Farmers’ Protest

Lucky Thoughts-6

My Take On Farmers’ Protest

I have my own views on the current Farmers’ Protest.

In this context, I would like to make a background.

As a child, in an essay on ‘Science, bane or boon’, I would end it with the analogy of a knife. If a knife were given to a criminal, it would kill a life. But if it were given to a surgeon, it would save a life. The knife is a fact in both the cases. The antecedents of the holder are debatable though.

We have, immediately after independence, adopted and bravely defended our democratic form of government, while the States around us miserably failed to enjoy its fruits. The very fact that the democracy, whatever, has survived in India for this long, speaks volumes about our culture, resilience and tolerance. Look into the past and you will come across ‘people’ at every point of time who would raise voices that their right to freedom had been curtailed or snatched away by the then establishment.

The fight between the state and the people is nothing new. It assumes different forms at different times. Sometimes the protests are crushed with iron hands (like what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989), sometimes dissents lead to coup (like what had happened in Pakistan many a time) and sometimes a way out is made to survive the crisis (like when Congress was ousted or Trump was shown the door recently)

The battle will always continue between the people who will will try to assert their rights more and more without much bothering about their responsibilities and the State that will try to do all sort of jugglery to remain in power.

I repeat that the governments too are no saints but then they have to face us every five years. This is the beauty of our democratic system, like it or not.

Even now we don’t want to go China way of one party system, or Middle East way to have a Monarchy or Pakistan way to be dominated by the Army. We cherish and love our freedom, though we may cry and shout to demand more and more of it every now and then. There is no end to it.

Freedom and Rule of Law are not very good friends.

As a rule, elections are held every five years and the government is chosen. This is what a democratic set-up is all about. Foul play, cheating, excuses, lame or otherwise, you may yell, as every loser does, even I do when I lose a game, but the fact remains that there is a winner, democratically elected winner. I won’t buy an argument that the party got less than 30% vote share. Yes, it has happened earlier too and will happen in future too because we have multi-party system. You don’t want to go China way where you have one party. Do you?

Such shouts happen in all democracies across the world because there cannot be a foolproof method of governance. Each system has its own pitfalls.

So, when a party has been elected to power, it knows pretty well that the throne is for 5 years only. It has to be answerable to the people of the country every five years. We have every right to kick them out. We have successfully exercised this right in the past.

But before that, the party that has been elected by us to rule us must be given some elbow space to prove that they are worth the imagination or dreams of the people. I have a feeling that the ruling establishment will not do something that will put them in an embarrassing situation before the public during the next election. Whenever it had happened, the party in question had faced the music.

Much is at stake if you fail to deliver goods.

There are more than 1366 million people in our country. It is just not possible to keep all of them happy all the time. The horizon of a group of people belonging to an organization is limited. A frog in the well cannot see beyond the four walls of his abode. A lion can see only a little beyond his own territory.

As an organization, we live in our cocoons. You may say that now that the information and knowledge are not the property of the few, but then I argue that you cannot have the ‘feel’ of what it means to be a CEO of an organization when you are working at the ground level.

The horizon to view things is given to you from the seat you are sitting on. It is like when you key in your designation, the screen that opens up gives you the extent you can view and exercise your powers.

Bankers want pension updation or salary revision and for good reasons too. Travel and Hotel industry want tax rebates. Yes, they have every right. Infrastructure and IT hubs have their own set of demands. So on and so forth. Who is going to define and set priorities? Obviously, the government we have elected.

As you sit higher, your vision becomes wider and clearer. You get to know more and more people, you get to see the larger picture, you get to feel the currents, cross currents and undercurrents, and you get to think differently from the time when you were positioned at a lower level. The game at the highest level is so much more tense, sensitive, delicate and brute.

Now coming to the Farmers’ protest.

The group of three laws passed by the government is, like the knife I mentioned in the beginning of this thought, a fact. There are no two views on it. The holder of the knife has been ‘elected’ by us.

Now the country has been in chaos and utter confusion as to what this ‘knife’ (read laws) is going to do with the farmers in general.

Either you are with the farmers or you are against them. Whether this law will kill a person or save him, no one is very sure about it. I am yet to find a person in my circle with his ‘own’ considered opinion on it. Sometimes I feel that we are just a part of the flock of sheep being led by the shepherd.

All I get is a ‘forwarded’ opinion, some message or some video. These messages or videos, true or false, are based on party lines. You tell me your party and I will tell you your opinion.

The question generally being raised on every platform is, whether you are with Farmers? Yes or No?

My Good God! I don’t know what kind of game it is. Whether it is going to serve any purpose.

I am reminded of an old hindu custom of ‘sati pratha’. When it was abolished in 1830, there was huge hue and cry and people went up to the Privy Council to fight it out. Just think, there were some ‘elements’ then too who wanted to continue with this practice. The same thing happened with Triple Talaq, or Article 370. We resist change even if it is for our betterment. It is human.

Farmers have been at the receiving end since time immemorial. No amount of legislation has given them the required uplift. Radical reforms are not possible because of the vested interests. No government could muster the courage to bring about the changes for reasons best known to them.

Are these laws black?

Now who is going to decide if these laws are in the interest of the farmers or not? I cannot say a word on it as I am not qualified enough, but at the same time you are also not the authority to give verdict on it. If it hurts you, or the people around you, you can protest, you can do what you can under the law, within the democratic framework. But you cannot have the ‘total view’ of the situation.

Trust is the answer. Yes, if you feel a wrong has been done, protest peacefully, move the court, gather numbers and kick the government out mid-term.

We don’t want to go our neighbors’ way. The other side looks scary indeed.

Love

Lucky