Day 377

Toll 713

Toll after Modi announcement 24

Blood

One of the most blatant misuse of a law took place in Nagaland where 15 people were gunned down by armed forces. The Home Minister spoke in Parliament, expressed some regret, but there is no talk of repealing the draconian, anti-people Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in spite of Nagaland and Meghalaya CMs asking for it for years.

In the same way, one of the most apathetic stances by the government is unfolding on Delhi’s borders right now. Whatever we might be – cynical, hopeless, tired, bored – we cannot unsee the way the government is treating farmers.

It has been 18 days since the government agreed that Farm Laws were wrong, the PM announced repeal of laws. That simply means the law and order cases – rioting, disruption, stopping public officials from carrying out their responsibilities – are all false because farmers were conveying to the government the laws are wrong. No farmer indulged in violence, in damage to life or property. Why can’t the government then quash the cases? Why can’t Centre instruct states to quash the cases?

A few days back the government indicated it is willing to quash cases – 48,000 in Haryana, hundreds in Delhi, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Karnataka. Government asked Samyukt Kisan Morcha to give representatives it could talk with. SKM gave representatives. It has been 48 hours since SKM formed the committee but there has been no show by the government. No indication of talks.

These cases are important because farmers know in their many struggles against government, while both parties come to agreements on issues, the cases keep dragging farmers in courts for years. These cases wear the farmers out, send a message that it is tiresome to take on governments.

It is the same with other demands on Electricity Bill, recognition of martyrs, space for memorial, resignation of minister of state, justice for Lakhimpur Kheri and guaranteed Minimum Support Price. Repeatedly the farmers have stated solve this issues and they will go home. Yet, the government does not budge.

The government does not budge because it wants the farmers to tire out and leave. Also because, now slowly, with Captain joining hands with BJP, the political talk in Panjab is changing. Congress, Akalis, AAP are anyway making statements, stirring up waters. Since the government’s loss of face on the laws, now the changing atmosphere suits the government’s perception game: farmers’ victory has started seeming remote.

You see, the farmers are tired but they are resolute. They have shown they can win. They will win this round too. While the government has proven to be apathetic, I wonder how long we the middle-class will just sit around as spectators? How long will mainstream media continue supporting the apathetic government?

The blood of the farmers slain in the protests is not only on the hands of the government but our hands too.

Dear friends,

this morning SANSAD – South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy based in Canada invited me to speak on the farmers protest. Now in our talks we do not say farmers are resisting, farmers are struggling. Instead, we say, farmers have won one part, they have succeeded in what they set out to do. A few more issues remain.

Here is my talk 1.32 hours. English.

Day 375

Toll 711

Haryana

I have no idea why mainstream media that I have followed in the past is so hellbent on discrediting itself. They unnecessarily give dates on which farmers protest will end and farmers will go home. Every time their news proves useless, they flop. It is as if they want people to stop reading them, listening to them.

After the farmers’ huge win on farm laws, the protest has entered a critical stage. Both decisions have merit: to continue the protest for an assurance on Minimum Support Price and for quashing of police cases is necessary at this stage of the struggle. At the same time, there is no doubt that farmers are exhausted, some want to go home, and so the nature of protest has to change. Please remember, farmers are free to come and go to the protest. They are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, let us not decide for them.

Ever since the farmers protest began, there have been many moments, even extended periods, of tension. All of them have to do with the nefarious games the government plays. Yesterday, I must confess, I was tense about what Samyukt Kisan Morcha will decide. Remember most cases, over 48,000, are against Haryana farmers. Go back to the time when farmers protest proceeded from Panjab to Delhi more than a year ago. How brilliantly Haryana stood with Panjab, later Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Rajasthan joined. At this point the farmers cannot abandon Haryana.

I am glad wisdom prevailed and SKM decided to constitute a 5-member group to discuss the issues with the government. On ground, there are indications that the government wants to solve issues and is urging farmers to go back home. It is willing to take back all cases of protest in Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh. Panjab has already cancelled the cases.

Hence the farmers are standing in solidarity with Haryana. The farmers’ decision flies in the face of how we know protests end when each small party tries to run with meagre benefits. That is why it is another model for civil society: come together, struggle together, retreat together.

The panel selected is on the basis of one member per state: Balbir Rajewal from Panjab, Gurnam Charuni from Haryana, Shivkumar Kakka from Madhya Pradesh, Yudhvir Singh from Uttar Pradesh, and Ashok Dhawle from Maharashtra will meet the government soon and negotiate on quashing of cases, recognition of martyrs, and how to proceed over Minimum Support Price.

