The chilly days of February bear testimony to the untiring efforts and firm resolve of millions of farmers sitting on the cold roads in and on the outskirts of Delhi, the capital of India. The zephyr blows, robins are the first birds to sing the dawn chorus and the sun rises around Humayun’s Tomb. However, what is different from the usual course of things is that the scores of farmers who would usually have been out and about in their fields by now are sitting in a mass protest camped around Delhi, with months of food supplies, tractors, trolleys and their entire families.
This is one of the largest protests the modern world has seen which demonstrates exemplary peace and discipline. Spearheaded by the farmers of Punjab and Haryana, this protest aims to get three controversial laws repealed which have been passed by Narendra Modi’s government with sheer disregard of the plight of poor farmers who will suffer as a consequence.
These three infamous acts were passed in September 2020 without union consultation. The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act creates large unregulated spaces outside the traditional wholesale markets or mandis. The farmers would be selling their farm produce outside the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs), which means that two parallel systems will be operational; one regulated (mandis) and the other unregulated. The unregulated market would allow large corporate players to come in and eventually take precedence over mandis. This would dismantle the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which was previously set up by the government to ensure transparency and to prevent the exploitation of farmers. The new act puts the market at a risk of being subject to monopoly of the corporate elite.
Secondly, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, creates a framework for deals between farmers and traders. This is with negligible oversight and risks exploitation of the poverty-stricken farmers and their manipulation at the hands of large corporate players whose main priority is amassing wealth and minting money.
Lastly, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act is another tool of oppression of the farmers. It eliminates the storage limits previously set up by the government and anyone having exorbitant amounts of money can store food-grains or farm produce and then sell them off whenever they want at the prices determined by them. This can lead to hoarding which can create a severe food crisis later on.
The question then arises: what was the need to enact such controversial laws after seven decades of state functioning? The new laws should have improved the predicament of poor farmers who already lead hand-to-mouth lives. However, they fell prey to Modi government’s policies. The worst affected by these laws are the Sikhs of Punjab and Haryana who have marched to the seat of the government in Delhi to protest against these draconian laws which may devastate them and their livelihoods. It is a common perception that these laws have been enacted to pressurize the farmers as part of a greater agenda.
The Sikhs in India have been subjected to state hooliganism time and again. The division of East Punjab into Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and present-day Indian Punjab, to break the Sikh majority to ensure they cannot form their own state and restricting East Punjab to 12,500 villages is an example. The 1984 attack on Harmandir Sahib or Golden Temple in Amritsar, named Operation Blue Star by the Indian military demonstrates this again. Also, the atrocities and torture Sikhs had to endure after Indira Gandhi was assassinated further deteriorated the situation with regards to this community. The opening of the Kartarpur corridor also did not go down well with the Modi government. This is because Narendra Modi sees the fear of ‘Khalistan’ looming over his head. Hence, the Indian government is leaving no stone unturned to teach Sikhs a lesson and to weaken their power and relevance in India.
Peaceful protestors are being subjected to arrests, detention, teargas and water cannons to stop and demoralize them. However, these tactics are not working and the farmers have decided they will not even budge until these unfair farm laws are repealed. They say they want ‘repeal or nothing’! These farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been supported by farmers and farmer organizations from all across India. Laborers are now also warning the government that they would also join these protests and go on a nationwide strike. Such a situation would add fuel to fire and further aggravate the situation for the ruling elite. Thus, the government decided to nip this movement in the bud. Activists like Nodeep Kaur who lending support to farmers are being arrested and subjected to torture and inhumane treatment by the Delhi police which has become an organ of state oppression. Bails have been rejected numerous times and new charges are levied at every hearing.
Kimberle Crenshaw has labeled this as the ‘intersection of oppression:’ India demonstrates discrimination on the basis of religion, caste and gender. So, people like Nodeep Kaur are bearing the brunt of it all; she is a Sikh (minority), she is a Dalit (lowest caste in India, often termed as the untouchables) and then, she is a woman (the weaker gender).
India has often been termed as one of the largest democracies in the world but there seems to be a total absence of the rule of law and justice. The rich are becoming richer - the Ambanis, Tatas and Birlas - and the poor are dying on the roads. The government is playing in the hands of an extremist ideology like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), having no tolerance for difference of opinion or minorities. The Indian public has realized this and the hoisting of the Nishan Sahib (Sikh religious flag) on the Red Fort in Delhi depicts the emotion and feelings of the masses and the common man.
India is facing global backlash over the enactment of laws like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and others. Climate change activist Greta Thunberg, singer Rihanna, Meena Harris, US lawyer and niece of Kamala Harris, have all criticized the ongoing fiasco, which has led to much resentment and angered the Indian government. The rulers have no patience and are adamant about their stance.
Muslims in Kashmir are being oppressed on one hand and the Sikhs in Punjab and Haryana on the other. Mass privatization and policies which point towards empowering the corporate elite as opposed to the common man are being endorsed by Narendra Modi’s government.
