Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Bihar on Sunday to take part in Swami Sahjanand Saraswati Jayanti Samaroh. The Samaroh is billed as Kisan-Majdoor Samagam at Patna in Bapu Sabhagar where a huge number of farmers of the state will welcome the Home Minister.

Convenor of Kisan Majdoor Samagam and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Thakur from Bihar confirmed this to ANI.

“Union Home Minister Amit Shah is arriving in Bihar on February 22 and he will take part in Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Jayanti Samaroh at Bapu Sabhagar where Union Home Minister will address farmers from across the state,” Thakur said.

Speaking to ANI, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Vivek Thakur said, “Swami Sahjanand Saraswati was the biggest peasant leader of India who has not been accorded the due place that history or governments should have. On the occasion of his birth anniversary, our Honourable Union Home Minister Amit Shah will give a message to the farmers of Bihar and the country that the Modi government is the real doer for farmers and wherever injustice will be done, the Centre stands strongly with farmers.”

Hitting out at the state government over ‘farmers’ issues’ the MP said, “Farmers of Bihar have been neglected by all previous governments in the state and the way farmers are being treated by the Grand Alliance government in Bihar is a major concern for us because more than 50 per cent people are dependent on agriculture and despite that Nitish Kumar government is not ready to listen to the voice of farmers. They are being treated as one who do not matter and are only facing police brutality and government apathy and that is not acceptable to BJP,” BJP MP Thakur further said.

Swami Sahajanand Saraswati was born in Deva Village near Dullahpur, Ghazipur district in Eastern Provinces in 1889 but his ‘karmabhoomi’ was Bihta in the Patna district.

It’s pertinent to note that even Subhash Chandra Bose after assuming the charge of Congress national president came to Bihta to meet Swamiji seeking his support in the freedom movement.

The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Saraswati, who formed the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in 1929 in order to mobilise small peasants against the zamindari system and thus sparking the farmers’ movements in India.

Gradually, the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. All these radical developments on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in April 1936 with Saraswati elected as its first President.

Saraswati organised the Bakasht movement in Bihar from 1937 to 1938. “Bakasht” means self-cultivated. The movement was against the eviction of tenants from Bakasht lands by zamindars and led to the passing of the Bihar Tenancy Act and the Bakasht Land Tax.

He also led the successful struggle in the Dalmia Sugar Mill at Bihta, where peasant-worker unity was the most important characteristic.

Bihar BJP sources told ANI that BJP is planning to organise a few other programmes during Shah’s visit to the state.