For MSP, eventually there will be a committee. At least that is what the group will propose to the government. The government has to come out with the Terms of Reference for the committee. When formed, the committee will have a a larger, a 9- or 11-member representation from SKM.

That time will come and we shall have news. As of now, the decision is for the 5-member group to meet the government and the decision will be relayed to all of us on December 7th.

Day 374

Toll 710
- Punjab 609; Haryana 75; Uttar Pradesh 6

Centre

We still do not know what all led to the prime minister unilaterally, without discussion even with his cabinet, announcing the repeal of laws. It could be BJP’s reading that the farm laws lacked popular support, the laws will impact Uttar Pradesh elections, its image because protest sustained despite all efforts by the government to break them, international pressure and so on. Subsequent to PM Modi’s announcement, the cabinet passed the decision, the Parliament repealed the laws, now the President has given his consent. This is indeed a huge win for the farmers, labourers, all parties sympathetic with the protest.

Yet, how the last two weeks have gone by, it is clear that the government still does not intend to listen to the farmers. While the Samyukt Kisan Morcha has unambiguously stated its position on six other matters, the government has displayed a piecemeal approach and not engaged with the farmers.

On the issues, while the government has decriminalised paddy straw burning, it has listed the Electricity Bill in the Parliament. While state governments have stated they will listen to Centre on the cases filed on many score thousand people, the Centre is silent on the issue – even about Delhi and Chandigarh which it governs. Ajay Mishra Teni continues as central minister and the government does not even recognise the 710 martyrs of the protests.

The Centre has made noises on Minimum Support Price, tried to deflect the issue to states, is ambiguous on Terms of Reference, farmers participation, and timeline to implement MSP. While other issues are Yes/No, we all understand that, given India’s immense diversity and cropping patterns, implementing MSP is a complex process. Making a law on guaranteed MSP is even more complex, though in my opinion necessary.

As of now, the government’s message is clear: while it has had to bow down on the farm laws, it wants to keep waters muddy and is resorting to its usual tactic – apathy and disengagement. Right from bottom to top, this is a government that shirks accountability. It will go to any extent to not deal with a situation and create distraction.

Inside the protest sites it is natural that the cadre and the many unions have different opinions. While some want to continue protesting, many who have lived on the roads for a year are also exhausted and want to return home. The message of the protest, the need for MSP has reached far and wide and there are clear indications that country-wide the farmers will continue questioning the government. The question being: does the government of India, the keeper of our tax payers money, want to stay a broker and write off huge loans by industry or does it also want to invest in rural India and rejuvenate the economy?

Given this background, SKM meets today. It is a critical meeting because SKM will decide its future course of action. We need to wait for the decision but do know: even from before Day 1, this is a protest led by the cadre, not the leaders. Ultimately, the will of the people will prevail. I hope SKM reads the ground well.

Day 372

Toll 690

Toll

Yesterday, in the august Parliament, the nation’s agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, his ministry has no record of those who have died at the farmers protest in the last one plus year. The question is: does the home ministry also not have any record? Does the government also have no record?

This is just like an RTI a few weeks back revealed the government has no record of the 11 rounds of discussion between farmers and government. Or the government said earlier there have been no deaths due to lack of oxygen in the pandemic second wave.

In fact, in these protests, one of the greatest documentation has been of the deaths at the protest. I say this because when we look at history, often numbers of dead in major events remain ambiguous. Many a times the state version differs massively from the people’s number. This time anyway the state number is 0 so in history the people’s number will prevail.

According to record keeping, through various sources – information in newspapers, through farmers unions, through individual reporting – checked and verified against each version, as on now the toll stands at 690.

In the last winters, the average was 2.3. In summers, in spite of pandemic which saw no special spike in toll, the average was 2.1. In the lean months of the protests, the numbers fell and now the average is 1.8.

All this documentation has been possible because of the efforts of primarily Anu Sandhu, supported by Amar Mander, Jai Singh Sandhu, Harender Happy, and Sajneet Mangat. Anuroop updates the blog mentioned below roughly once a week. Each entry in the blog mentions Name, Domicile, Occupation, Date of Death, Age, Cause of death, Place of death, and if possible name of Union.

This data is painstakingly vetted, duly noted and sacrosanct. It can be verified. It isn’t easy to have your mobile phone gallery full of pictures of the dead, it is very difficult to revisit deaths each day. Yet, the team persisted. I salute the diligence and meticulousness of the team that has created this record.

I know there have been numbers like 750 and 700 going around. If anyone has details of numbers over 690, please share them with Anuroop or Amar. But do check your information and make certain it is not already entered in the blog.

If the government is interested, it can cross-check this data and provide compensation to those we have lost in the protest.

