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Dushyant-led JJP risks losing farmers’ support
The JJP prides itself being the flag bearer of farmers’ rights and its core vote bank is the farming community.
Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala,32, and his fledgling Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) have risked losing their support base in the farming community by not coming out openly in support of the agitating farmers. The JJP and the BJP are ruling Haryana in coalition since October 2019.
The farmers who have laid siege on the arterial roads leading to the national capital are demanding that the three farm laws enacted by the Centre should be repealed.
The JJP prides itself being the flag bearer of farmers’ rights and its core vote bank is the farming community. However, its reluctance to part ways with the ruling BJP in Haryana or take a firm stance on the issue is not going down well with the peasantry. To add to JJP’s declining credibility, seven of the 10 party MLAs have expressed unequivocal support to the protesting farmers.
Dushyant’s own stance on the issue—“I will be the first to resign if the minimum support price is discontinued”—has cut little ice with majority of his party MLAs and the farming community.
“Why is this question being put to us? They (Dushyant, his MLA mother, Naina and minister, Anoop Dhanak) should be clarifying their stance on the farmers’ issue. We are clear-cut in lending our whole-hearted support to the farmers,’’ said JJP MLA, Ishwar Singh, on being asked about the stance of the top leadership.
JJP’s soft stance on the issue has also given fodder to the opposition Congress and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). Dushyant’s uncle and INLD general secretary Abhay Chautala has announced that he is ready to quit as a legislator while the Congress has accused Dushyant of betraying the farmers.
‘Long term damage’
The deputy CM though has maintained that he is also a farmer first and will never allow the interest of peasantry to be compromised. “It’s my responsibility to get the farmers remuneration for their produce. Our government has ensured that farmers get the farm produce paycheck directly in their bank accounts. Even Punjab has not been able to do it so far. I hope when the assurance for minimum support price to farmers is given in black and white by the Centre, farmers will be quite satisfied,” he said on Thursday.
Professor Ashutosh Kumar, who teaches political science at Panjab University, Chandigarh, says Dushyant and the JJP has done long term damage to their credibility by not being loud in expressing their support to the farmers. “That’s the least he could have done. By siding with the BJP led central government, he has landed himself in a difficult situation. Dushyant claims the legacy of farmer leader Chaudhary Devi Lal but by not taking an open stand, he has damaged himself politically,” professor Kumar said.
He said the fact that JJP MLAs are speaking a different language showed that the leadership is under a cloud in the party. “The JJP looks like a party still in the making. It also shows that the MLAs are worried about their political career if they do not take position in favour of the farmers, given the visible anger.
Another political expert said Haryana government’s handling of the agitation has not gone well with the farmers. “When water cannons were fired at the farmers, the deputy CM kept mum. He cannot absolve himself from the responsibility,” he said.
A game of calculations
Even as the pressure mounts on Dushyant to pull out from the alliance, the first time MLA has chosen to bide his time and allow the storm to pass. “The age is on his side. He is just 32 and will have long innings in politics. Right now, his priority will be to strengthen the JJP – politically as well as financially. Being the deputy chief minister has given him that platform. He would not like to squander this opportunity,” said one of his top rung rivals in the state. Also, the fact that assembly elections are a good four years away is a factor playing in the minds of the top JJP leadership.
Professor Kumar says Dushyant would know that if he pulls out of the alliance, his party MLAs might switch sides to join the BJP. A similar event occurred in 2009 when Bhajan Lal’s son Kuldeep Bishnoi was stunned by the poaching of his party MLAs by the Congress.
