Farm Leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal's Fast Completes 50 Days: Why Hasn't Modi Govt Responded? 3 Reasons

Farm union leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal's hunger strike entered its 50th day on Tuesday, 14 January. According to the doctors who examined him, his health condition has been deteriorating. Dallewal, 70, is a cancer survivor and has declined medical assistance during his hunger strike. Hailing from Punjab's Faridkot district, Dallewal is the convenor of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and has been on hunger strike since 26 November 2024 demanding a legal guarantee to minimum support prices for crops. Farm unions say that the Union government had promised this in response to the 2020-21 farmers' protest and that it is now going back on its promise. The question is - why has there been no response from the Centre so far? This is unlike its approach during the 2020-21 farmers' protest during which the Modi government deputed senior ministers to negotiate with the farm union leaders. Curiously, the Punjab BJP unit approached the Akal Takht to urge Dallewal to give up his hunger strike. In response, Dallewal said that they should be approaching PM Modi and not the Akal Takht. More on why the Punjab BJP did this, in the last part of this article. But first, the change in the Modi government's strategy. There are essentially three reasons for it. Especially after the BJP's win in the 2024 Haryana Assembly elections, the party is confident that the farmers' protest won't damage it politically. It won Haryana despite the state being the epicentre of not just the farmers' protest but also the Jat reservation agitation and the wrestlers' protest. In the 2022 Assembly elections, which took place right after the 2020-21 farmers' protest, the BJP performed decently in Western UP, another major centre of the farmers' protest. In fact, RLD, the party which actively supported the protesting farmers then, is now a BJP ally. Then there's the case of Punjab. More on that in the next point. Haryana Election Result: 5 Reasons Why BJP Held Ground & Congress UnderperformedIn the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP lost both the seats it had won in Punjab in 2019 but its vote share increased substantially, mainly among Upper Caste Hindu voters. The party is yet to make a serious dent among Sikh voters. However, the recent bypoll result in Barnala, has given the party some encouragement as the it secured 18 percent votes. This was mainly due to its candidate, former Congress MLA Kewal Dhillon. Party insiders say that even if this was due to Dhillon's own personal support, at least it showed that that the BJP isn't a political untouchable in Punjab that it had become in the 2022 Assembly elections. There is another aspect to this. BJP's Punjab leadership also feels that the overall support for farmers' protests has reduced in Punjab and it is no longer the kind of statewide sympathy it had achieved in 2020-21. The Modi government is firm in its belief that a legal MSP guarantee is not economically viable and that it isn't something that the government will be able to implement. It also goes against the government's pro-reform credentials and there is a sense that any movement in this direction will send a wrong signal to corporates. The government also feels that the MSP demand matters only to a limited section of farmers from Punjab and Haryana and that politically it makes better sense to utilise resources on direct cash transfer schemes like PM-Kisan that are aimed at poorer farmers. The Modi government may be correct in its assessment that the political cost of not engaging with the protest may be limited in much of the country. However, the situation may be trickier in Punjab. No doubt, there is some 'protest fatigue' in the state and the mobilisation for the current protest isn't what it was for the 2020-21 farmers' protest. However, this is changing with the deterioration in Dallewal's health. There is increased public sympathy for the leader and farm unions that were so far no active in the protests are also closing ranks behind Dallewal. There's also a larger fluidity in Punjab's political sphere at the moment. On 14 January, jailed preacher and Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh launched his new party Shiromani Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) at the Maghi Mela in Muktsar.The Centre has recently invoked the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against the jailed MP. Faridkot MP Sarabjit Singh Khalsa, son of Indira Gandhi's assassin Beant Singh, is also supporting the new party.The formation and name of this party needs to be seen in the context of the churn going on within the SAD, which has historically been the main party for the Sikh peasantry,It is presently undergoing a leadership transition and membership drive that's being closely monitored by the Akal Takht. It isn't clear what is going to come out of this.The Punjab BJP leadership approaching the Akal Takht regarding Dallewal's fast needs to be seen in this context. The party may be trying to add to this churn in the Panthic space and make Dallewal's protest seem as a "Sikh issue" rather than a farmers' issue.The BJP probably feels that the general disaffection in rural Punjab may harm the dominant parties of Punjab - AAP, Congress and SAD and create political fragmentation in the state. Ravneet Bittu's Rise, Kangana 'Slap' Row: What Lies Ahead for BJP in Punjab?

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Dallewal's Fast Completes 50 Days: Why Hasn't Modi Govt Responded? 3 Reasons

Unlike 2020-21 farmers' stir, Centre hasn't reacted to Jagjit Singh Dallewal's fast. There are 3 reasons for this.