Sunita Garg, general secretary of state unit of BJP on Wednesday came out of her house in Kotakpura of Faridkot district to interact with farmers as it was their last day of dharna outside her house.
Garg said, “The farmers had started the dharna outside my house on October 1 last year and during this time, they kept on pressing me to resign from the party and sit with them. I repeatedly told them that I had no role in farm laws and all I can do is to send their concerns to the high command. However, despite all the discomfort, I was patient and now that farm laws have been repealed, they are lifting the dharna on their own. So I went to interact with them and explain our viewpoint.”
Dharna outside her house was lifted on 441st day of the protest on Wednesday. Dharna was also organised outside the houses of nine other BJP leaders. Of the total 10 protests, nine were organised by BKU Ugrahan in Malwa Punjab while one was by 32 farmer unions outside the house of Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik in Amritsar.
In Gurdaspura Basti village, on Dhuri road, Sangrur district is the house of Satwant Punia, state working committee member of BJP. Punia said, “They started dharna outside my house on October 12 and lifted it after 430 days. They had asked me to resign, but I told them that issues can be resolved while being in the party as well. I had tried to interact with them a number of times earlier too. I listened to their sloganeering against our party but I kept my cool. On Monday, they organised Sukhmani Sahib path as part of celebrations and I went to pay respects at the path ceremony along with my entire family.”
In Budhlada’s Royal city (Mansa district), Sukhdarshan Sharma, state committee member of BJP, was facing protest by BKU Ugrahan since October 14, 2020 and it was finally lifted on Wednesday after 428 days. Joginder Singh Dyalpura, a member of BKU Ugrahan in Budhlada, said, “Sharma had conducted meetings with few of our members around four times but he never came in our dharna outside his house. We used to sit for three hours outside his house and later shifted to a nearby park. Our fight was against the party and not against individual. He faced the protest as he was from BJP. Now, the party has been exposed and people will decide as to which party they want to vote for.”
In Barnala, dharna was outside BJP leaders Yadwinder Shanty and Archana Dutta’s house. Shanty had heated arguments with the farmers a number of times in the past.
BJP leaders said that they will now be meeting the voters to explain them their side. Already the leaders have been asked by state president Ashwani Sharma to get ready for the polls ahead.
However, Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary of BKU Ugrahan, said, “No doubt we have lifted dharnas from outside the houses of BJP leaders. But people know that the Centre took the decision as elections were near. They did it after the death of over 720 farmers and people will remember it all. Now people have also come to know that Lakhimpur Kheri was planned. Hence, this party has a motive, we can’t trust them.”
However, Garg added, “We were not at all at fault and the farm laws were for the good of people. But somehow we could not make them understand. So they were taken back in national interest. We are for the farmers and will make them understand this when we visit each and every village in Punjab in the coming weeks.”