Question is: is the government is interested at all? If the government is not interested, are the people of this country interested in paying homage to those who died breaching the wall of Hindutva, forcing the government to retract?

Blog link here …

Day 371

Toll 690

Terms of Reference

After the formal but undemocratic repeal of farm laws and some other demands being met, the issue of Minimum Support Price stands. The government has announced a committee to look into MSP and invited five Samyukt Kisan Morcha leaders to be part of it.

However, SKM says they are not clear on what would be the mandate and Terms of Reference of such a committee. Text book stuff: when any panel or committee is set up, the Terms of Reference need to be defined. The dictionary describes Terms of Reference as ‘the instructions given to someone when they are asked to consider or investigate a particular subject, telling them what they must deal with and what they can ignore’.

The reason I called the repeal undemocratic is because they were repealed as swiftly as they were implemented. In 8 minutes, without any discussion. In fact, if you notice PM Modi’s announcement to repeal on November 19th, it was done without the union cabinet clearance. The cabinet clearance came later. Through all these events – announcement, clearance, formal repeal – one aspect is clear: the government does not care and does not want to follow due democratic protests.

But then there are people, the protesting farmers, who are keen that a duly elected government follow democratic process. Hence the insistence on Terms of Reference of the committee of MSP. Let the government lay down the mandate in unmistakeable terms.

I sense that would be an uphill task for the government because no Sangh shakha has trained them for rigour, for due diligence, and to abide by the Constitution. In fact, the very raison d’etre of this government and its actions show they do not care for rules and believe a brute majority is reason enough to indulge in their fancies.

But the farmers are infinitely wise. They know how to de-weed their fields. They are now demonstrating their skills by asking the government to demonstrate its intention – a case where the people are teaching the government how to govern.

Herein is another lesson for democracy.

Day 369

Toll 686

History

Last year when farmers left Panjab for Delhi, were supported by Haryana, broke barriers and served langar to police, their resolve on Farm Laws was clear: Yes or No. Every one who was part of the protests was clear they were going to push the government to take back the draconian laws.

Yet, we all know, the ask was too much. The push back was a major challenge to the Hindutva strong arm politics which the country had suffered last six years. Plus there was the knowledge that PM Modi had never taken back any law in his whole life. This government position was matched by the resolve of the protesters that brought an extra spark to their eyes.

In the rest of India some supported the protests, some criticised the protests, others hemmed and hawed. All waited with baited breath for the outcome of this non-violent confrontation between powers and people. The year was tumultuous, to say the least.

In north India, especially Panjab, the narrative invoked an earlier resistance towards the British bringing in draconian laws. In 1906, the British brought the Doab Bari Water Tax and Punjab Colonization Act, riding on the unpopular Punjab Land Alienation Act implemented in 1901. These new laws were intended to make farming difficult for the farmers of the Canal colonies and force them to surrender their lands to the British. We can see the parallels between those laws by British 115 years back with the new Farm Laws.

When the British implemented their draconian laws, Sardar Ajit Singh along with Kishan Singh, (Bhagat Singh’s father), Ghasita Ram, Sufi Amba Prasad and others rallied the farmers in Lyallpur against the British. Banke Dayal, editor of Jang Syal weekly gave the slogan ‘Pagri Sambhal Jutta’ which was part of his longer poem. Finally, the protesters won and the British had to take back their anti-people laws. Similarly, in 1922, upon popular uprising, the British were forced to take back the Rowlatt Act, Press Act and other laws.

The nature of power never changes. Power is based on disenfranchising people. People have to resist their eviction. Just like the farmers in 2021 are inspired by the farmers of 1907, may the people in 2121 be inspired by our generation today. The repeal tells us that wrong laws can be pushed back. Even after they are enacted. May this knowledge continue to inspire us.

We will watch history being made again today in the Parliament when the government repeals the draconian Farm Laws. After all, democracy means more power to people. May Pagri Sambhal Jutta be a rallying call for every citizen to live with dignity.

Dear Friends,

upon PM Modi’s announcement to repeal Farm Laws, the farmers protest was validated. Some of us supporters of the protest too came in news. I am touched that Bangalore where I live quite anonymously also noticed my work. My teacher SR Ramakrishna asked his reporter Barkha Kumari to interview me.

Here is the report. Please read …

Dear Friends,

on November 27th evening BBC World Radio interviewed me on the latest developments in the farmers protest. Since it was radio, it was voice only. We used a picture Amandeep took of me recording. The bulb is retro.

Thank you Gurshamshir Singh for mixing picture with audio. 5.14 minutes. English.

Please listen here …