Yogendra revives ‘salt campaign’ in Haryana

AAP leader Yogendra Yadav meets supporters during a rally in Panchkula on Sunday. ( Source: Express photo by Sumit Malhotra)

Days after his removal from the Aam Aadmi Party’s Political Affairs Committee, party leader Yogendra Yadav revived his ‘Jai Kisan Abhiyan’ in Haryana on Sunday.

AAP workers and farmers, led by Yadav, marched to the house of Ambala BJP MP Rattan Lal Kataria in Panchkula to hand over a packet of salt to remind him the due of salt he owes to farmers. Kataria was not at home and his family accepted the packet. Before his expulsion from PAC, Yadav had led similar marches in Gurgaon, Karnal, Sonepat and Faridabad.

The campaign is against the central and state government’s “anti-farmer policies” on four main issues – changes made in the Land Acquisition Bill, lowering of land acquisition rates by the Haryana government through a notification issued on November 4, scarcity of urea, and not giving farmers the minimum support price for their produce.

Yadav refused to talk about the rift in AAP, or his and Prashant Bhushan’s expulsion from PAC. He said that he will remain in the party and work on the people’s issues. He condemned the central government for the removal of the ‘consent clause’ for acquiring lands. He added that the urea scarcity had been created by the Modi government. The government wanted to deregulate urea and bring private players in the market, he said. Yadav added that the BJP had promised to pay farmers 50 per cent over the cost of production of their crops, but had failed to keep its promise.

He accused the Khattar government of reducing land acquisition rates by half. “We will not let this injustice happen and will visit each village of Haryana and hold protests and rallies,” said Yadav.

“We will give ‘namak ki thaili (packets of salt)’ to parliamentarians, reminding them of the promises they had made to farmers and general public before elections. We hope that they will not forget the oath taken by them while taking decisions about the land acquisition bill when it comes up in Parliament”, he said.

Source:: Indian Express