Two days after Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kangana Ranaut said she believed that the repealed farm laws should be brought back, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi questioned who was in charge of decision-making at the Centre.

“Who decides official policy?” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha asked. “Is it Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi or a BJP MP?”

The Congress leader said that the Opposition INDIA bloc would not allow any “conspiracy of the BJP against our farmers” to succeed. “If any step is taken to harm the farmers, Modiji will have to apologise again,” he added.

Gandhi alleged that the BJP was not satisfied “even after the martyrdom of more than 700 farmers, especially the farmers of Haryana and Punjab”, referring to the 2020-2021 farmers’ protest.

At a rally in poll-bound Haryana, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal also questioned the Centre about Ranaut’s statement, describing it as a “warning bell” for farmers. He also took note of former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s statement from Tuesday that those protesting at the Shambhu border between Punjab and Haryana were not real farmers.

“When you press the [voting] button this time, do it in such a way that he should wonder if he is a real Khattar or a fake one,” Kejriwal urged voters at the rally.

Ranaut’s apology

A day after Ranaut made the remarks on the farm laws, the BJP said that it disapproved of it. Party spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said that Ranaut’s remarks were her “personal statements”.

She was not “authorised to make such a statement on behalf of BJP and it doesn’t depict BJP’s view on the farm bills”, said Bhatia.

Responding to Bhatia’s statement, Ranaut said in a social media post on Wednesday that the remarks on the farm laws were her personal views and not the BJP’s stand.

In a video posted on her social media account, Ranaut expressed regret for making the comment. “I must remember that I’m no longer only an artist, but a worker of the BJP and that my opinions cannot be my own but those of the party,” she said.

2020-2021 farmers’ protest

In 2020, the Centre introduced three new farm laws claiming they would enhance farmers’ access to markets and boost production through private investment.

The laws were repealed in November 2021 after more than a year of protests by farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh who held sit-in agitations at Delhi’s borders. They claimed the laws would make them vulnerable to corporate exploitation and dismantle the minimum support price regime.

Modi, while announcing that the laws would be repealed, had sought forgiveness from the people. He had said that the Union government had introduced the laws with pure intentions, but could not explain their importance to some farmers.