Both farmers and Modi are fighting the battle of their very existence

 

Battle lines sharpen between farmers and Prime Minister Modi

Jagtar Singh

Ground Zero

 

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi aggressively defending the three contentious farm laws yesterday while attacking the protesting farmers camping on the borders of Delhi as a miniscule section, the battle lines are turning thick and sharp.

If the farmers are fighting for their survival and the struggle has turned pan-India, Modi is now fighting for his own survival – not of his government per se. The Modi phenomenon would get decimated in case the farmers struggle succeeds in forcing the repeal of the three laws. This would in turn dismantle the agenda of the corporates who want to monopolise the farm trade, and thereby the farm sector in the long run. The farmers in Punjab understood the dubious and destructive design behind the three farm laws in the name of reforms at the very first stage itself.

The political parties took their positions only after the farmer organisations in Punjab started their protests. Those who know the sequence in Punjab would not give much credence to the line having been adopted by Modi that the force behind the agitation is the Congress. The agitation suits the Congress and other opposition parties. The Modi government and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh should have realised the gravity of situation when its alliance partner of more than two decades- the Shiromani Akali Dal- was forced to break it after initially defending these laws. The Akali Dal is still to recover from its self-inflicted injuries.

Countering every attack from the government, the farmer leaders today evening set concrete agenda for the talks along with date and time- December 29 at 11.00 am. The government has only been talking in vague terms of offering some amendments in its letters.

The two main items on the agenda are finalising the procedure for the repeal of three farm laws and legal guarantee on purchase on minimum support price, in that order.

Modi had yesterday made it clear there would be no going back. This was his most aggressive defence of his decision to introduce ‘reforms’ in farm sector but end up in domain of trade rather than the farming. The farmers too maintain the demand for repeal is non-compromising.

Rebutting the offensive from Modi that only the farmers from Punjab and Haryana were rejecting the three laws, leaders from at least ten states were present at the press briefing in the evening while several others were present at the meeting that finalised the concrete agenda to be forwarded to the government for talks. Every decision by the farmers leaders is being taken by evolving consensus. They are already under pressure from the younger generation to take the next step to intensify the agitation. This is the situation that Akali Dal president and Morcha Dictator Sant Harchand Singh Longowal had faced within a few weeks of launching the Dharam Yudh agitation on August 4, 1982.

The government now can’t run away.

The corporate sector has already started feeling the heat of the agitation, particularly in Punjab with the farmers targeting the Jio towers in the rural areas at their own to snap their power supply. The toll plazas in Punjab have been free from the time the agitation had been launched by the farm organisations after joining hands.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singhhas  suggested to the farmers to try these laws at least for a year or two and then decide about the future action.

The same applies to the government too. The Modi government should hold these laws in abeyance for a year or two and form a committee to have wider consultations.

The Modi government had adopted these laws without consultation violating democratic norms. The government first issued ordinances which were enacted into laws – all during pandemic. What was the hurry? Modiji should also explain it.

Rajnath Singh should convince the Prime Minister to withdraw these laws for two years and start the process for wider consultations with farm leaders and farm economists who understand the logic of farm economics with particular reference to Punjab and Haryana.

All efforts of the Modi government to malign this struggle have failed. The government had earlier succeeded with steamrollering of CAA and Article 370.

It is the farm sector that is now posing  threat to the very existence of Modi as the unquestioned leader.

The success of the farmers struggle would dismantle the superstructure that created Modi and this is what is being defended by Modi himself.

The battle is being commanded by Punjab and the farm leaders spearheading it have been saying repeatedly that they won’t return with a failure.

It is a fight to the finish  and at stake is the survival of the farmers on one side and the Modi phenomenon on the other. The issue on both the sides are existential.