Modi phenomenon can crash in case 3 farm acts are junked, at stake is also democratic resistance

 

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 In concrete terms, they proposed that these acts should be repealed and a committee constituted including their representatives for formulating reform measures to be incorporated in the new legislation.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.