Farmers’
survival pitted against Modi model of pro-corporate governance and divisive
politics
Jagtar Singh
Ground Zero
The stakes
are now much higher.
At stake is
the survival of the farmers pitted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi phenomenon
and his pro-corporate and divisive model of politico-economic discourse.
For the
country, it is an opportunity to restore faith in participatory democracy.
The unprecedented
mobilization on the socio-economic issue of survival of the farmers as
reflected in the extensive support to the peaceful Bharat Bandh from Gurdaspur
to Guwahati poses the first serious
threat to the pro-corporate and divisive model of governance that India has
been subjected to under Modi since 2014.
A very
interesting aspect of the situation is that the farmer wing of the Rashtriya
Swayamseak Sangh that groomed Modi over the years had expressed reservations at
the early stage itself about the three farm ordinances as the resistance got triggered
in Punjab. This was at the time when the Akali Dal top leadership including
Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Harsimrat Kaur Badal was stoutly
defending the new farm trade model that the farmers feared to be threat to
their very existence.
In case the
struggle succeeds in the repeal of the three farm acts, this would amount to demolition
of the Modi phenomenon. The Prime Minister has repeatedly defended these acts
as pro-farmer and the need of the hour to reform the farm sector. There are no
two opinions that the farm sector desperately needs reforms but the same can’t
be at the very survival of the farmers. The farmers should have been consulted
at various levels before introducing such drastic changes that are rather farm
trade oriented and not farmer oriented that the corporates can now monopolise
posing problems for the consumers too.
Going by
the discussion at the last meeting of the farmer leaders with the government,
agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar offered that the government was
willing to accommodate almost every
concern raised by them in writing but for scrapping of these acts.
The farmer
leaders made a vary pragmatic counter offer saying that they were not opposed
to reforms per se but these same must be introduced in consultation with them. In
concrete terms, they proposed that these acts should be repealed and a
committee constituted including their representatives for formulating reform
measures to be incorporated in the new legislation. This is the correct
approach to the logjam.
But then the
Modi phenomenon would crash if these acts are junked.
It seems
that the survival of the Modi model of pro-corporate and divisive narrative is
more crucial that the very survival of the farmers, at least in the short run.
The RSS has
been working very hard to put its Hindu Rashtra stamp all over India and the
way the party contested the local body polls in Hyderabad is its latest
example. The success of the farm struggle has the potential to block the
Hindutva juggernaut.
This divisive
narrative can be confronted only by inclusive narrative that was the idea of
India that evolved during the framing of the constitution after the partition
in 1947. The Sangh Parivar has been targeting that very idea of inclusive India
that is the foundation of every participatory democracy. Distributing gas
cylinders to people irrespective of religion or similar distinctions is not the
participatory democracy but just amounts to throwing some crumbs.
The Bharat
Bandh has made it evident that such mobilization against the divisive narrative
is possible with non-divisive issues and concerns at the centre.
The farmers
are the axis around which the economy revolves and that has been proved during
this pandemic. The Indian economy that has been receiving repeated hits since demonetization
has survived mainly because of the farm sector. The issue of survival of the
farmers should be the concern each and every
Indian in this backdrop.
This
awareness seems to have been converted into massive support to the farmers
cause going by the Bharat Bandh.
It is the
farmer who has to be saved, not just the farming that the corporates now want
to monopolise. The farmers have realized the threat to their very existence.
It is for
this reason that these farm laws just be junked and a panel set up. The Modi
phenomenon is not more important than the very existence of the farmers.
The farmers
struggle is already getting transformed into mass movement with global
attention.
What is
needed is just one more push.
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