They are surely an antithesis to unity and religious diversity in India, along the lines of a true democracy. If the situation persists, India will surely sink into an abyss of gloom and doom.
The writer is a lawyer
This is one of the largest protests the modern world has seen which demonstrates exemplary peace and discipline. Spearheaded by the farmers of Punjab and Haryana, this protest aims to get three controversial laws repealed which have been passed by Narendra Modi’s government with sheer disregard of the plight of poor farmers who will suffer as a consequence.
These three infamous acts were passed in September 2020 without union consultation. The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act creates large unregulated spaces outside the traditional wholesale markets or mandis. The farmers would be selling their farm produce outside the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs), which means that two parallel systems will be operational; one regulated (mandis) and the other unregulated. The unregulated market would allow large corporate players to come in and eventually take precedence over mandis. This would dismantle the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which was previously set up by the government to ensure transparency and to prevent the exploitation of farmers. The new act puts the market at a risk of being subject to monopoly of the corporate elite.
Secondly, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, creates a framework for deals between farmers and traders. This is with negligible oversight and risks exploitation of the poverty-stricken farmers and their manipulation at the hands of large corporate players whose main priority is amassing wealth and minting money.
Lastly, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act is another tool of oppression of the farmers. It eliminates the storage limits previously set up by the government and anyone having exorbitant amounts of money can store food-grains or farm produce and then sell them off whenever they want at the prices determined by them. This can lead to hoarding which can create a severe food crisis later on.
The question then arises: what was the need to enact such controversial laws after seven decades of state functioning? The new laws should have improved the predicament of poor farmers who already lead hand-to-mouth lives. However, they fell prey to Modi government’s policies. The worst affected by these laws are the Sikhs of Punjab and Haryana who have marched to the seat of the government in Delhi to protest against these draconian laws which may devastate them and their livelihoods. It is a common perception that these laws have been enacted to pressurize the farmers as part of a greater agenda.
The rich are becoming richer - the Ambanis, Tatas and Birlas - and the poor are dying on the roads
The Sikhs in India have been subjected to state hooliganism time and again. The division of East Punjab into Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and present-day Indian Punjab, to break the Sikh majority to ensure they cannot form their own state and restricting East Punjab to 12,500 villages is an example. The 1984 attack on Harmandir Sahib or Golden Temple in Amritsar, named Operation Blue Star by the Indian military demonstrates this again. Also, the atrocities and torture Sikhs had to endure after Indira Gandhi was assassinated further deteriorated the situation with regards to this community. The opening of the Kartarpur corridor also did not go down well with the Modi government. This is because Narendra Modi sees the fear of ‘Khalistan’ looming over his head. Hence, the Indian government is leaving no stone unturned to teach Sikhs a lesson and to weaken their power and relevance in India.
Peaceful protestors are being subjected to arrests, detention, teargas and water cannons to stop and demoralize them. However, these tactics are not working and the farmers have decided they will not even budge until these unfair farm laws are repealed. They say they want ‘repeal or nothing’! These farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been supported by farmers and farmer organizations from all across India. Laborers are now also warning the government that they would also join these protests and go on a nationwide strike. Such a situation would add fuel to fire and further aggravate the situation for the ruling elite. Thus, the government decided to nip this movement in the bud. Activists like Nodeep Kaur who lending support to farmers are being arrested and subjected to torture and inhumane treatment by the Delhi police which has become an organ of state oppression. Bails have been rejected numerous times and new charges are levied at every hearing.
Kimberle Crenshaw has labeled this as the ‘intersection of oppression:’ India demonstrates discrimination on the basis of religion, caste and gender. So, people like Nodeep Kaur are bearing the brunt of it all; she is a Sikh (minority), she is a Dalit (lowest caste in India, often termed as the untouchables) and then, she is a woman (the weaker gender).
India has often been termed as one of the largest democracies in the world but there seems to be a total absence of the rule of law and justice. The rich are becoming richer - the Ambanis, Tatas and Birlas - and the poor are dying on the roads. The government is playing in the hands of an extremist ideology like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), having no tolerance for difference of opinion or minorities. The Indian public has realized this and the hoisting of the Nishan Sahib (Sikh religious flag) on the Red Fort in Delhi depicts the emotion and feelings of the masses and the common man.
India is facing global backlash over the enactment of laws like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and others. Climate change activist Greta Thunberg, singer Rihanna, Meena Harris, US lawyer and niece of Kamala Harris, have all criticized the ongoing fiasco, which has led to much resentment and angered the Indian government. The rulers have no patience and are adamant about their stance.
Muslims in Kashmir are being oppressed on one hand and the Sikhs in Punjab and Haryana on the other. Mass privatization and policies which point towards empowering the corporate elite as opposed to the common man are being endorsed by Narendra Modi’s government.
They are surely an antithesis to unity and religious diversity in India, along the lines of a true democracy. If the situation persists, India will surely sink into an abyss of gloom and doom.
The writer is a lawyer