The Farmers and the
Government on a Jungle Safari
(From Jungle to Zoo & Back
Everyday Anytime!)
Lalit
K Kaul
From Jungle (Sikri Border) to Zoo
(Jantar Mantar) and back; all free of cost ostensibly, but to be borne by the
tax payer; hospitality extended for the first time in the history of
independent India only to ridicule those who think that they are agitating for
a cause dear to them. Who cares? As long all of it is peaceful and the
electronic media gets busy overtime with quality competition in earning TRP and
the unemployed politicians improve their visibility by standing in front of the
multiple cameras while answering questions that neither have any relevance nor
the rationale, because none of these Netas have courage to state explicitly
what’s truly going on and neither do the journalists have courage to ask
relevant questions.
Not to stay behind are the employed
Netas who have their own motivations to support what’s “Farmer’s” movement and
going ahead in their support of the demands with a conviction that they are
never ever going to govern the Nation through the Acts of the Parliament as
they would always fill opposition benches with diminishing numbers perhaps.
No Answers in Sight:
Without going into the merits of the
ongoing “movement” or the ones that were organized from time to time in the
independent India because that’s the business/conviction of those who lead/have
led such movements; the question that begs an answer in independent India is:
What form of agitation shall yield results for both the agitators and the
government? No answers in sight, as on date. There is this need to apply one’s
mind separately and collectively to find an answer.
In this land of ours, people have
been witness to both violent and non violent forms of agitations and the
response of the incumbent governments have been to quell the violent ones with
the might of the State and to ignore the non violent ones. In certain
instances, the government has succeeded in transforming a peaceful agitation in
to a violent one through its party’s political machinations and then quelled it
with all the force at its command. In certain cases, the peaceful agitations
that essentially brought up socio-economic issues were reduced to a low level
trade union activity and some crumbs were thrown at the agitators. The problems
remained to be, the management was done, though.
The governments of the day
irrespective of the party they belonged to have excelled in the art of tiring
down the agitating people with all the apparatuses at its command. Violent ones
reduce to a few gun shots being fired here and there accompanied by occasional
bomb blasts, only to emphasize their continued presence and the non violent
ones die out due to sheer exhaustion but trying to salvage the minimum possible
in the end, if only as the face saving exercise for its leadership.
But this One is Unique:
The government offering the
agitators to help them in continuing their agitation, because we are told it’s
everybody’s fundamental right, as long it is peaceful. Great gesture! True
believer in democratic principles! While the leaders may feel elated thinking
that the government has succumbed to their pressure and have become hospitable
to them, the fact is that the leaders of the agitation have fallen to the
machinations of the government. Else, both are playing to the gallery pushing
their own respective agendas that may have nothing to do with the farmers’
cause.
The Farce:
“Scrap all the three laws”, roars
the leader; in turn the response is “We are always ready for negotiations on
certain amendments that the farmers may seek”. The opposition steps in and
declares, “We support farmers”. The government knows what it’s up to, the
leader(s) of the farmers don’t seem to have got import of their demand and the
opposition is exploiting them for that very reason. Assuming that the farmer
leaders are conscientiously aware of the political dimensions of their single
line demand then the basic question is: Will that be resolved/ addressed to by
shuttling between Sikri border and Jantar Mantar? The government doesn’t care-
and this one cares the least- for how long Delhi is gheraoed so long as the
methods are “Gandhian”, no matter how big a section of population is adversely affected
by it (the irony being that they are the tax payers). So this tamasha from
Jungle to Zoo and back shall continue for a time indefinite as now the
government is supporting the movement.
Playing to the Gallery:
It is now an open secret that this
agitation is a political dual between the farmers’ leaders and the BJP party
leadership; the leader has made that clear by his deeds and words. The upcoming
UP elections 2022 & Lok Sabha elections 2024; the tussle is for the Jat (farmers)
votes in the Western UP. The leader is projecting himself as the savior of the farmers
and the BJP as unquestionable and un-blemishing upholder of democratic values
that inhibits it from using force to clear the National Capital Gherao &
this stand is now secular because anti CAA Gherao was also allowed to be, but
Corona played the villain because it does not know democratic norms.
BJP got a hard and humiliating slap
from Delhi electorate in the elections post anti CAA Gherao; it remains to be
seen who of the two receives that slap in 2022 and that may set the tone for
2024. The farce shall go on as usual unless once again some scientists in some
part of the world let loose a virus deadlier than Corona and that immediately flies
to Delhi for both the contestants to run for their lives.
