INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Two Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) MLAs on Sunday participated in farmers protests in Haryana against the Centre's farm-sector bills passed by
The JJP MLAs are going against the stand of the party, which is part of the BJP-led ruling coalition in Haryana.JJP's Barwala MLA Jogi Ram
Sihag and Shahabad legislator Ram Karan Kala joined the farmers protests even as Haryana Deputy Chief Minister and JJP leader Dushyant
Chautala accused the Congress of misleading farmers, asserting that none of the farm sectors bills has any hint of abolishing the minimum
support price mechanism for the crop procurement.The two JJP MLAs joining the farmers protests and two others - Ram Kumar Gautam and
Devender Babli - are also differing from the party's stand on the issue earlier, reflected a rift on the issue among the party ranks.On a
call by the Bharatiya Kisan Union and backed by some other farmer outfits, MLAs Sihag and Kala joined the farmers road blockade protests at
Barwala in Hisar and Shahabad in Kurukshetra district respectively on Sunday.With JJP's considerable vote base belonging to the rural
hinterland of the state, Barwala MLA Sihag said he would not hesitate even from resigning if his constituents feel farmers' interests are
compromised and want him to quit at any point.About the farm reforms, he said, It will only lead to the exploitation of farmers at the hands
of big corporates.JJP's Shahabad Kala, too, justified his presence at the protest site, saying he felt farmers' voices should be
heard.Accusing the Congress of misleading farmers, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala asserted that there is not
even a hint of abolishing the MSP mechanism in either of the three farm-sector reform bills."Nowhere in the new farm reform bill, there is
any talk of abolishing the crop MSP," said Dushyant Chautala, while talking to reporters in Chandigarh
He said the day farmers do not get the Minimum Support Price for their crops, he would quit his post."The day, under the present system, if
a farmer does not get the MSP for his crop, I will quit my post," said Dushyant, a great-grandson of late Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal,
considered farmers' messiah."I come from a farmer's family and I will do anything to ensure farmers' welfare," he said.Defending the farm
Bills, Dushyant Chautala said the crops of the farmers would be procured on the MSP and the reforms give them wider choice than what they
They would be able to sell their crops even outside 'mandis' if they receive higher rates, he pointed out.Asserting that the MSP mechanism
will be there to stay, he asked farmers not to be misled.Dushyant Chautala also accused former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda of
trying to misguide farmers to further his own political interests."Not only did Hooda himself advocate open market for farmers but also
signed on such recommendations of a committee set up by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, of which the former CM was head, during the
UPA regime," he said, accusing the Congress leader of having "double standards".He also said, "The Congress party supported contract farming
in its vision document during its first tenure of the UPA and now Congress is opposing the farm bills for political gains".Chautala said the
farm reforms undertaken by the Centre will open new avenues of progress for the agriculturists.On the upcoming paddy procurement season, he
said each grain would be procured on MSP.He had also earlier condemned the lathi-charge on farmers during a protest in Kurukshetra's Pipli
on September 10.Dushyant's brother and JJP leader Digvijay Singh Chautala too had on Thursday apologised for the lathi-charge on farmers in
Pipli, saying if any of them was hit, it was the family of late Devi Lal which was hurt.Dushyant's JJP, which won 10 seats in the 2019 state
assembly elections, had extended support to BJP after they ended up winning 40 seats in the 90-member assembly.Chief Minister M L Khattar,
meanwhile in a tweet, congratulated farmers on the "historic occasion" of the passage of the farm Bills by Parliament, saying the reforms
will empower them and are a step aimed at freeing peasants from the middlemen's clutches.Haryana Agriculture Minister JP Dalal asserted that
the farm reforms will play an important role in fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aim of doubling the farmers' income by 2022.Dalal
said some politicians have become used to indulging in petty politics in the name of farmers.He said that it would have been far better if
they had read the Bills in detail before issuing their statements.(With PTI inputs)
