSP, but never implemented it. We demanded fixing of rates of other crops, rolling back the frivolous cases framed against farmers and fixing the wage of a mazdoor (labour) at Rs 700 per day as per NREGA norms,” he said.