By : MunibarBarui
On July 26, 2021 the ongoing farmers protest has completed its 8th month and soon on August 26, 2021 it will complete its 9th month. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) is spearheading this movement against the three farm laws introduced by the Union Government last year i.e., 2020.
In current context, the movement has spread to various parts of India and regional farmer delegations from Assam and Odisha had joined protesters at Jantar Mantar to participate in ‘Kisan Sansad’. Furthermore, the members of Andhra Pradesh Farmers Associations Coordination Committee and All India Kisan Sabha from Tamil Nadu were also expected to join them in due course.
In such deliberations, the chiefquestion is not about if and when the farmers would do well in their direct objective of revoking anti-farmer laws and fortifying legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP). The actual question is what the farmers can accrue for the whole country—whether they can lead the larger battle for saving the very impression of democratic India.
The answer is a complex one with no actuated Yes or No. The entire movement is largely successful due to peaceful conduct of Kisan Sansad which addressed some of the real as well as orchestrated anxieties associated with the Republic Day protest in 2020. In similar veins, the SKM leadership was in Lucknow to announce ‘Mission UP and Uttarakhand’. The comprehensive calendar for these two states signalled a move to expand, deepen and intensify the movement.Few weeks back (in July, 2021), Congress leader Rahul Gandhi driven a tractor to Parliament with a banner opposing the three farm laws, leading to a day-long detention of some of the Congress MPs. Within the House, all opposition MPs trailed the whip issued by the farmers’ movement and unceasingly raised the issues flagged by the farmers.
Nonetheless, the farmer leaders have also acknowledged that they suspect that they were being spied on by the government through Israeli software Pegasus. In this context, the Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav observedthat the phone numbers of farmer leaders might be in the list of 300 individuals who were snooped on.
On August 03, 2021 the opposition protested over the Pegasus snooping controversy and the contentious farm laws disrupted Lok Sabha proceedings leading to two subsequent adjournments.As soon as the Lok Sabha assembled at 11 am for the session, the opposition members came to the well and started sloganeering over the alleged snooping through the Pegasus software and demanding scrapping of the three farm laws enacted last year i.e., 2020.There were also incidences of death during the movement which has been totally neglected by the Central Government even after so much hue and cry. But the Punjab government data exhibited that till July 20, 2021 details of death of around 220 farmers/farm labourers have been verified. If we look into the data provided by SKM then the number is much higher. The SKM has claimed that around 400 farmers have died during the protest. In this context, the Punjab government sources revealed that verification of more deaths is underway. In conclusion, it can be observed that these sporadic fluke of protests inside and outside Parliament may have causedminute rattle to the image of the NDA (Modi) Government, but it did point to the political thump of the farmers’ movement and its role as the opposition in the country, in modern times. Such movements might also form the backbone for strong opposition in the 2024 General Elections.