Farmers’ new friend? Jagdeep Dhankhar’s sharp rebuke to Shivraj Singh Chouhan

“How can we sleep if problems of farmers are not solved quickly? We have to be open to solutions, open to discussions,” asserted vice president of India Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday, 30 November, in Haryana.

The vice president was speaking on Tuesday, 3 December, at the centenary celebrations of the ICAR-CIRCOT (Indian Council of Agricultural Research – Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology) in Mumbai.

Addressing union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan — also present on the dais, having spoken just before him — Dhankhar asked why the government was not doing anything to address the farmers’ issues.

“…Kripa karke mujhe bataiye, kya kisan se vaada kiya gaya tha… kiya gaya vaada kyun nahi nibhaya gaya… vaada nibhane ke liye hum kya kar rahein hai?... Gat varsh bhi andolan tha, is varsh bhi andolan hai… kalchakra ghoom raha hai… hum kuch nahi kar rahein hain (Please tell me, was a promise made to the farmers? Why has the promise not been fulfilled? What are we doing to fulfil the promise? There was an agitation last year, and there is one this year as well… time is passing, but we are doing nothing),” the vice president said in Hindi.

The poor agriculture minister, having been in the saddle for just the past six months, had no opportunity to respond.

The vice president did make it clear that Chouhan had done a lot as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and was someone he held in high regard — but he did have an axe to grind as well, apparently.

Dhankhar, whose position places him in the role of chairman of the Rajya Sabha as well, has never spoken up in favour of the farmers before. Indeed, he has actively prevented MPs from raising questions in the Upper House that could be inconvenient or embarrassing to the government.

Why, then, did he choose to embarrass the government publicly here? Why now?

Multiple explanations are making the rounds, with several observers refusing to attach much significance to it. He may have been asked to make pro-farmer statements to suggest that the government actually encourages dissenting opinion, perhaps, and that people are free to question central ministers, some say.

They dismiss speculation that the vice president deliberately embarrassed Chouhan, acting on the behest of the RSS to besmirch the government's image of the government. For this is what others believe: That it was an attack deliberately choreographed to embarrass Shivraj Singh Chouhan, once tipped to be the next prime minister.

There are yet others who believe that it is simply a trial balloon, an overture to the farmers who are agitating and who are planning to march again to Delhi from Punjab on 6 December.

Farmers from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have already tried to enter Delhi this week, demanding adequate compensation for their land and remunerative prices for their crops. Dhankhar’s statements might help defuse the tension and pave the ground for talks, these observers feel.

The more adventurous reactions speculate that the stinging statements from the vice president signal something more substantial.

Is it an indication that despite the recent electoral successes in Haryana and Maharashtra, the current BJP leadership has weakened and it is the RSS which is calling the shots?

A few seem to believe that the politically ambitious vice president is merely cultivating a statesmanlike image to position himself to succeed President Droupadi Murmu when her term ends. In which case, wouldn't Dhankhar need the support of elected members of the state assemblies as well, and thus be anxious to build bridges.

Farmers have been agitating for a legal guarantee for the minimum support price (MSP). The government had formed a committee in 2022 to make the MSP mechanism more effective and transparent, but the committee is yet to submit its report.

Significantly, union ministers are rarely, if ever, asked such blunt questions by the media. Even on the rare occasion when they were asked, answers were not forthcoming.

The government rarely replies to questions raised under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, either, and even more rare have been discussions with the opposition, with chief ministers of affected states and with the farmers themselves.

In any case, the vice president’s unusually sharp rebuke to the government has given an opening to the Opposition. With Parliament in session, it provides them with the perfect opportunity to raise issues related to the farmers’ agitation and demand time for a discussion on it in the Rajya Sabha.

Tagging a post from the Vice President’s Office, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh has already said in a post on X: ‘The Indian National Congress is continuously asking this question… When will the legal guarantee on MSP become a reality? When will the Swaminathan formula be implemented to decide MSP? When will farmers get the same benefits as capitalists who have been given relief from debt?’

When, indeed?