December 23, 2020 4:29:22 am
In the course of these farmers’ protests, Prime Minister Modi is on the ground and in the fray in Punjab in a way that has not been seen in other states, even during an election. (Quick)
There must have been a time, a point in the ongoing agitation led by Punjab farmers, when a line was crossed. When men and women started talking less about the three core farm laws that sparked small dharnas at gas stations and toll plazas across the state and more about those who began traveling to the Delhi gate to snuggle together in the cold.
That moment, when the protests became a character in their own right, was overlooked by the BJP-led government in the Center. That is where you will have to go back to find a solution.
What’s more, as The Indian Express discovered on a week-long journey through towns and cities in the three regions of Punjab, Malwa, Doaba and Majha, speaking with dozens of farmers and their families, the unseen image of the Center is aggravated by the avalanche of insults.
The protests are “wrong,” he said to himself, driven by a “lobby” of left-wing Modi-baiters, disgruntled professionals. Or kidnapped by the “Khalistanis,” who are always seen – and imagined – in the corners and shadows of a state that fought and defeated extremism in the 1990s and lived to tell stories.
But for many here, especially the Jat Sikh farmers, at the center of the state’s economy, politics and culture that has historically fueled an anti-Center streak, the Center is speaking to the Punjab again. And making his way.
“No one is a leader in these protests, everyone has been undermined and the farmer has taken center stage,” says Balkar Singh, who retired as a professor at Punjabi University, Patiala. Look at them, sitting there in the cold. The person who leaves behind their children and the comfort of home does not do so at the will of anyone, ”says Baljit Singh in Kotra Lehal village in Malwa. “The government is right,” says Amritpal Singh, a farmer who also has a shop in Dhesian village, Hoshiarpur district, in the Majha region, from where most migrate abroad and who is less disturbed by the unrest than Malwa. “But how can you not listen to those who are sitting outside?”
And in Amritsar, Ginni Bhatia, president of an association of textile merchants, marvels at “Itna jazba, itni thand (so much emotion, in such intense cold)”, and asks: “Why don’t you ask the beneficiary if he wants the reform in the first place? “
To get an idea of this turmoil that is taking on a life of its own with each day that passes without resolution, you could start with two men and one woman.
Meet Sardara Singh Johl in Ludhiana, Bibi Jagir Kaur in the town of Begowal and Narendra Modi in the Punjab fray.
There’s no point arguing the merits of farm laws now, says Johl, 92, the great man of farm economics in the state. “I have supported the bills, I can answer all the questions, but if I do so now, it will be Dr. Johl against the rest of Punjab.”
Throughout a historic 60-year career, the award-winning Padma Bhushan has had one of the longest and most influential engagements on the issue of agricultural reform in Punjab, as Vice Chancellor of the Punjab Agricultural University, a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Punjab Prime Minister.
His 1986 report on crop diversification made “diversification” part of the policy lexicon. “I was looking forward 50 years … the government didn’t even turn the page (of the report),” he says.
Johl regrets the missed opportunities, being appointed to boards of directors that did not meet, leading discussions that went nowhere.
“My plan was that 1 million hectares of 2.6 million hectares cultivated with rice could be diverted to other crops to restore the water table … Rs 1.6 billion could be given to farmers to compensate for the change (to seed oilseeds, among other crops, which would eventually reduce the import bill for oil and legumes by up to Rs 14,000 crore) … There was a lack of interest from political bosses and bureaucrats … I tried again but nothing happened ”.
Today, “the question is not whether the laws are good or bad. They (the agitators) are saying ‘yes or no’. The old system they want to return to is the one that drove so many farmers to suicide. But now, the government should withdraw the bills, start over by bringing farmers’ concerns to Parliament. “
A “trust deficit” gets in the way, Johl says. “They are serious laws, they affect people’s lives. What was the rush? They should have put the bills in the public domain, through a Select Committee… In the interests of the economy and peace, the government should withdraw them, ”he says.
In the sprawling and well-equipped Sant Prem Singh Murale Wale Dera which he runs in the Kapurthala district Begowal village, Akali Dal leader Bibi Jagir Kaur says: “We are all kisans (farmers), the ones sitting there are ours. The government is looking for nirdayi (hard heart). Things should not have reached this point, we need a quick solution. “
In November, Kaur returned as the head of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the first woman to hold that position.
The SGPC, central to the management of Sikh religious affairs intricately intertwined with Sikh politics, is contributing “sewa (service)” to protest sites, he says. “SGPC installed a continuous guru ka langar, set up waterproof tents, provided medicine and 250 mobile toilets … Four ambulances are working, our doctors take turns. We give 1 lakh rupees to the families of those who died during the protest, and 20 to 25,000 rupees to those injured in road accidents. “
What Bibi Jagir Kaur won’t say is that both the SGPC and her group are catching up.
But you can read between the lines: “I want to go there, but the first line of the SAD leadership does not go to the protest sites, because we do not want to do politics. The rest, from MLA to sarpanch, leave. The Stree Akali Dal was also… or assi haan (we are them, the protesters) ”.
SAD, which withdrew from the NDA on the issue of farm laws, tried unsuccessfully to be the “bridge” between the farmers and the Center, he says. “Now the government should withdraw the laws, at least to begin with, so that people can return to their homes.”
“Dhakka nahi karna chahida hai… dukh lagda hai, nuksan na ho jaye (there should be no force, we fear that things will not get worse)”, says the head of the SGPC.
The term “dhakka” is commonly used in Punjab, and you hear it over and over in the context of this turmoil: the Center, many say, is trying to get away with it, “dhakke naal (with force).” But more and more, the “Center” is replaced by “Modi”.
In the course of these farmers’ protests, Prime Minister Modi is on the ground and in the fray in Punjab in a way that has not been seen in other states, not even during an election.
One of the salient characteristics of the Modi phenomenon has been its ability to establish its dominance by rising above the fray and thus isolated from the tug of war of liability for glitches and problems, even when the BJP is the incumbent.
In Rajasthan, this took the form of a slogan, “Modi tujh se bair nahi, Vasundhara teri khair nahi (We have nothing against Modi but we will not forgive Vasundhara)”, in the elections lost by the BJP and won by Congress. . More recently, in Bihar, it was visible in the final tally that saw the BJP become the largest partner in the BJP-JD (U) alliance that was voted to return to power.
In Punjab, however, most of those who speak of the Center trying to impose agricultural laws on the state – “dhakke naal” – take the name Modi. The BJP is a smaller actor in Punjab and the state never wholeheartedly participated in the Modi wave that swept other states in 2014 and then again in 2019.
However, in the battle of “anakh” (self respect, honor, pride), the “zid” or insistence of farmer Jat directly confronts Modi. Viral song video, “Fer dekhange (we’ll see later)”, in which an animated Modi-style figure dressed in white and saffron is surrounded by young men on tractors and is finally forced to raise his hands, talks about bigger stuff.
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