opinion | Farmers’ protest: A big political game plan
The nine-month-long farmers’ protest against the new agricultural laws shifted from Delhi’s borders to Jantar Mantar on Thursday after police forced 200 farmers to come in buses and organize their “Farmers Parliament” amid tight security. permitted to. Inside Parliament, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with his party MPs protested in front of the Gandhi statue. MPs from Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party also protested inside Parliament demanding repeal of agricultural laws.
Since the Punjab Assembly elections are going to be held early next year, these three parties are in a race to project themselves as friends of farmers.
Delhi Police brought 200 farmers to Jantar Mantar in two buses amidst tight security. There were multiple layers of barricading and additional CCTV cameras were installed. Only those farmers were allowed inside, who had an identity card issued by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha. The ‘Kisan Sansad’ will run daily till August 9. Bharatiya Kisan Union chief Rakesh Tikait said the farmers would continue their protest at the Delhi border. He claimed, “25 lakh farmers had come to Delhi on January 26 with four lakh tractors, and they are still there. Our demand to repeal the laws will have to be accepted by the Centre. There will be no conditional talks now.”
The current impasse is over the Kisan Sangathan, which is demanding a complete repeal of agricultural laws, while the Center wants farmer leaders to point out provisions in the laws that need to be removed or changed. Therein lies the root of the problem.
In the Kisan Sansad, held at Jantar Mantar, just two km away from Parliament, 200 farmers chose the ‘Speaker’ and the ‘Deputy Speaker’ among themselves to run the ‘Parliament’. The main issue was twisted when some farmer leaders slammed Minister of State Meenakshi Lekhi for her remarks of ‘mawali’ (goons) which she used for farmers. While addressing a press conference at the BJP office, Lekhi had said, “You (media) are calling them farmers. They are mawali.” He made this remark when some media persons told him about an incident at Jantar Mantar where a pro-farmer independent journalist attacked a news channel’s cameraperson and abused a woman journalist.
Later, on Twitter, Meenakshi Lekhi retracted her comment by posting: “My statement has been misrepresented. Still, if anyone has been hurt by my content related to farmers, I take back my stand.”
Meenakshi Lekhi corrected by withdrawing her comment. I would like both the sides to maintain decorum and not use slangs like ‘mawali’ or ‘animal’. The problem with farmer leaders is that they have made repeal of the new agricultural laws a prestige issue. These leaders feel that if all three laws are not repealed, they will have no face to show their supporters. The Centre’s stand is that since these three laws were passed by both the Houses of Parliament, they cannot be repealed due to street protests. If such an example is set, there will be street protests against other laws in a big country like India. Both the farmer leaders and the government are not ready to move away from their stand.
Secondly, Modi’s critics, whether in political parties or outside, would never want the conflict between farmers and the Center to end. Those who failed to oust Modi from power through votes are now using the shoulders of the farmers to point their guns at him. Their final game is that if farmers start opposing the government, it will be easy to corner Modi. Overall, this seems to be part of a larger political game plan.
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