Ex-BJP union minister extends support to farmers

Chandigarh, Dec 19 (IANS) Senior Haryana Jat leader and former BJP's Union Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh has supported the farmers agitation, saying he's keen to go to the borders of Delhi where farmers have been staging protests against the new farm laws for the past 24 days. "The farmers' protest is now everybody's agitation," the Jat leader, who joined a dharna in the support of the farmers on Friday, said.The dharna was organised by members of the Sir Chhotu Ram Manch near the statue of Sir Chhotu Ram that was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2018 at Sampla in Rohtak district.Grandson of well-known farmers' rights leader, Sir Chhotu Ram, Birender Singh is a towering Jat leader in Haryana.When he failed to get his due in the Congress party, with whom he remained associated for over four decades, Birender Singh, who was a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first council of ministers, switched loyalties to the BJP just before the Haryana assembly elections in 2014. His son Brijendra Singh is the BJP MP from Hisar. "I stand by farmers. This is everybody's agitation now. It's not limited to a section of society. I am already in the field and have made up my mind. If I am not in the frontline, then people will feel that I am just doing politics, nothing else," Chaudhary Birender Singh told the media.At the state inauguration ceremony, Modi had hailed the contribution of Sir Chhotu Ram and compared him with Sardar Patel.
--IANS vg/ash