Agricultural protests: hooligans destroying mobile towers are damaging India’s image and hurting farmers’ cause

File image of farmers’ protests underway on Delhi’s borders. PTI

Interestingly, Captain Amarinder Singh is issuing “severe warnings” to vandals in Punjab who are destroying mobile towers in the state, threatening Jio employees and burning fiber cables. It is tragic because if the Prime Minister of Punjab had acted decisively and earlier, instead of showing leniency and allowing the agitators to get the impression that the state government is tacitly backing his actions, things may not have come to such a point. point.

As it happens, thousands of Jio mobile towers in the state have been destroyed, the power was cut off, and in at least one case the generator was physically removed and deposited in a local gurdwara, puzzling the students relying on it. online education, making the general public uncomfortable, putting at-risk patients, healthcare workers and emergency workers in the middle of a pandemic and projecting the image of India as a state that is incapable of providing even a basic level of governance and guarantee the protection of private property.

Earlier this month, workers at an iPhone manufacturing plant in Kolar, Karnataka, wreaked havoc and destroyed equipment and machinery, forcing Wistron Corp, the manufacturing partner of Taiwan-based Apple Inc., to suffer. damages worth several million rupees.

These incidents are occurring at a time when the recession-hit Indian economy is struggling to recover and seeking foreign investment. Violence and vandalism against property and commercial establishments mock India’s effort to portray itself as a “land of opportunity” and undermine efforts to be part of global supply chains. It damages India’s image to the world and portrays the nation as a land of lawlessness and inept government.

The Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA), a registered body of telecommunications infrastructure providers, had requested intervention from the Punjab government last week to stop the damage to crucial infrastructure. Captain Amarinder Singh, instead of immediately initiating disciplinary action against violators of the law, “urged farmers not to take the law into their hands by forcibly shutting down telecommunications connectivity or mistreating employees / technicians of telecommunications service providers “and added that he had been” Supporting farmers in their fight against ‘black farm laws’, and would continue to do so, “according to India today.

By Monday, at least 1,600 towers were vandalized in Punjab according to TAIPA, while official state figures put the figure at 1,561. Of these, 146 had been affected since Monday, while the interruption of the power supply to 32 towers caused the disconnection of services for 114 more. Reports of vandalism come from Mansa, Barnala, Ferozepur and Moga with the Jio Infocomm mobile towers being attacked, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Amarinder now says it will “not allow Punjab to plunge into anarchy at any cost and no one can take the law into their own hands,” but state police have reportedly so far failed to act against the evildoers who have damaged the towers. . . Even the FIRs have not been registered in most cases. In addition, Jio employees are being harassed, fiber cables are burning and breaking in various parts of the state. The anger of those protesting against the Center’s new agricultural laws is directed against Jio and Adani Group under the idea that these companies would be the “beneficiaries” of the new law. The fact is that neither the Reliance group nor Adani are in the business of purchasing food grains from farmers.

But even if they were, these acts of property and establishment vandalism, service disruption, and employee harassment are unacceptable. This vandalism stems from a sense of misplaced entitlement that being “farmers” gives agitators the moral right to destroy public and private property. Send a wrong message. The state cannot be partial in the administration of law and order.

Agricultural laws were passed by Parliament and made into laws through democratic due process. The Narendra Modi government has repeatedly invited farmer agitators for talks and initiated outreach initiatives to clear up misconceptions at different levels. The prime minister has made several speeches and issued repeated assurances that the MSP mechanism will not be interrupted, while the APMC will remain and even be updated, the two basic demands of agitated farmers. The Center has again invited 40 protesting agricultural unions to another round of talks on December 30, while making it clear that much-needed reforms, which have won the support of the majority of farmers across India, will not will be reversed.

Some farmers may still have misconceptions, fears, and apprehensions and it is the government’s duty to sit with them and walk the extra mile to allay their fears. However, rampant destruction of property and disruption of services indicate that agitators are less interested in solutions and more interested in using violence as a veto to overturn long-overdue and ongoing reforms. passed with due diligence and have gained broad support in farming communities.

The grammar of anarchy cannot be allowed to reign supreme. The destruction of a single telecommunications tower does not affect one service provider, but several, since it is a shared infrastructure. The vandalism on display is counterproductive not only for India, but also for the protesters, as they are rapidly losing the sympathy of the public.