It’s not about farmers, silly. It’s about votes.

The political high drama at Bhatta Parsaul, the Ground Zero of the Uttar Pradesh farmer’s agitation, is ultimately about who gets the maximum eyeballs and in the long run, the votes in the heartland of cow belt politics.

“I have seen the violence unleashed on your youth and women. By seeing what has happened here, I feel ashamed to be an Indian. The state government is tormenting its own people," said Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday. He was making a political statement, not possibly one of actual concern.

He had sneaked into the trouble spot earlier to support the farmers, surprising the state administration. His interaction with the agitators, subsequent late night arrest and release was a well-orchestrated move to grab attention. He managed to make other leaders and parties look silly and score a few political brownie points.

The sense of urgency among the parties is palpable. The Samajwadi Party is losing ground in its home state. It is seeking to connect with the farmers for an aggressive image revamp. If it doesn’t, it will have to live with the ‘also ran’ status in the state. The BJP needs UP badly to be a robust alternative to the Congress at the Centre. The Hindutva agenda has lost its pull and it must find new issues to engage the masses.

The Congress is worried about its shrinking space in the Hindi heartland. It no more commands its absolute political superiority in most of the North Indian states. The BJP has done the damage in most of these states as have regional parties like the BSP, Sawajwadi Party and the now waning RJD. It has left the party at the mercy of coalition partners in Delhi.

So it must strive hard in UP.

Rahul is taking the lead.

Farmers’ are incidental. They have been demanding higher compensation over the last few months. It never attracted the attention of the political class earlier. Once things turned volatile, the opposition decided to check in. Rahul still has to answer why the UPA government has failed to draw up a land acquisition and compensation policy.

The issue has been around for long. We have seen the state vs farmer conflict in Nandigram and Singur in West Bengal, in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa, where steel major Posco plans its Rs 51,000-crore project and in Jaitapur in Maharashtra. Compensation has always been a sensitive issue. But the Congress-led UPA is yet to wake up to the urgency of the issue.

Meanwhile, the farmers, who have lost their land under the antiquated Land Acquisition Act, continue to suffer. If they turn violent, the blame should be on the entire political class for failing to devise a solution.

Rahul may have made a political point. But his real test as a leader would be in pressuring the Centre to find a formula to address the recurring problem.