Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The farm agitation is likely to be discussed extensively during the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) meeting later this month amid growing concern in the saffron camp on the prevailing stalemate over the protests.
Over 350 delegates of the Sangh’s Rashtriya Karyakarini Mandal will deliberate on the “organisational matters, including expansion works” from October 28 to October 30 in Dharwad. The zonal and regional heads along with the top echelons of the RSS will hold “review” meetings. While the RSS officially maintains that the meeting will focus on matters related to organisation expansion, it is learnt that the ground feedback by the functionaries can also be shared, which may include the ongoing farm agitation and its likely impact on the polls.
After the Supreme Court’s intervention, the government has so far not engaged with the farmers’ unions with both sides showing no signs to compromise with their positions. It is learnt that the RSS is keen to open a window for negotiations with the farm unions despite holding the view that the “agitation is politically motivated and patronised by vested interests whose businesses will be affected by the reform measures”.
At its meetings, the RSS functionaries have noted that the ongoing stalemate is affecting the public perception about the government. The Sangh’s farm wing, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, has also recently held protests against the prevailing situations of the farmers, including the lack of means to sell their produces at MSP. It has insisted that the government should guarantee that farm produce was procured at MSP even by the private players in concurrence with the demand of the unions.
“There’s a need to offer a face-saver to the unions to call off their agitations. But the challenge is that the scope for it was given by the government which put on hold the implementation of the three laws, but it was not accepted. It’s to be seen what more can be done since the scrapping of the three laws and guarantee on MSP aren’t feasible,” said a senior BJP functionary.
