Farmers' stir: Opposition plans 'Bharat bandh', BJP revamps 'Kisan Morcha'

UP govt to implement loan waiver next month, says BJP's Siddharth Nath Singh

The Opposition, emboldened by the continuing farmer protests in several parts of the country, is mulling a 'Bharat Bandh' on the issue. That idea is still in a nebulous state, but the unabated farmer protests on Thursday spurred the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to revamp its Kisan Morcha, or farmers' cell, by sacking half its existing members to include younger leaders from across the country.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh, who is also a spokesperson of the Yogi Adityanath government,  on Thursday said the next Assembly session in July will take up the necessary amendments to facilitate early implementation of its promise of farm loan waiver. In April, the Adityanath government had announced a farm loan waiver of over Rs 36,000 crore that is to benefit 8.6 million farmers.

"After the passage of these amendments, the loan liability will shift from individual farmers to the government," Siddharth Nath Singh said. The Adityanath government, the minister said, will keep to its commitment.

The minister also said the UP government also plans to amend existing stamp duty rules to help put in place a land pooling policy. This is with an objective that small landholdings of UP farmers could be pooled together to make farm technology, like drip irrigation, easier for small farmers to access and improve farm yields.

As for the Opposition parties, the date for a possible 'Bharat Bandh' is yet to be decided, but there is a view that the Ministry of Environment and Forests notification that has banned the purchase of cattle for slaughter from cattle markets should also be talked about as an anti-farmer measure. The All India Kisan Sabha, affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will hold a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on the issue on Friday.

The BJP and Narendra Modi government tried to control the damage with Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh accusing the Congress of having engineered violence in Mandsaur where five farmers were killed in police firing. Attending a three-day yoga event organised by yoga guru Ramdev in Bihar's Motihari, the union agriculture minister when asked about farmer protests, said: "Yoga kijiye" (practice yoga).

The BJP revamped its Kisan Morcha to drop at least half of its 160 older members. The morcha's new team has eight vice presidents, two general secretaries and 50 executive members. Among its members, there are 10 BJP Lok Sabha Members of Parliament. "The effort is [to] include younger leaders, those between 35 to 55 age group and also give representation to activists from across the country," a Kisan Morcha office bearer said.