Get rid of farm laws or go: Mamata- BJP government should immediately withdraw the farm bills or step down

The Bengal CM plans to portray the BJP as 'anti-people' in her campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls

Mamata holds up a sheaf of paddy at the Midnapore rally. : Picture by Saikat Santra

Devadeep Purohit   |   TT  |   Midnapore   |   08.12.20  : Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the BJP government at the Centre should immediately repeal the contentious farm laws or step down, and went on to announce her party’s in-principle support for Tuesday’s nationwide strike.

“The BJP government (at the Centre) should immediately withdraw the farm bills or step down. It should not continue to remain in power after sacrificing the rights of the farmers,” the chief minister told a rally in Midnapore.

“Tomorrow (Tuesday) there is a nationwide strike.... As a government we don’t support strikes, but as a party we fully support the nationwide movement of the farmers and support their issues.”

In several parts of Calcutta, people on auto-rickshaws reminded residents over loudhailers about Tuesday’s bandh. The autos did not carry any party flags. The occupants did not appeal to shop owners or traders to keep their establishments shut. The bandh is scheduled to be observed in Bengal from 11am to 3pm.

In Midnapore, as Mamata held the mic, one of her aides placed a sheaf of paddy and a garland made of potatoes, onions, eggplant and pointed gourds on the rostrum.

“All of you know that farmers are protesting against the three farm laws.… I declare with this sheaf of paddy in my hand that I was with the farmers, I am with the farmers and I shall always be with the farmers,” Mamata said, drawing applause from her 1.3 lakh listeners, most of them from farming families in East and West Midnapore.

Mamata did not bring up subjects like the minimum support price or contract farming, both non-issues in Bengal because of historical reasons. She spoke at length on how the new farm laws had taken away the states’ power to contain prices or ensure a steady supply of essential goods.

Mamata used the opportunity to remind Bengal’s farmers that she had always stood by them. She referred to her anti-land-acquisition protests in Singur and Nandigram that had endeared her to rural Bengal and brought her to power in 2011.

“We will keep protesting till the black farm laws are repealed,” Mamata, who has already reached out to the protesting farmers in Delhi and pledged her support to them, said.

Several analysts think that the new farm laws do not necessarily change the rules of the game in the field of agriculture in Bengal, but there’s little doubt that the protests have offered Mamata a political opportunity in her fight against the BJP.

By demanding the withdrawal of the bills, she has not only echoed the protesting farmers in Delhi but also joined other non-BJP parties in mounting pressure on a Narendra Modi government that increasingly finds itself isolated on the issue.

Mamata’s speech reflected a plan to portray the BJP as “anti-people”, which she would like to use in her campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls.

“The farmers are in distress as they fear their land will be taken over…. What is this government doing? They are privatising the railways, Coal India, Air India. They are against the people,” Mamata said.

She then switched to campaign mode by offering a comparison with what her government was doing for the people of Bengal.

“We are giving free rations to the people of Bengal till June.... After returning to power in next year’s elections, we will continue with the free rations,” Mamata announced.