Are there political motives behind farmers’ agitation? (IANS Investigation, Part 2)

New Delhi, Dec 11 : The Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), which is leading the ongoing agitation, seems to have close association with the Congress as it has been tagging the Congress leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Jairam Ramesh, while targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter.
Sources said that the political motives and self-contradictory viewpoints are evident. The protesting farmers’ unions are claiming to be politically non-aligned and fighting for the rights of the farmers, but a different reality emerges on a closer look. The BKU seems to have close association with the Congress, sources said.
Sources also said that the BKU had actively supported the Congress during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which hints towards a political alignment behind these agitations. Previously, the BKU had been critical about the issue of ‘arhtiyas’ in the mandis. They had even tagged Rahul Gandhi in its tweets on the issue. “But today they seem to be sympathetic to the cause of the arhtiyas,” sources said.
Some observers have coined the nomenclature ‘Unsure Political Awaragardi’ (UPA) for the alliance. They say that various UPA members are supporting the farmers’ agitation just for the sake of politics, and the truth remains that the UPA itself had tried to tweak the APMC act.
During the UPA tenure between 2003 and 2013, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had himself written letters to the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh to amend their state APMC Act to facilitate private sector investments in providing alternative competitive marketing channels in the overall interest of the farmers and the consumers.
A question is also being posed to the Opposition. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Communist party members raising hue and cry that APMC system will be demolished in the states must answer why the APMC Act is altogether absent in Kerala?