Shed arrogance, withdraw farm laws, save lives
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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