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Shed arrogance, withdraw farm laws, save lives

 Ground Zero

 Jagtar Singh


India is confronted with unprecedented catastrophe.

Every life is precious.

There is also a section of the population that is fighting at two levels.

At one level is the fight for very survival and at the other is the immediate physical survival. They are the farmers, thousands of whom are camping at the gates of India’s capital demanding withdrawal of three contentious farm laws that in their perception threaten their very existence. Their apprehension is not misplaced. The underlying philosophy of these farm laws is to reduce the population of those who are dependent on agriculture as under the market mechanism, this is one of the mantras for taking the country to the higher tangent of development. This thesis is there in almost every write up by the economists who defend these laws on behalf of the Modi government.

It is, thus, wrong to say that the farmers are misguided.

It may be mentioned that for a section of the Indian leaders of that time, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the icon of the freedom struggle, too was a misguided patriot.

Covid originated in China but that country confronted the pandemic on war footing and contained it by creating the necessary infrastructure.

In India, this pandemic was confronted with ‘Taali and Thaali’.

This is the reason that the pandemic hit back ferociously after showing signs of getting subsided during the first phase pushing the decision makers into complacency.

The situation is such that India is seeking help even from China. This is the country for the boycott of whose goods call had been given by the Sangh Parivar outfits not so long ago.

India is gasping for oxygen. Nothing can be more shocking that a city state that is Singapore has supplied oxygen containers to a big country that is India.

But then the priority of the present rulers was Mandir-Masjid narrative to which the masses became the victims, not the health-care.

Anyway.

The urgent issue is that of the withdrawal of these three farm laws.

These laws are not more crucial to the economy of the country or the bloated ego of the people ruling the country than the lives of the very people who feed the very people who constitute the Indian nation. The food grain they produce is non-communal, impervious to the mandir-masjid narrative. The people who cater to the very basic needs are fighting for their own survival as the government continues to be stubborn.

It is pertinent to repeat that these laws were forced upon the people first through ordinance and then by adopting the same in Parliament without proper debate.

This procedure defies democratic norms of discussion and debate.

Ordinance route is adopted mainly during emergency and there was no urgency to introduce these laws without consulting the stakeholders.

The farmers have decided to risk corona so that their next generation survives. This is the basic to this narrative. They would not return without restoration of the status quo ante. Many of them are old men and women.

The BJP leaders say they should return.

But then why not facilitate their return by withdrawing these laws that propagate a failed model?

Moreover, are these laws crucial to the survival of the people in India at this crucial moment?

India failed to assess this pandemic.

Why can’t it be accepted by the rulers that their assessment while thrusting these laws too might have been flawed, like in case of the pandemic? These laws are based upon flawed perception.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the only person who cane make the critical choice in this case.

It is time to shed ego and facilitate the return of the farmers to their lands.

Dead bodies are already piling up in Shamshans and Kabristans.




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