The Oppn must not let the farmers’ death issue slip away & use it to nail the BJP Govts

It’s time the Opposition wakes up and smells the Lakhimpur Kheri coffee. The BJP Government has handed over a gilded club to the Opposition to beat itself with. The Centre hasn’t really moved on the 10-month-old farmers’ agitation against the three contentious farm laws. The UP Government has sat inertly and mutely watched as the wheels — not of progress, but of a bloodthirsty SUV — rolled and snuffed the life out of at least four farmers. In incidents spawning from this gore, five others lost their lives. The Yogi Government may arguably have weeded out criminals from the State but its approach hasn’t exactly been above board. After all, nobody can contest that a gangster like Vikas Dubey needed to be penalised but the way he was surreptitiously eliminated, raises questions on the UP Government. The Lakhimpur Kheri incident is eerily similar. It’s one thing for the BJP — or anybody else, for that matter — to presume that the other side is at fault, and another to take the law into one’s own hands to dispense ‘justice’. By this logic, people of the country will be at one another’s throat simply because of societal prejudices and differences in opinion.

The Constitution unequivocally allows the citizens to express dissent, even against the Government, and it simply can’t be wished or forced away. Democratic issues must be dealt with democratically. Now is the time for the Opposition to stand up and put the BJP’s Government machinery in the crosshairs. Mamata Banerjee, fresh off her thumping win in Bhowanipur, is cocking a snook at Narendra Modi and has already initiated a programme to breach the BJP citadel in the States that are poll-bound next year. The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP also seeks to make inroads in UP, besides the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand and Gujarat. It’s the right set of circumstances for regional players such as the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM to take up the cudgels on behalf of the farmers. The BJP Governments at the Centre and in UP would do well to curb their morbid instincts and refrain from shedding blood in the name of “controlling” public unrest. And the Opposition must stir from its slumber and utilise this opportunity to nurture public sentiment just ahead of next year’s crucial Assembly elections.