Following the violence during the farmers’ tractor march on Republic Day in the national capital, Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan leader VM Singh announced his union’s withdrawal from the protests against the Centre’s new agricultural reform laws. In an interview with CNN-News18, Singh underscored his reasons for taking a step back, while shedding light on the background of the stir and Tuesday’s rampage, even as he indicated that the leadership of the movement may need to change.
Why did you resign and walk off from the protests?
Ans: It’s not resigning. After Covid-19, I decided to help the farmers because I had initiated the whole thing, if I may say so. I went to Burari and Amit Shah said that the people who went to Burari…I will engage with them for talks. They didn’t engage with us, so I told these boys that you can leave. So they left and sat down in Ghazipur. There were about 100 boys at that time because at Burari there were about 2,000 to 2,500 people. The number began to multiply and three days ago we were almost 30-40,000. I was only supporting the cause from behind and Rakesh Tikait was the only one from UP who was invited for talks. So we said, chalo, go ahead we are supporting you. Now Tikait was going there and whatever call was taken, we were doing that diligently. And they told us that this is the route map which we had decided with the police. We said, yes, this is fine, we will go by it with a little modification here and there. We talked to the administration and we decided to go along. But after some time we were told that Tikait is himself telling some people that we will go to Delhi. I said let’s go and check. So the administration, that is ADM, SP City and I went to the spot. We asked what time should we begin? Everyone said 11 am. So when we reached at 10 am the next morning we found that many of them had already left. If we are going to give support to someone and if that person himself is not following the rules then what’s the point?
There is also this accusation that when you walk away from the movement you are weakening their cause.
No, you have to understand that what happened on the 26th was shameful. The main issue of MSP was kept aside. The Bills were kept aside. And the goalposts changed and it became about who will reach Delhi first, etc. That’s when I felt that on a day like this if you change the goalposts…then in basic andolan the issue remains important. VM Singh and others can come and go. So we told them then that, OK, we will withdraw. Why should we continue supporting you and those individuals who are actually letting us down? Why should we continue when many children are getting killed? So we withdrew and you can go and see how many people are there today. The total andolan was based on the three Bills’ removal and MSP. We stand by that. Andolan shall continue. But the people who are involved and the strategy have to be rethought. This is an andolan which started 20 years ago. In 2000 from Puranpur. It was during this andolan that Rajnath Singh came in as chief minister and Ram Prakash Gupta had to go. It was that big. We have continued this and will continue till such time that we succeed. The government is negotiating with those people who don’t even know what we want. Our main thing is MSP and sugarcane price. We are not here carte blanche merely to support people. We are not here to make people leaders. We are here to make sure people get a living.
Do you think as those pictures started coming out of Red Fort, that was the point that this movement was taking a turn it shouldn’t have been taking?
Certainly. That was the main thing. Somebody like me who for the last 20 to 30 years has been going to court and winning…But see what happened on Republic Day? This is why we are not sitting here today. We are sitting here because we are hurt and we want the Prime Minister to listen to us.
What about politicians now jumping in? You all have been particular that they should not hijack the movement.
It’s always the case. When the Congress was in power, it was the BJP which was shooting off from our shoulders. Now with the BJP in power, it’s Congress which is trying to shoot off our shoulders. Certainly the government needs to answer when somebody had put a price on hoisting the flag from Lal Qila two, three months ago, why wasn’t precaution taken while giving the permission? They have to answer that.
What now? What do you plan to do? Isn’t there a danger that most protesters will go away and this issue will be forgotten?
No, not at all. This protest began 20 years ago and we haven’t forgotten this. And I was the one who was around. I had initiated this many years ago.
Do you think the leadership of the movement needs to change? Is that faulty?
Automatically, as it happened earlier. The baton goes on. This happens. But now the turn the situation has taken, when public opinion has turned against us, we need to introspect. The cause will remain, but is this the right strategy? The introspection is on the cause and not the strategy.
So you are suggesting that they go back and introspect and come back?
No, I don’t think so. I think the government should learn a lesson. Talk to the people who are talking about the welfare of the farming community. You can’t catch people and say, OK, from 25 districts from Punjab you come and decide for the country. They are all needing MSP. We are not focussing on it at all.
What’s your appeal to those who are leading the protests now?
Well, all I can say is, all the best. I cannot find enough space for myself in this gloomy atmosphere which was there on the 26th and therefore I quit. I say all the best, may you succeed. But we will continue to protest after we speak to people in UP, Maharashtra. If they want to restructure and start again or if they want to join protests, we will think about it and get back.
Do you think the problem was that this was largely seen as Punjab and Haryana protests and not countrywide?
The government wanted to show this as Punjab protests…This wasn’t correct. Everywhere there were protests…across the country. But when Punjab came in and AIKCC came in, we had a conference with Punjab and they joined us. It suited the government to only bring in Punjab.
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