Promises not met, politicians ‘barred’ from entering villages

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 24

“Vada khilafi karan valiya rajneetik partiyan da pind andar aana mana hai” (Entry of the political parties that have not fulfil their promises made before coming to power is banned). This is how politicians will be welcomed when they go to seek votes from the rural populace in the state.

On the call given by the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, farmers’ organisations in Punjab will paste the message on hoardings and install these at the entry of every village in the state.

Farmers have said despite this, if any candidate comes to a village, he/she will have to give every promise in writing on a legal paper. If any of the promises is not fulfilled, people will move court. There will be no verbal assurances accepted this time, they maintain.

The message that will be written on the hoardings further reads, “Yaad hai jo tuhadi party ne pichli chunava dauran vada kitta si?” (Do you remember the promises your party made during the last elections?)

Also, the promises are written, which include implementation of the Swaminathan report, waiving loans of every farmer, jobs to unemployed, bringing back black money and depositing Rs 15 lakh in the accounts of every resident and eradicating drug menace from the state.

Jagjit Singh Dallewal, state president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta, Sidhupur, who is monitoring the activity in the state, said, “Every party makes promises and then they forget to fulfil them. Farmers give their votes to the parties and when later they want to remind the parties of the promises they had made before coming to power, then they are dealt with force.”

He said, “Now the situation has worsened as neither the farmers are allowed to enter Jantar Mantar in Delhi, nor they have the right to go to Chandigarh to protest. How are we supposed to tell the parties our problems? There is no alternative left. So, this is the only way left to make us heard about our problems and issues.”

“We know that the leaders will come but we want to give them a message that if they want to come, then they will have to recall various assurances they had earlier given,” said Satnam Sahni, spokesperson for the Doaba Kisan Sangharsh Committee.