Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was quizzed by Punjab farmers’ delegation repeatedly on Article 370 removal and asked to clarify his stance on the Union government’s decision, following which the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener left the meeting in a huff.
As the “political questions” were repeatedly asked, Kejriwal left the meeting “in a huff”. Though the new age politician left the meeting, the video of the interaction has gone viral.
Kejriwal was on a two-day visit to Punjab during which he visited Mansa and Bathinda districts. Kejriwal’s visits to Punjab have been frequent, with assembly elections barely three months away.
The farmers’ delegation met the Delhi chief minister at Khaila Malikpur village of Mansa district, where he was accompanied by Sangrur MP, AAP Punjab president Bhagwant Mann and others.
It was Kejriwal and the local AAP unit’s decision to hold a meeting with farmers.
However, after hearing repeated queries from farmers on his stand on Article 370, Kejriwal called them “political questions” and left in a huff. Before leaving, Kejriwal said, “If you have any question regarding farmers, you can ask me.”
In the video, Gurjant Singh Mansa, the district vice-president of the Punjab Kisan Union, is seen asking Kejriwal whether he thinks that the reading down of Article 370 is right or wrong. Hearing this question, Kejriwal asks, “How come this is a farmer’s issue?”
Gurjant then says, “It is an issue of the rights of farmers and the state. Those who make such rules for us are the same people who made these three farm laws.”
Later in the video, Kejriwal is also seen saying that if he was not in favour of the farmers, then no one else could be. “We have been supporting farmers since the beginning. When farm laws were made, we stood by farmers,” he says.
However, farmers did not appear to be satisfied with Kejriwal’s replies, and repeated the question on Article 370 in J&K till Kejriwal chose to leave.
During the meeting, farmer leaders had a heated exchange of words with Kejriwal over more issues like more powers to states, the farm laws, the Union government’s move to increase the Border Security Force’s (BSF) jurisdiction from 15 km to 50 km in Punjab, the long pending issue of Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal and others.
In the video, Bhagwant Mann is seen speaking with the farmer union leaders, asking them to avoid such queries.
Kashmir Leaders Respond
Shortly after the video went viral on social media, leaders from Kashmir including former cabinet minister in Omar Abdullah government Ruhullah Mehdi and Congress leader Salman Soz also tweeted on it.
Senior journalist at BBC News Punjabi, Pal Singh Nauli, said the reading down of Article 370 and the Anandpur Sahib Resolution are closely related and farmers were justified in raising it.
“J&K enjoyed special status under Article 370, which was similar to Anandpur Sahib Resolution giving greater autonomy to states and restricting the role of the Union government to defence, foreign relations, currency and communication. Today, farmers have become aware of their rights and they want to hold the politicians accountable for their words. The manner in which Kejriwal fled from the meeting shows that he failed to address the queries of farmers,” Nauli said.