Day 250
Toll 556
Kisan Sansad – Day 8
Electricity Amendment Bill 2020
Today, the Kisan Sansad will discuss the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 for the second day and vote at the end of it.
The people’s whip to Parliamentarians issued before the Monsoon Session – to stay in Parliament and just do their job, raise issues, not take breaks, not log absenteeism, not walk-out at the drop of the hat – seems to have worked. In spite of a brute majority in Lok Sabha, almost equal number of seats in Rajya Sabha, the BJP has been able to run the proceedings of the House for only 18 out of past 108 hours.
On Adani Logistics closing its park in Quila Raipur, while protesters have welcomed the move, there have been various opinions which have surprised me. Oh dear!
- The one port shutting down, supposed loss of Rs 7000 crore, 400 jobs, is a very small part of the great Adani operations. Adani is too well entrenched to be affected by it. But what this does is put the government beholden to Adani in a fix. After all, we all know Modi and Shah work for Adani. Now their master is gone and they are left holding the farmers protest.
- Loss to Panjab, to Panjab government is another response that cracks me up. For decades farmers have been paying with their lives because of bad policies. They didn’t made those policies. The state, including centre, made them without farmers’ consent. And now suddenly everyone wants protesters to be responsible for the state?
- Which state are we talking about? The Badals, Captains, Sidhus, Kejriwals? These politicians who have never focussed on people and always hunted for power. Why should farmers be responsible for their misgovernance? Look at how much is being looted in Panjab through gravel and sand smuggling, partisan transport policies, liquor licenses and so on. What is one logistics park in this context?
- The ‘job loss’ argument folks need to understand the difference between a job with respect and decent salary and corporate slavery. Remember, the farmer is sovereign in his/her land. The farmer is the primary producer. All trade and commerce is established on the basis of this produce. Unless the base is served well, one can’t just be beholden to the superstructure – the corporates.
This shutdown by Adani is a very small step. It shows that it is possible that unarmed ordinary people can push out the biggest and mightiest corporations. It is not an end in itself, but it is a beginning. There is much work to do but the decision is yours: whether to support a corrupt, termite eaten state structure or to ensure the corporates move out and then we build the structure again? This time without the Adanis and Ambanis or any other crony capitalist appropriating the labour of the people, the money in the market, and push farmers and labourers to suicide. After all, democracy is eternal vigilance.
If you get it: the farmers protest and its achievements is a quest for an equitable India. Stay on this side of the protest, please don’t go around displaying your dependence on corporates. Instead, find your agency to effect change in a rotten system.