Suspension of farm laws is only solution as farmers announce tractor parade in Delhi on Republic Day

 

Suspension of farm laws is the key as farmers intensify struggle for existence

Jagtar Singh

Ground Zero

As the farmers organisations give the call for Tractor Parade in Delhi on Republic Day on January 26 to press for the revocation of the three contentious farm laws, it must be known to every section in the country and the media that these are the very people whose ancestors made sacrifices for the freedom of the country. The forefathers of the people who are now ruling the country were not part of that narrative. Not only that. Veer Savarkar, the author of Hindutva, had apologized from the Cellular Jail in Andamans. Facts can’t be changed.

The government can avoid the showdown.

This column on December 24 had proposed that the Narendra Modi government should offer suspension of the three contentious farm laws  as a way forward to take the negotiations towards the logical conclusion with the farmers protesting at the doors of the capital of world’s biggest democracy in this sub-zero temperature under the sky to protect their very existence that they perceive to be under threat from these so-called reforms in the key sector of the economy.

As the farmers body announce the decision to peacefully intensify the struggle that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly berated as being misled,  suspension for two years is the only solution to facilitate the return of lakhs of men, women and children to their homes who are spending their nights in the tractor-trolleys and tents. Their number is increasing every day as more farmers head towards Delhi even from far off states like Maharashtra and Karnataka. It is no more the mobilization of the farmers only from Punjab.

Of course, the struggle is being commanded by farmers from Punjab that is going to be the worst affected by these three laws that were brought in without any consultation not only with the people who are going to be impacted but also without any meaningful discussion in Parliament, thereby raising questions on the intent of the Modi government behind this move.

The farmers body spearheading the protest that is now under global focus today announced stepping up of this the most peaceful struggle of this magnitude in any country with tractor parade in the national capital on the Republic Day when India displays its might on the Rajpath every year.

Now the country would witness a parallel parade.

And the Modi media would attack this move as anti-national. Earlier, the protesting farmers were attacked by this section of the media, the Modi government  and the Bharatiya Janata Party as Urban Naxals and Khalistanis. The people at large have now realized that the issues on which the farmers are protesting would hit them hard too as the corporates monopolise the food grains trade facilitated by these laws.

The government thinking is clear from the writings of pro-government farm economists and lobbyists who continue to attack this struggle as having been launched by rich farmers of Punjab, overlooking the fact that 86 per cent of them in this state are small and marginal. They should visit these people camping on the Delhi borders to update themselves. But this would not suit them.

The Modi government should know that nothing can deter these people. The demand is just one-take back the three  black laws. The demand for legal protection to the minimum support price is at number two.

The minimum support price for 23  crops is misnomer and highly misleading. The MSP is available to only six per cent of the farmers and that too only on wheat and paddy, mainly in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP.  The farmers even in Punjab where the marketing system is the most developed don’t get MSP on other crops.

The government should face the facts.

The government should know that these people would not return without forcing the repeal of these laws. Unlike the Modi government, they are not dictated by false ego or ulterior motives. They are fighting for their very existence and dignified way of life.

The government at the next meeting on January 4 should initiate steps for the suspension of these laws and  constitute a committee of farm experts with representatives from the organisations leading the struggle. The farm economists should not be only from the government side.

This is the only dignified exit from this deadlock for  both the sides.

Any conspiracy to malign this struggle or sabotage it would boomerang on the Modi government.

It is a do or die battle.