Is the farmers’ protest making any tangible mark or are they being misled?
The farmers’ protest in and around Delhi since November 26 is in limbo. They are no closer to getting their demands for repeal of the three farm laws realised than when the protest began. The protest itself has expanded from Sikh farmers of Punjab to now include farmers from western Uttar Pradesh. Over these months, the protest appears to have transformed from an agricultural protest to a political protest to what is now being perceived as an electoral protest. That does not necessarily reflect badly on the farmers because in the absence of any Government response other than more rounds of talks, the farmers have been left with no option but to use current issues to peg their protests on, to keep themselves and their demand relevant. When it began last November, the focus was on the repeal of the three laws. The farmers received sympathy from across the country. The protest sites near Delhi attracted constant media and political attention. The euphoria over the first invitation for talks by the Government gradually dissipated as both sides could not reach a common ground. The protests took a political tone in the process, as the anger of the farmers against the Government turned into disillusionment with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The protests also focused on the BJP Governments in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Over time, and as the Government refused to surrender to the farmers’ demands, the protests narrowed down their focus to turn electoral, to teach a lesson to the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly elections in 2022.
Since then, the protests have adopted a revised strategy. The farmers announced a “Mission UP, Uttarakhand”, aimed at impacting the electoral prospects of the BJP Governments in these States. In an unadvertised manner, the farmers took their protests to Punjab as well, attacking the BJP and the Akali Dal and not the ruling Congress. If a week ago the farmers protesting against the BJP meeting in Haryana’s Karnal were lathicharged, they faced the lathi in Moga, Punjab, this week. The farmers were charged with disrupting an Akali Dal rally by party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal who was launching his 100-day “yatra” across Punjab ahead of the elections next year. The protests are taking a political colour not of the farmers’ making; they are being “used” by political parties for their own ends. In UP, the BJP plans to hold farmer outreach programmes in the form of “kisan panchayats”. This is expected to drive a wedge in the community along party lines. In Punjab, the Congress openly claims credit for the farmers’ protests. Social activists like Yogendra Yadav are giving the protests an entirely different spin: “The question now is not what the farmers can secure for themselves (but) whether they can lead the larger battle for saving the very idea of India.” If the farmers remain convinced about the genuineness of their demand, they should begin to distinguish between leading and being led.