Modi government’s stubbornness towards farmers struggle triggering fear of the unknown

 

Modi government’s stubbornness towards farmers struggle triggering fear of the unknown

 

Jagtar Singh

Ground Zero

Chandigarh: The apparently tough attitude of the Modi government to the  agitation by the farmers on the issues that concern their very livelihood and existence has started raising concerns among the people in general, especially in Punjab.

The repeated assertions made by  Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself that the three farm laws that has triggered the strongest ever mobilisation under this regime are for the welfare of the farmers have reinforced the impression that it is going to be a long haul.

It is this likely prolongation of the struggle that is raising apprehensions. Fear psychosis is slowly and steadily taking over at some levels.

Punjab has historically been fertile ground for militancy with the psyche shaped by the successive struggles for survival in known history. Baba Nanak was the first Rebel in hundreds of years when Babur took over to lay the foundation of the Mughal Empire.

This powerful peaceful mass struggle by the farmers commanded by Punjab farmers that has turned pan-India has attracted world attention. The Punjabis settled abroad are staging protest in almost every country where they are in sizeable numbers.

The ‘Pagri Samhal Jatta’ struggle in 1907 in colonial Punjab was peaceful struggle involving the farmers only in this province with epicentre being in the area that is now Pakistani Punjab. The British government finally addressed the concerns that had triggered the struggle. The then rulers got worried only after realising the fall out of the struggle on Sikh soldiers in the army. The area of struggle was also the main recruiting ground for the British Indian Army in this region. Ajit Singh, uncle of Bhagat Singh, and Lala Lajpat Rai who led that struggle were deported to Mandlay in Burma. The British authorities were forced to withdraw the new legislation that had sparked the agitation.

India witnessed the extreme in peaceful struggle during the Guru Ka Bagh morcha launched by the Sikhs as part of the gurdwara liberation movement that had then attracted global attention. The Akali volunteers would march to the protest site about 15 kms from the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex where they would be brutally lathicharged by the police till they fell down.

A section of the Akalis who revolted against the peaceful struggle opted for armed  resistance and organised the Babbar Akali Jatha. The political objective of the Babbar Akalis was the restoration of the Sikh Raj. Some of them were earlier active in the Ghadr Party whose attempt to throw out the British had failed in 1915.

The Akali agitation against Emergency from 1975 too was peaceful and prolonged. This was the only party in the country that had launched consistent struggle against the Emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. That historic  struggle by the Akali Dal has never been duly recognised at the national level.

The Dharam Yudh agitation launched on August 4, 1982 too was peaceful but militancy  had already been unleashed by that time with the first killing being on April 24, 1980. What happened in Punjab during that decade and a half is not in any distant past. This is what worries a section of the people in the state now. The fear of the unknow has started gripping the minds of some  sections.

It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh too has been raising such concerns, especially in the context of Punjab being the border state having a bitter past.

The present agitation is different from all others in the past.

It is a mass movement involving almost every section of the population in Punjab and Haryana that is led by the masses themselves. There is no cult leader. Leading the struggle is a collective of 31 farmers organisations supported by about 500 farmers bodies at the national level. Even in Punjab, two strong outfits are struggling independently although their leaders too go by the decision taken by the 31-member body. Farmers from several other states too have now joined the protest.

It should be clear to the Modi government by now that it would not be possible to create fissures among the farmers organisations. The state is at its old tactics of putting up some faceless dummies. This is not going to work.

This decision of the Modi government to introduce these laws overlooking the process started earlier to introduce the reforms in the farm sector is now itself being questioned. None questions the need for reforms. It is the procedure adopted by the government that has come under question, even by the farm economists and agriculture journalists.

The ball is in the court of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. None else can take any decision.

The situation calls for early solution. The government can’t force any law on the people in the name of welfare measure. It is the people who know what is the best for them.

The farmers have rejected these laws as they fear the same would spell doom. They have made their concerns known to the government  point by point in earlier meetings.

The farm laws concern both the producer and the consumer and  are not just the farmers issue.

Punjab provides the best lessons to the rulers in history-provided they are willing to learn.