Farmers struggle
for survival and Shiromani Akali Dal heads towards confrontation
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
With three
back-to-back press conferences within 48 hours against each other, the farmers
struggle for survival commanded by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the Shiromani
Akali Dal intensifying its battle for political power are now heading towards
confrontation. The SKM has nothing to lose in this confrontation.
The provocation
is the harassment and humiliation by some angry agitators of several Akali
volunteers and activist going to Delhi to participate in the protest organised
by the Shiromani Akali Dal and returning from there.
Of course,
this should not have happened as it is democratic right of every party and
individual to hold own political views and participate in such mobilisations. Such
humiliation is highly condemnable.
The Akali
Dal released several videos of these cases of harassment yesterday. This
happened ay Singhu and Tikri borders where farmers have been sitting on dharna
for months.
Farm struggle
senor leader Balbir Singh Rajewal today morning joined issues articulating what he described as the anger among the
people in Punjab who had refused to digest the Akali Dal narrative, going back
to even Bargari sacrilege case that is still to be taken to logical conclusion.
Akali Dal was part of the Narendra Modi government when these laws were
formulated and adopted by the cabinet.
The Bargari
sacrilege narrative is dated 2015 when the Akali Dal was in power. Capt
Amarinder Singh too paid the cost of not taking these cases to the logical
conclusion and this was one of the reasons for his replacement by Charanjit
Singh Channi who has asserted that he would not disappoint people on this
issue.
The Akali
Dal hit back within hours and charged Rajewal of playing politics.
Let this
narrative of farm acts associated with the role of Akali Dal be listed in
proper sequence without comment.
Akali Dal
has been marketing resignation of Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal from
the Modi cabinet as ‘unprecedented sacrifice’ and this line was repeated today
too by its senior leader Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal at the news conference.
Cabinet
decision is a collective responsibility and she was member of the Modi cabinet
that approved the three laws that were promulgated as ordinance on June 5. The
ordinance route is resorted to only as emergency measure and these laws could
have waited for adopted in Parliament.
She was part
of the decision both to adopt these laws and promulgation of ordinance.
Rajewal
today called upon the Akali Dal to provide minutes of the cabinet meeting in
case Harsimrat Kaur Badal had registered her dissent.
The Akali
Dal was part of the decision making at the cabinet level. One of the three
bills was modelled on the one adopted by the Akali Dal government in 2013.
The farmers
organisations launched protest within no time of the implementation of these
laws on June 5.
The first
Akali leader to aggressively defend these laws was again Harsimrat Kaur Badal
followed by her husband and Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal within 24
hours at emergency media briefing on a single point agenda.
She ‘sacrificed’
her ministerial position on September 17, 2020 in protest against adoption of
these bills in Parliament followed by end to alliance between the Akali dal and
the BJP a few days later.
Five time
chief minister Parkash Singh Badal too had stepped in to promote these laws
before she quit the cabinet.
This is the
record of the Akali Dal that is now being questioned by the farmers to which they are not getting any convincing
reply. There is not.
It is important
to recall that the Akali Dal had recalled its two ministers- Surjit Singh
Barnala and Dhanna Singh Gulshan- from the union cabinet in 1979. This was
never claimed to be sacrifice.
The Akali
Dal MPs, two on Lok Sabha and two in Rajya Sabha, resigned their seats on
February 21, 1983. This again was never marketed as sacrifice.
The
resignation by Harsimrat Kaur Badal is not ‘unprecedented sacrifice’.
It is
pertinent to mention that while the Akali Dal defended these bills, the
Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, the farmers wing of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the
mother organisation of the BJP, had expressed its reservations on July 23, 2020
in Punjab maintaining these ordinances in the present form were “unacceptable
and have the potential to exploit farmers”.
The flash
point was the clash between the angry farmers and the Akalis at election campaign mobilisation of Akali Dal at
Moga a few days back.
Although there
was no such call, village after village has been banning entry of political
leaders who are going about as part of election campaign. It is having chain
reaction. Sukhbir Singh Badal launched his 100-day intensive poll campaign
amidst this backdrop. This was not acceptable to the people in villages who
have been fighting for survival.
The priority
of the political parties is to compete for power in view of Assembly elections
due in February 2022.
The farmers
are fighting not just for their own survival but to protect interests of the
people at large. The consumer too would be hit hard in case of monopolisation
of farm sector by the corporates that is the objective of these laws. The
objective of these laws is push a big chunk of the small farmers out of farm
sector as stated by the economists advocating these ‘reforms’.
The
political parties in Punjab should opt for low key mobilisations rather than
coming into confrontation with the farm struggle as has happened in case of
Akali Dal.
This
struggle is unprecedented and is being
keenly watched by the global players.
Going by the
experience since 1997, it does not matter much to the common person as to which
party is in power.
Power politics
is business for political players.
There is
little difference between the Congress and the Akali Dal as the Aam Aadmi Party
rule is still to be tasted by the Punjabis.
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