Opportunity for Knowledge Movement to shoulder Responsibility to play Singular Role
Lalit K Kaul
The farmers’ movement seemed to have
become rudderless. Beginning with a thunderous and heavily loaded proclamation “Repeal
all 3 agriculture laws” to wandering and knocking at the doors of political
parties to oppose NDA (BJP) looked symbolic of derailment due to (may be) lack
of understanding of the political connotations of the public statement that the
leaders of Samyukth Kisan Morcha (SKM) repeatedly made while sitting on dharna and
summarily disposed off the government’s pleas to come to the negotiating table.
The proclamation kindled a hope that
a new dawn was inevitable if not imminent because it challenged the very sovereignty
and sanctity of the Parliament and therefore the whole movement was not just
about the agricultural laws but about the extant democratic dispensation governed
through the laws passed in the “temple” of democracy.
While it looked that the entire
movement had lost steam and the rationale behind it, the BKU in Punjab, deviating
from the plan of SKM, seems to have put some life in to it by questioning the
very role of Congress in agrarian crisis and holding it responsible for various
imbalances in Indian society including un-kept promises etc., but the punch line
is that the BKU held Globalization and Liberalization policies as introduced by
the then Congress government in the year 1990 as solely responsible for all the
disparities, discriminations, loss of jobs including lopsided development. The
point being made is not that BKU is targeting Congress, but the policies as
enacted in the Parliament and which according to it had been exploitative; had
any non Congress government been in power the onus would have been on them. The
departure from SKM is in that the Congress was not to be targeted.
Despite the support extended by the
Punjab Congress government to the ongoing farmers’ movement, as an act of
political expediency, the BKU declared that Congress had been anti farmer and
responsible for agrarian crisis. It’s like locating and pointing at the root
cause.
The opposition parties, again as an
act of political expediency, have been supporting the farmers’ proclamation and
thereby asserting that the Parliament had become Infructuous and that decisions
regarding governance of the country should be taken through agitations and Gheraos.
The Arab Spring and Iranian Islamic
Revolution:
Very genuine, legitimate and
profoundly relevant revolutions ended up in being of no consequence. Post
revolution the new regimes failed to set an example – for at least the Muslim
world- of how to provide an alternative to the system that’s over dependent on
the alien World View and be on equal footing with the Western world and other extant
democracies. The Ayatollah of Iran having declared Iran as Islamic Republic had
no alternate socio political socio economical regimes (based on their holy scriptures)
to offer to the people of Iran. The net result is that only the name changed
while the Iranian Nation remained torn between two exclusive world views – the Islamic
and the un-Islamic. The net result: the regime has become too oppressive and
voices of dissent are growing by the day.
The Arab Spring is a bigger tragedy
because the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt failed to deliver when the masses
expected it to. MB was founded in 1928 post fall of Ottoman Empire and declaration
of Turkey as a secular and democratic nation state by Mustafa Kemal. MB all
through its existence in Egypt remained very active and popular among the
masses in social and religious domains and never ever engaged itself in any
kind of violence even when in 2012/13 it was made to disappear from the public
domain. MB over the decades until Arab Spring won sizeable number of seats in
their Parliament and in the year 2005-2010 they had 85 seats a sizeable number.
MB actively took part in parliamentary proceedings by way of proposing pro
people amendments to the bills brought forward by the ruling party and all through
it stood for non oppressive governance. Then Arab Spring happened and the
elections held after the revolution the MB won a handsome majority, but
miserably failed to legislate in favour of the people as they were torn between
Sharia and the extant predominant world view. The people revolted leading to
coup by the army!! Oppression was let loose on MB and since 2012/13 it has
failed to revive.
The Farmers’ Movement:
From the BKU dynamics in Punjab it
can be safely assumed that a wholesale change is being sought. Assuming that in
the next few years the movement shall be able to overthrow the government of
the day- remember the BKU has declared no faith in political parties as
according to it all are responsible for the plight of an ordinary citizen- then
if they don’t possess an alternate implementable democratic dispensation/set up
that is governed by the grass root leadership of the people their whole effort
may go the Iranian/Arab Spring way.
The Role of Knowledge Movement:
Being well versed with the dynamics
of the farmers’ movements and being the only articulator of the aspirations of
Lok Vidhya Samaj having accorded them social respectability by defining its
members as “Knowledge Beings”, it is this samaj that’s in search of an
alternative and that LJA and Vidya Ashram have the responsibility to frame and
articulate. It’s a singular chance for those associated with the Knowledge
Movement to lead the way and develop an alternate way of democratically
electing representatives along with its own World View that would define and
govern all the dimensions of human societies for people’s emancipation and redemption
of their self esteem.
A document detailing the defining
parameters of “New Politics” and its regime of social, economical and religious
development; if prepared, can be widely circulated among the samaj and
especially the leaders of the farmers’ movement regardless of their
affiliations. The discussions with the Kisan leaders and others from the samaj
can be initiated, based on the circulated document. There is this capability within
the group and there is Time; what is to be resolved is: should the Knowledge
Movement be on the driving seat for a new political dispensation or should it miss
the bus.
May be we all can start discussing
about it via webinars; may be once every week!
