The Gandhi family and its coterie within the Congress wish to go all-out in support of the misinformed farmers’ protests against the three farm reforms passed by India’s parliament in September last year. This, although the Gandhi family has been told subtly on more occasions than one can recount that it has lost touch with the ground sentiment, and is taking self-debilitating decisions only to take on PM Modi’s government. First, it was Captain Amarinder Singh who distanced himself from the ridiculous protests, and now, it is the entire state unit of Haryana Congress, led by former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
According to a report by OneIndia, the Haryana state unit of the Congress is not very enthusiastic about getting its boots deployed on the ground to join the misinformed farmers’ agitation. The central leadership of the Congress, which is to say, the Gandhis, are supportive of Congress going all-out in its support for the ‘farmers’.
Yet, the state unit of the party in Haryana feels that this will be a suicidal move, which will end up benefiting the BJP. The same has been conveyed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda to the party’s central leadership.
Apart from revealing that Haryana Congress isn’t too enthusiastic to join the farmers’ agitation, the report also mentioned how Congress was working on a strategy to take on the BJP in every village on the matter of the farm reforms. This, the report stated, was being done to perhaps lay the ground for yet another re-launch of Rahul Gandhi as the party President. However, the strategy has no takers within the Haryana Congress. The Haryana unit is worked up following a directive from the central leadership to all state units asking them to organise agitations and demonstrations throughout the month in three-phases.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda is learned to have told the central leadership of the party that the Congress and its leaders have been supporting the protests in any case, however, participating in the same alongside the ‘farmers’ can have devastating consequences. The former CM is also said to have told the Congress in Delhi that the farmers should be at the forefront of the agitation, and not political leaders.
Hooda follows Captain Amarinder Singh in distancing himself from the fake farmers’ protests. The Punjab CM had recently come out in the open to say that Pakistan might have a potential role in the protests. That the entire agitation could be a handiwork of Pakistan itself is also a possibility, although Captain did not say so in as many words. What the Punjab CM did say, however, was that Pakistan was trying to infiltrate ever since the farmers’ protests first began.
It is becoming clear that the Congress party is divided over the farmers’ agitation, and while the central leadership of the party wants to score immediate political brownie points by diving right into the protests, the state units are taking a much more calculated approach, and cautioning the Gandhis to watch their steps hereon.