Day 58

#FarmersProtest

Trust Deficit

Whatever be the points of view of individual farmer unions, glad that they all reached a joint agreement today over the government proposal to suspend the Farm laws for 18 months and form a smaller committee to discuss changes to Laws.

The farmers rejected the proposal. They remain firm on their resolve: repeal Laws, implement MSP.

The Republic Day Tractor March is on, as announced.

The suspension of Farm Laws was a ploy.

- The government had only said they will file an affidavit. They did not say they will stop the private players from building silos and warehouses, and entering food retail business.
- 18 months would have been July 2022, just the right time to begin preparations for next general elections. The BJP would have played the farmer card to get elected like it did in 2014. Then betrayed the people, like they did after 2014.
- The BJP would have thrown all its might and money to break the unions, buy out the leaders, compromise the struggle.

The point really is trust deficit. Farmers have been betrayed by the Congress and the BJP. They have seen the courts unable to push governments to implement the Swaminathan Commission Report.

In such a scenario, expecting farmers to vacate the protest on the words of some ministers when even promises written in manifestos have not been implemented is to misjudge the intelligence, ingenuity and memory of the farmers. The BJP has no idea who it is dealing with. Farmers are children of the soil. They know what they are doing. Sadly, the government seems to not know what it is doing.

The kind of mobilisation the nation is seeing this time is nearly impossible to mount again and again. This unity is the real strength of the protest. It is must be maintained and amplified.

Solidarity!

Tags: Suspension of Farm Laws