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Repeal contentious farm laws and evolve consensus on agri reforms as way forward

 


Roll back and re-enact farmer focussed and consensus based laws as  way forward

Ground Zero

 

Jagtar Singh

 

Ground Zero

 

Union Minister Amit Shah’s assurance at a meeting with the farmer leaders against count-down is a welcome dimension of the current politico-economic discourse rooted in the crisis that has been triggered following enactment of the three farm laws by the Narendra Modi government that relate mainly to trade and commerce.

This assurance was today conveyed by the farmer leaders at a media interaction after the press conference in which union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar repeated the proposals sent to the farmer leaders yesterday.

The farmer leaders have reiterated that the only way forward was the repeal of these contentious laws that has the potential to destroy the farmer and favour the corporate.

The present farmer struggle did not start at the gates of Delhi but in Punjab when the three farm ordinances were promulgated by the government at the centre provoking strong reaction in agriculturally the most advanced state that also happens to be the volatile region historically.

The resistance  that was started by Punjab has now acquired all-India dimension as the long-term disastrous fall out of these laws start getting realised by the farmers.

As the struggle is being led by Punjab, it is important to understand the narrative and the idiom with even the children having been drawn into this struggle that is being perceived as the very issue of survival.

This dimension is also important for the Modi government to understand while moving forward towards conflict resolution.

The disastrous Punjab Accord of 1985 signed between Akali Dal President Sant Harchand Singh Longowal and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has been recalled in the present context.

A farmer leader was heard saying from the stage at Singhu border the other day that they would not allow this struggle to meet the fate of the Punjab Accord. Sant Longowal was gunned down within less than a month of the signing of that agreement on July 24, 1985 for having betrayed the cause. That was the time when the militancy was still to revive after the army attack on Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) code named Operation Bluestar in June 1984.

There have been speculations regarding the government winning over some leaders of the farmers for similar exercise. This was what had happened in 1985. That Accord was finally consigned to the dustbin of history as Punjab entered next phase of militancy.

The present struggle is extremely peaceful despite efforts by some elements to introduce distortions and bring in issues rooted in radical discourse. The farmer leaders have rightly snubbed such elements.

That the perception against the laws has taken very deep roots is evident from the narrative having entered the Punjabi folk. Only one song had catalysed the entire struggle of the farmers in 1907 led by Ajit Singh and Lala Lajpat Rai. Now women have turned creative and weaving their own narrative.

This had not happened even during the struggle that Punjab had witnessed for a decade and a half beginning 1980.

This time, none in this region has any reservations about the nature of struggle that is not dictated by any political interests or agenda but by the basic survival issues.

Such a struggle can neither be crushed nor manoeuvred into sham settlement like the Punjab Accord.

What is healthy sign that neither the Modi government nor the farmer leaders have closed the doors on negotiations.

Rolling back the unpopular legislation would only reinforce the democratic traditions.

Indira Gandhi had experimented with authoritarianism in 1975 but failed.

The only state that had consistently put up resistance against Emergency was Punjab. History always has lessons for the rulers if they are  willing to learn.

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