Loss of face, but AAP prevents more damage by withdrawing land pooling policy

Time of India

5 days ago

Jalandhar: Though it is a loss of face for the Aam Aadmi Party govt and the biggest U-turn so far, by withdrawing the Land Pooling Policy, the ruling party prevented more damage to itself.
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As the opposition to the policy grew bigger with every passing day, it became oxygen for the opposition parties, especially for Congress and Akali Dal, as well as for all the critics of the state govt. On Punjabi social media, the state govt and the ruling party completely lost the narrative on the issue, as even their own were not coming forward to justify it.
When the state govt has been discrediting farm groups and the latter also lost space due to their own flaws and follies, after the big victory of making the Modi govt to withdraw the three farm laws, the policy made the badly divided farm groups to unite.
When AAP is known for strong discipline and every leader and worker has to follow the instruction by the party's central command, yet the MLAs and constituency in-charges, in whose areas the villages were coming under the scheme, did not dare to go to the villages to explain it to the people or to post their own statements on their social media accounts. They confined themselves to sharing the posts of the party's social media accounts.
No social or economic group came forward to defend the policy even as the fault lines, subtle or explicit, exist.
No party worker on the ground was ready to go among the people to justify the policy, especially after two party workers suffered the ignominy of being confronted by the farmers in Jalandhar village Kot Kalan on the night of July 24, their publicity material taken away and torched. The fear only increased among party workers as there was no dearth of videos on Punjabi social media where men and women from the affected villages issued warnings of serious physical consequences if anybody entered their villages.
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Hoardings were in the affected villages 'banning' entry of AAP leaders.
From among the senior party leaders, only Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, State President Aman Arora, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema, Industries Minister Sanjeev Arora, and MP Meet Hayer appeared more vocal in justifying the policy, while other ministers and MLAs preferred to stay silent.
More than the farmers, the withdrawal of the policy has come as a big relief for the AAP leaders and workers, especially in the rural areas. They found themselves in a piquant situation, as on one side the Delhi-based party leadership strongly pushed the policy, but on the other, the intensity of the negative reaction increased. MSID:: 123239495 413 |