New Delhi: One of the members in the Supreme Court appointed panel to look into the controversial farm laws has pulled. Bhartiya Kisan Union’s (BKU) national president Bhupinder Singh Mann has stepped down stating he did not wish to ‘compromise farmers’ interests’. His decision to step down came a day ahead of the next round of talks between the government and the farmers. The matter will now go back to the Supreme Court for further orders.
“As a farmer myself and a Union leader, in view of the prevailing sentiments and apprehensions amongst farm unions and the public in general, I am ready to sacrifice any position offered or given to me so as not to compromise the interests of Punjab and farmers of the country,” Mann said in a statement released by the BKU.
Mann heads his own faction of the BKU. He was part of the four-member committee formed Tuesday by the Supreme Court to begin a dialogue with the farmers and the government and suggest a solution to the 50-day protest continuing on the borders of the national capital. Farmers’ groups, however, had rejected the committee. They said the Supreme Court elected members were already in favour of farm laws. The farmer unions accused the government of engineering the issue.
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Mann is one of the few farm union leaders to have come out in support of the Centre’s new farm laws. He was part of a group of farmers that met Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar in December.
“Bhupender Mann’s organisation BKU sacked him that’s why he has resigned. He used his position for political mileage,” said Rajinder Singh Deepsinghwala, a member of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM). Deepsinghwala added that the protesting farmers are seeing the resignation as a ‘small victory’ as it has ‘discredited the committee formed by the Supreme Court’.