The farmers’ protest showed no abatement signs as the Government sat with them eight times and have made a few crucial concessions. The farmers will have nothing less than repeal and total recall of the three farm laws.
The protesting farmers are not unintelligent, as it is tortuous to stay on a ‘dharna’ in the biting cold at the outskirts of Delhi. They had a clear motive, as the repeal of laws could have dispossessed them with some advantages as well. I guess, they wanted the carrots and eat them too, demanding that MSP be made into a law and retain the right to sell their produce where they wished. Apprehensions over corporates eating away their lands resulted in carefully executed damage of telecom towers across a few northern states.
An exasperated Central government turned the matter over to the Supreme Court, which needlessly hit the Government below the belt. The lordships expressed disappointment and dissatisfaction over the talks’ poor progress urging the Government to continue the negotiations. The Court missed out that the farmers’ rigid attitude was also a reason for a deadlock in the talks. The Court also threatened to stay the laws, if the Government does not stay it by themselves.
The Court apprehended serious health, amid Covid scare and would be delivering their order tomorrow. At this juncture, they can at best constitute a committee for the talks under their watch.
It is now three teams playing the game, the Court, the Government and the farmers. Of the three, the Government is the most vulnerable, of respecting and not confronting the Judiciary. Farmers who can defy, a few farmer leaders already daring that they will defy the Court if the order is not in their favour. The imbalance in the team is glaring and must not be missed by the Court.
One thing certain, the dream of a double-digit GDP growth and a five-trillion-dollar economy is just not possible without daring reforms. The nation still remembers Narasimha Rao as the architect of reforms of 1991. None can dispute the fact that the overall poverty has reduced and from US$ 266 Bn., the nation has crossed $ 2.6 Trillion in 2020. But for the Covid, we might have crossed $ 3 trillion by now.
Those who are rejoicing from the Government’s discomfiture must also realise that any impediment to reforms is fraught with a larger danger of impeding any government’s progressive action. The take of foreign governments, which suddenly found a space to voice their unsolicited advice, on a matter wholly internal, is deeply suspect. The Indian Government was demonized, Indian embassies, high commissions and consulates were attacked. Such actions could not have been possible but for a deeper and sinister plot, promoted by our adversaries.
But for now, I shall wait until tomorrow for the protests by predominantly by farmers of two states of India, out of a total 28 states and 8 Union territories, the rest largely abstaining from any protest.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
