Success of
farm struggle is defining moment in confronting corporates aided divisive agenda
of BJP
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
Rectifying blunders
is not the sign of weakness but strength of a strong leader.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi perceived to be Iron Man of contemporary Indian politics
has demonstrated his capacity to undo the wrong.
He has
announced repeal of the three controversial laws that aimed at handing over the
farm sector and the food trade to the corporates. The promulgation of these
laws through ordinance in June 2020 had sparked the farm struggle with Punjab
as the epicentre.
The farmers
struggling for their very survival were attacked by the Sangh Parivar and its
affiliates aided by the tames media as Khalistanis and Naxalites. The farmers
in Punjab are mainly the Sikhs.
This the
longest and the most peaceful agitation attracted global attention as it had
questioned free market model of
development that is anti-people. The issue was no more the three black laws but
the very path that the corporates are dictating in majority of the countries
through institutions like the World Bank controlled by rich countries. The only
object under this model is profit and lacks every ethical aspect of
development. Development has to be pro-people but the free market model is
cruel. In India, it is the wealth with the corporates that is multiplying while
disparities are increasing at alarming rate.
The three
black laws threatened the very survival of those dependent upon farming and the
worst affected were going to be the states including Punjab, Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh.
The corporates
have been eyeing the farm sector in the wake of the behaviour of capital during
the last some years as it is the farm sector that can assure adequate returns
and this has been proved as recently as the Covid when every other sector of
economy collapsed.
The divided
society suits the corporates the most.
The farm
struggle emerged as the first platform against juggernaut of divisive Hindutva
agenda that was set rolling with the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya
on December 6, 1992.
India
entered a new phase with the rise of the phenomenon that is Narendra Modi when
he took over as the Prime Minister in 2014 riding the waves of the divisive
politics while he gave the slogan of ‘Sabka
Saath, Sabka Vikaas’. Social tension has been on the rise in the country since
then as the Sangh Parivar now dictates even the food habits of the people.
The Kisan
Struggle when it reached the gates of Delhi finally started emerging as the
first massive secular platform. It is this dimension that has sent tremors in
the BJP strongholds including in Uttar Pradesh that is one of the two most
fertile states for this divisive agenda, the other being Gujrat.
The secular
dimension of the Farmers struggle now threaten the skilfully crafted electoral
dynamics in UP rooted in divisive dynamics, especially in its Western region. The
issue in UP in 2022 Assembly elections would not be just that of BJP retaining
the state but safeguarding the divisive cobweb from the emerging secular
onslaught nurtured by the kisan struggle.
All these
months, the pro-Modi media has been raising the bogey of this struggle being
used by the anti-India forces in the immediate neighbourhood and some other
countries.
Even then
chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh used to raise the spectre of Sikh youth
being exploited by such forces using Kisan Struggle as the cover.
However, the
struggle managed to counter all such efforts to weaken it. What happened in
Delhi on January 2021 was part of such designs, this one not by outside forces
but from within. It was a move to sabotage this struggle.
The Kisan
Struggle has made historic beginning in this context. It is for secular polity
to take up this fight from here to maintain secular fabric of this diverse
country.
Entire credit
for the success of this historic struggle goes to the farmers themselves who
were commanded by a 32-member conglomerate having different ideological
concerns who joined under the banner of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha.
The
political parties are already trying to take credit in Punjab but it was and is
not their domain.
This is the
fight in which the leaders kept the power hungry and degenerated political
class away in Punjab.
At that
level, it is not just the most peaceful and the longest struggle but also the
one that insulated itself from direct interference by the political leaders.
Wait for its
impact on electoral dynamics of Punjab going to the polls in February 2022
along with UP.
The immediate
gains at the broader level are the challenge to the divisive agenda and the
exploitative model of development dictated by anti-people market forces. It is
in this aspect that the impact of this struggle is going to be global in the
long run.
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