It is rather difficult to believe that farmers were incensed with the new agricultural laws enacted by the Parliament. There was a time gap between the enactment of the law and their tractor march to Delhi. A recount of the entire narrative convinces us that the real actors were not the farmers but certain people with a vested interest. The movement was preceded by a stupendous disinformation campaign to create doubts and confusion in the minds of the farmers. The intentions of the government in bringing in the agrarian reforms bill were labelled as false and anti-farmers. The gullible farmers were taken in.
We have a democratic government elected by a majority vote in the parliament. It is the manifesto that makes or unmakes the fate of a contesting party. Usually, the mainstream political parties go by their long-range political agenda that caters to the needs of the voters. India is an agricultural country and the maximum of her populations lives in villages. There is absolutely no logic in arguing that the government is enacting laws that go against the interest of the farmers, who are the village dwellers mostly.
It is unfortunate that after seven long decades of democratic dispensation, our voters would not listen and become reconciled to what their elected government and the elected ministers including the prime minister says about the new land reforms. On the other hand, they succumbed to the claptrap of a handful of loud-mouthed people who sadistically paint the elected government and its ministers in black. Why do they want to do so? The answer is simple. They have not been able to win the vote of the masses of people and have lost power. A true democrat will accept the verdict of the people without any grudge. A false and phoney democrat will fall prey to rancour and jealousy.
The Sikh for Justice named organization has claimed responsibility for unleashing mayhem on the Republic Day. The organization wants to take credit for disrupting peace and normalcy. The leaders of the farmers had given an undertaking that the tractor rally would be disciplined and will follow the route prescribed by the Delhi police. What it did was the reverse of all commitments. The tractor rally had been hijacked.
The Khalistanis, Indian Left and opposition parties led by the Congress jointly hijacked the entire movement leaving the poor and innocent farmer bewildered and guessing what was happening. The attempt of the protestors to disrespect the historic Red Fort and indulge in vandalism has been condemned by entire India and termed as an anti-national act. We know some elements instigate sectarian and ethnic violence at the behest of our enemies and they want to break India.
The villagers of nearly three score villages close to the Singhu border have warned the protesters to vacate the land where they have pitched tents saying that their free movement is obstructed. If good sense does not prevail, group clashes could be the sequel.
The entire episode explains some harsh social and political realities. Although we have entered the 73rd year of democracy yet our stereotype mindset has not changed much. The onus of this discrepancy in our society comes to the doorsteps of our political leadership.
Political leaders have to give a proper lead to the people and provide them with an opportunity for maximum utilization of creative faculty. But the reality is that they use the mobs to bring pressure on the governing authority at various levels to accede to their agenda of vested interests. If our democracy has to succeed, there has to be a massive campaign for political education for every Indian voter about the importance of making the judicious use of his or her precious vote.
Secondly, some say that Indian democracy has become too permissive and accommodative. In other words, the political leadership in this country has become intolerably assertive and wants to manage things according to their wishes even by subverting the established rules and norms of the business. This is being done in two ways. One is to intimidate the administrative functionaries and force it to go along the dotted line. The other is to make a compromise with the situation. In the case of Indian democracy, both ways are tried though the latter one, promising least resistance, has become the order of the day. This has given rises to endemic corruption, bribery and nepotism.
Indian Constitution is one of the few constitutions that do not stipulate any formal educational qualification for a candidate opting to fight the election and getting elected as a legislator. The permission for fighting election without any formal education was given at the time of framing the constitution when the rate of literacy in the country was hardly 30 per cent. Apart from formal education, there have to be other conditions/criteria which any candidate fighting the legislative or parliamentary election must be asked to fulfil. Mr Seshan, the former Chief Election Commissioner of India once said that 60 per cent of the members of the Parliament have a criminal record. The situation may not be better today, although the literacy level is more than double. The worst is that despite clear punitive rules governing the case of lawmakers with a criminal record, the rules are seldom enforced. Therefore, the important task before the Indian state is that a strict code of discipline has to be proposed which must be enforced in every case when candidates fill their nomination forms.
The argument that the Indian voter has matured and has a good sense of voting for the right candidate hardly stands the test of the time. Candidates campaigning for election will always make tall promises to their voters like a regular supply of drinking water and electric power to the constituency or road or link road whatsoever. But no candidate will tell them that if elected he will be trying to make them conversant with their rights and duties. We need constitutional provision that every elected candidate is bound to educate his voters on the significance of democratic dispensation, collective decision and respect for the majority vote.
In the context of farmers’ agitation, we have noted that it began first in Punjab where the farmers sat on railway lines to block rail traffic. It is rather superfluous to imagine that Punjab Chief Minister subtly wanted the farmers to move to Delhi as good riddance. Captain Amrinder Singh has fought the election on Congress ticket but he did not take dictation from the Congress High Command. Therefore, to say that he pursued the agenda of the Congress High Command cannot be substantiated. But the role he was expected to play as a nationalist and a patriot was in deficit. He knew that the Khalistanis would hijack the protesting rally and if that happened, Punjab would be face to face with a very unpleasant situation. Perhaps he miscalculated the possible turn this dangerous event would take. The result is that while the Delhi rally has almost ended in a fiasco, Punjab is bearing the brunt. The reports are that hundreds of communication towers raised by the Reliance have been pulled down and damaged by the rowdy crowds under the influence of Leftists and Khalistanis. In this matter, Punjab is going the Nandigram way in West Bengal.
The protest rally of the farmers is an eye-opener for those who fail to understand the ulterior motives of the politicians and ideologues with vested interests or with a false and fallacious ideology to keep them in the news. India must wake up and identify the anti-national elements and isolate them.