As farmers in the AAP-ruled state of Punjab begin their annual ritual of burning stubble and suffocating the National Capital with thick smog, the Aam Aadmi Party has begun its traditional practice of playing the blame game. Delhi Environment Minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai on Friday said the “Centre’s blunt refusal to provide cash incentives to Punjab farmers to avoid stubble burning has impacted the entire campaign against stubble burning in the State.”
Rai said at a press conference here on Friday that the Punjab government had devised a plan to provide farmers with financial support of Rs 2,500 per acre to dispose of crop waste without harming the environment. However, the central government’s ‘blunt’ refusal to provide cash incentives has jeopardised their efforts.
“The farmers had demanded financial support for not burning stubble. The State government then prepared a proposal stating that the governments of Delhi and Punjab would give Rs 500 each with the Centre contributing the remaining Rs 1,500,” said Rai.
“However, the way the Centre has bluntly denied the request… it has impacted the entire campaign against stubble burning in the State. But the Punjab government is conducting awareness campaigns and we hope that there will be fewer fire events this year compared with last year. There would have been a big impact on stubble burning had the Centre provided support,” he added, trying to pass the buck to the centre.
According to Punjab government officials, the Centre rejected the idea, claiming that it has been providing subsidised machinery like as happy seeders, rotavators, and mulchers for in-field management of paddy straw to the farmers in the state.
Centre agreed to the demand of farmers’ organisations to decriminalise stubble burning
As the Aam Aadmi Party has begun blaming the centre for its incompetence in handling increasing incidents of stubble burning in the state, it becomes imperative to recall that, last year, days after PM Modi announced the withdrawal of three farm laws, that were passed for the benefit of the farmers, the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had said the Centre has also agreed to the demand of farmers’ organisations to decriminalise stubble burning.
Speaking to the news agency ANI, Narendra Singh Tomar said, “Farmer organisations had demanded to decriminalise stubble burning by farmers. The Government of India has accepted this demand as well.”
It is notable that during negotiations with the farmer organisations during the farmer protests, which had received unwavering support from the Aam Aadmi Party, the central govt had already agreed to decriminalise stubble burning in December 2020, along with agreeing to take back the Electricity Amendment Act.
AAP extends unwavering support to the farmers’ protest
It is no secret that when so-called farmers camped up at the Delhi border last year, demanding the repeal of the three farm laws, political parties, particularly the Congress and AAP, saw a chance to attack the Modi government and earn political points. While the Congress fueled a demonstration with evident Khalistani roots, it emerged how the Aam Aadmi Party was also inexorably linked to the global conspiracy against India.
In fact, after the attempted insurrection and unbridled violence that took place on the 26th of January last year, Greta Thunberg, a young ‘activist’ whose organisation has resorted to violence and illegal means to supposedly fight for the climate, accidentally tweeted a ‘toolkit’ which contained the entire plan to destabilise India using social media, physical protests in front of embassies and either digital or physical presence in Delhi on the 26th of February.
Two individuals who were seen editing the toolkit in real-time to remove all problematic references (including the names of media houses, references to Khalistan etc) were Shantanu and Nikita Jacob. It was later reported that Nikita Jacob was an active part of the Aam Aadmi Party.
Furthermore, in an earlier interview with Disha Ravi, the co-author of the anti-India toolkit that we covered, Ravi stated unequivocally her support for AAP.
As soon as Disha Ravi was arrested, an activist who works closely with Greta Thunberg heads her Indian chapter and, created and distributed the toolkit which had the blueprint to break India, Arvind Kejriwal, AAP supremo, came out in support of her.
He tweeted that the arrest of Disha Ravi was an attack on democracy itself.
On the 29th of January, the official account of AAP further fanned the narrative that the toolkit wanted it to further.
It was on the 3rd of February, that Greta tweeted the toolkit. Interestingly, it was also on the 3rd of February, much before the toolkit was tweeted accidentally by Greta and then, was asked to be deleted by Disha Ravi, AAP had held a press conference saying exactly what the Toolkit wanted it to say.
This was not all. Several AAP accounts had used the phrase “Stand with Farmers”, something mentioned in the toolkit and also tweeted with the hashtag “Modi planning farmers genocide”. A phrase used by several accounts fanning the insurrection. In fact, the government of India had given a list of 250 accounts and tweets using this hashtag, to be withheld in India by Twitter.
Even as ‘protesting farmers’ were vandalizing and destroying cell towers in the 1000s, with lakhs worth of property damage on record, AAP still facilitated them. AAP gave the disruptive ‘farmers,’, who were causing damages worth lakhs and crores, free Wifi at their protesting site on the Singhu border.
While AAP government now blames the centre, it must be kept in mind that stubble burning was decriminalised after a violence “farmers’ protest” that was fanned and given unbridled support by opposition parties like AAP and Congress.
