Updated: December 17, 2020 7:43:24 am
A boy with a tricolor during the Farmar protest on the border of Tikari on Wednesday. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)
Comparatively less spontaneous than the nationwide anti-CAA protests a year ago, the standoff between protesting farmers and the government over the three laws appears to be heading toward a stalemate similar to that of Shaheen Bagh.
The government, which had initially dismissed the protests against the CAA as orchestrated by its political opponents, was forced to counter them with its own public mobilization.
Similarly, three weeks of peasant protests on the borders of the national capital have prompted the ruling BJP to plan public gatherings across the country. He has taken a sheet from his CAA playbook with ministers and high-level leaders holding meetings with “farmer groups in favor of farm laws,” to point out that the demand for a repeal of the three laws does not reflect a national farmer sentiment.
Government sources suggested that if the protest remains peaceful, as it has been so far, the government will allow it to continue as it did with Shaheen Bagh’s.
But government officials insist the laws will not be repealed, that his political opponents are mounting the upheaval, and that he will not be forced to give in further.
This creates stagnation as in Shaheen Bagh. While the Covid pandemic disrupted that sit-in, protesting farmers were unfazed by the health challenge and have put forth effort.
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However, there is a significant difference.
Shaheen Bagh polarized the national narrative at the behest of the ruling establishment that drew political capital from it, but this time, several BJP leaders admit, the farmers’ protests are “bad views and political messages” for the party.
For this reason, they stress, the government will engage with farmers who protest against outright defamation, as it did with the protests against the CAA.
There is also a sense in the government that it has political leeway because the core of the protests comes from Punjab and has not found a similar resonance in other states.
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The protests also reflect political failures.
“Given the participation of the community and the impotence of the main political forces of the state to shape the protest, it also reflects a sense of political emptiness in the state,” said a senior national political official.
Punjab will go to the polls in early 2022. In the last election, the electorate launched the newcomer AAP, signaling growing disenchantment with entrenched political forces. The recent wave of protests from farmers may suggest a new ferment in state politics.
That Akali Dal had to leave the NDA is seen as pressure from below that forced her hands. It is no wonder that the AAP leadership in Delhi, not quite in sync with its wing in Punjab, has backed the protests with Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, very visibly shedding his political clout behind them.
For the Center, its political decision is clear: it does not indicate a repeal of the laws or legislation on the MSP. He has drawn a red line with his offer of concessions, now it is up to the protesters to decide how to play their long run.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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