Each protest sowed hope. In the years to come, we will reap it
Government
failure is a much bigger problem than its contemporary treatment implies.
Setting aside natural disasters, most of the great catastrophes of human
history have been government failures of one sort or another.
The greatest catastrophes of human
history have been institutional failures for which, government, or the state,
carries the basic responsibility when it fails to do things it should do or it
may do things it should not do.
Indeed,
I define failures at all levels in simple mnemonics, which includes governments
as well, as under:
Failed Policies
But
this does not preclude the human factor, influence of inappropriate financial
interest, self-interest, policy myopia, intervention and evasion, costs of
administration and enforcement, regulatory overkill.
Each
protest in India, at local and country level, after independence has sowed a
seed of hope and some of the notable ones were (not in the chronology)-
Chipko Movements- that led to cancellation of
lease of forest land to a sports company in Alaknanda valley.
Silent Valley protest- This Kerala hydroelectric
project would have submerged the entire biosphere reserve and destroying its
four-million-year-old rainforests. This grassroots movement became the bedrock
of Indian environmental activism. Finally, it led to cancellation of a dam
project.
JAYPEE Movement during mid seventies changed the
polity of India forever by the uprising and uproar after emergency.
The Assam movement- This Student Movement gained
momentum and compelled the government to to create and legislate a framework to
identify and expel illegal immigrants from Assam & it continues even today.
Gokak agitation- It was a successful language
right for the first-language status of Kannada in Karnataka.
Mandal protests that has been the simmering pot that is still hanging
like a milling stone in the necks of all government in power after 1990. The
reservation Pandora Box of Mandal is an issue thta no government wants to touch
it even with a bargepole. But now reservation is an election stunt.
Nandigram and Singur protests
in West Bengal-
These protests culminated in police firing, which led to the death of 14
villagers. Tatas withdrew their Nano car project and shifted the project to
Sanand in Gujarat. The protests were led by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata
Banerjee that became the tipping point to Change the CPI(M) rule of more than
two decades in West Bengal.
Pink Chaddi or Pink Panties were sent to a
chief of right-wing vigilante group Sri Ram Sena, in a bid to shame him with
the provocative symbolism on Valentine's Day in 2009. Thousands joined the
campaign and about 2,000 pink panties were couriered to Ram Sena’s Chief’s
office in Mangalore.
Fight against corruption- Anti-corruption activist Anna
Hazare made the government bring The Lokpal Bill to deal with corruption in
public places. His demands were accepted by the government. But much later his
cover was blown a few years back that pointed his credential as supporter of
current political dispensation. He has proven to be a letdown that nation feels
cheated.
Telangana protests- This movement resulted in the
new state of Telangana, carved from the existing state of Andhra Pradesh.
Several
other protests that gathered momentum but has not fructified with the desired
results like, Kudankulam nuclear power plant, Zero-rupee
note, Net Neutrality, Patidar Agitation and many more are waiting to get
reaped in coming years.
Government,
in its attempt to quietly “ease things” for agribusiness corporations in the
middle of this oppressive pandemic regime, inadvertently sparked the single
largest proletariat uprising in world history by passing three “Agricultural Reform” bills purportedly for “free markets”
by voice vote during peak pandemic time in a parliamentary democracy.
Government rammed three pieces of legislation through Parliament by voice
vote that supposedly serves to remove taxes and other government-imposed
financial burdens on farmers to help them directly sell to corporations and
encourage private investment in agriculture, following ruling party’s
deregulatory agenda. It sounds fine when one describe it pithily: get rid of
the red tape and give farmers free access to bigger markets.
But
it’s not so simple. The supposedly arduous business barriers the laws removes
help provide farmers a fair price level and prevent small farmers from being
taken advantage of by agribusiness corporations is a dagger in the cloak
strategy that eventually wipe out fringe & marginal farmers and would
marginalise the large farmers by cartelisation by a few dominant national
players.
Government’s
new laws nominally give farmers a better deal by allowing them to directly sell
more produce to more places. What they really do is take away the remaining
meagre support granted to farmers by Minimum Support Price and Land Right. Very
little is little left after implementation of these Bills as Laws to stop
Big Agriculture companies in India from swallowing market share.
Free markets work in countries with
less corruption and more regulation. India doesn’t exactly have those metrics
in a championing position and with the country now entering a steep
recession for the first time in decades and providing no welfare in turn, these
“reforms” cannot be more ill timed.
As
a result, India is having the Biggest Protest in World History involving nearly
800 million farmers and their families contributing to nearly 20 percent of GDP
involving sixty percent of its population.
The Indian government’s shift toward
deregulation and privatization since the 1990’s has hit farmers the hardest,
leaving them without the top-down protections that allowed them to not only
manage and preserve their farms but also make sure their goods could actually
be sold in a manner that provided subsistence for all marginal farmers.
As
a result, more laws tailored to free markets were never going to exactly make
farmers & farm workers happy.
To
prevent farmers from proceeding to Delhi again, after the 26 January Red Fort
fiasco orchestrated by government supported individuals and fringe farmers
groups & union created in a hurry by the government that was fully exposed
by blown cover of the person and the groups that have strong ties with current
government in power. It was a major embarrassment to the government.
Other
farmers continued with their plnned rally and march on the same day on the
designated route with total peace without disturbing any, except the people in
power.
The
plan of the governemnt to vilify, castigate farmers with consequences and having
talks with farmers group failed miserably as governemnt started these meetings
with a deaf ear.
Government
and its arms have become so nervous that now they have erected concrete blocks,
razor fences, trenches and huge deployment of armed Police Forces and
paramilitary forces around every entry point to the Indian Capital in
thousands.
How
can the government imagines that talks can be held by such actions in a bitter
environment where agencies were deployed to unleash the fear.
Can any dictator have been able to stop
a flying bird or air by building fortresses or by demarcating borders? Can any
dictator have been able to stop the idea in mind and feelings in heart to get
killed by its force?
Roman
Empire, British Empire, USSR and several others have all fallen by the wayside
by the force of popular movements. India has never been a known outlier and got
its independence from a non violent sustained movement against the British rule
that started the of freedom struggle worldwide and all colonial countries got
their independence by mid sixties, except South Africa. .
It
is a pivot question that would decide the direction of the farmer’s movement
and face of Indian politics.
We should get the answers very soon in West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu in next four months and in 2022 in Uttar Pradesh, and the election for pole position in April/ May 2024. We would know then that for whom the bell tolled.
History is the whiff of air that doesn't blow to a storm, but is capable of setting the direction of the storm. Those who do not take lessons from history are doomed to repeat it.
