The Rashtriya Janata Dal on Friday invoked Mahatma Gandhi against the controversial farm laws and geared up to spearhead a vigorous agitation in Bihar.

The party will begin with a daylong dharna in front of the Gandhi statue at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna from Saturday. The party has appealed to all organisations related to agriculture and farmers to join the agitation.

The RJD asserted the three new farm laws were “the biggest attack on the thoughts and principles of Mahatma Gandhi, who considered villages, agriculture and farmers as foundation of our country. Therefore we are starting with a sit-in protest under the leadership of our leader Tejashwi Yadav at the Gandhi murti (statue) in Gandhi Maidan”.

RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav pointed out that it was the Champaran Satyagraha that turned Gandhi into Gandhi that we all know.

“Gandhiji protested against the compulsory indigo farming and the atrocities on farmers in Champaran. A similar situation has arisen today. The farmers will have to work like labourers, but their rights and honour will be taken away from them due to the new farm laws,” Tejashwi said.

Gandhi had visited Patna on April 10, 1917. He went to Muzaffarpur on the same evening to enquire about the grievances of farmers forced by the British to cultivate indigo on a fixed portion of their land (3 out of every 20 cottahs of land, also known as the Tinkathia system).

Gandhi stayed at Muzaffarpur for three days and then proceeded to Motihari in East Champaran to get a firsthand account of the situation. He launched a satyagraha, which culminated in the abolition of the Tinkathia system of indigo farming.

It also gave the weapon of non-violent agitation to the country that brought a new vigour to the freedom movement.

The farmers across the country, including a large number of them at Delhi, are at present protesting the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act brought by the central government earlier this year.

They fear that these laws will end the MSP (minimum support price) system, make them dependent on the private agrimarketing companies, and leave them at the mercy of big players in the field.

Tejashwi said the current BJP-led government at the Centre has conspired to privatise everything and it was the turn of agriculture now.

“I appeal to the farmers and their organisations to come out on the streets against these black laws in agriculture and strengthen the ongoing agitation against them. The present and future of farming and farmers are at stake. Farmers of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and other states are angry with the present government. It did not even consult the farmers before bringing these laws,” he added.

The RJD leader also pointed out that the repeal of the APMC Act by chief minister Nitish Kumar in Bihar in 2006 has harmed the farmers so much that they have been forced to become migrant labourers.

“The farmers in Bihar do not get adequate price for their produce. The procurement of paddy this season has not started. The farmers here have been forced to leave agriculture and become migrant labourers,” Tejashwi said.

Around 70 per cent of the population in Bihar is dependent on agriculture and allied activities. Over 93 per cent farmers in the state are either marginal (having less than 2.5 acres of land) or small farmers (having less than 5 acres of land).

Meanwhile, the CPI-ML has decided to block the movement of vehicles and trains in the state on Saturday to protest against the new farm laws. It has also announced that an indefinite satyagraha and traffic blockade will be held in Bihar if the laws are not repealed.