Political colour gained by farmers’ agitation is more conspicuous than ever, reminiscent of the controversial birth of AAP post the historic Lokpal campaign

Turn the clock back a decade to the historic Jan Lokpal agitation that captured the imagination of the Indian public and there can be little debate on the point that the biggest, although perhaps not the most pleasant, consequence that emerged from the campaign was the stupefying birth of a political outfit in late 2012 called the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) under rather controversial circumstances. 

The riveting turn of events in the past that led to the creation of a political heavyweight in his own right, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, is reminiscent in many ways of the political colour that the current scenario vis-a-vis the so-called farmers’ protest has gained. 

Lately, the theatre has shown some of its principal protagonists throwing their weight behind the political competitors of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the regions that soon go to polls. Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait’s recent rant against the Modi government and the BJP in West Bengal, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are locked in a fierce electoral battle, is a case in point. 

image source : oneindia.com

Have Rakesh Tikait and the like gradually become to the farmers’ agitation what Arvind Kejriwal and his team eventually became to the Lokpal struggle? It is a pertinent juxtaposition, make no mistake. Both scenarios hint at the use of public sentiment or the aspirations of a particular section of the society for the furtherance of one’s personal or collective political ambitions, which can by no means be considered to fall within the bounds of morality or propriety. 

Another common denominator that reflects an uncanny resemblance between the Kejriwal-AAP saga and the maneuverers taken by Rakesh Tikait is the manner in which the latter recently took a dig at the opposition for not coming out in full support of the agitation by farm unions due to fear of being targeted by the Modi government. 

While addressing a farmers’ mahapanchayat at Pipar in Jodhpur, Tikait minced no words in castigating the UPA for their ambivalent and lacklustre commitment to the famers’ cause, stating “their (opposition’s) old deeds are coming in their way and they are scared, in case they get entangled in any issue or investigation.”

One can draw a parallel between the scenario mentioned above and the equidistance that the Aam Aadmi Party in its infancy maintained from the BJP and the Congress, albeit only to align with the Congress when Kejriwal’s party formed its first government in Delhi post the 2013 Assembly elections in which AAP won the second-highest number of seats after the BJP in a hung assembly. 

Only time will tell whether Tikait’s castigation of the Congress and the UPA at large is a sign of the protesting farm groups eventually banding together to enter the political fray as it happened in the case of AAP. But the massive political overtones that this so-called democratic movement has garnered in recent weeks is yet another evidence to the fact that the agenda of the protest is by no means to fight for the rights of the farmers. The ulterior motive is to make political inroads and jeopardise the Modi government’s reformist vision pertaining to new farm laws. 

image source : English.jagran.com

The borders of the national capital have witnessed chaos and commotion ever since the protests began in November last year against the three reformist farm laws introduced by the Modi government - Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The Long haul 

There have been media reports galore this month about concrete houses being built near Delhi’s borders for the agitating farmers. The Kisan Social Army has been reported to have erected 25 permanent brick houses at the Tikri border near Haryana and the farmers are having to shell out just Rs 20,000 - 25,000 as the construction cost for each house. This is because they only bear the cost of the raw material and not the labour which is being offered to them free of cost. According to reports, there are plans to build around 2000 such concrete structures in the coming weeks. As per some reports, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has confirmed that masons from Punjab have especially been assigned the task of helping to build two-storeyed ‘pucca’ houses for farmers at the Singhu border.

image source : tribuneindia.com

With the agitation expected to be continued for months to come, the construction of permanent shelters has been attributed to an exorbitant summer in the offing as building concrete houses will protect the protesting farmers from the intense heat once the temperatures start soaring. 

Clearly, the idea is to keep things on the boil and adopt a multi-pronged approach in order to render as much publicity to the misplaced agitation as possible. After blocking highways, setting up makeshift shops and gymnasiums at protest sites, having pizza brunches, etc - the intention to now stamp authority, as a perpetually agitating group by constructing permanent shelters, is more conspicuous than ever. It is a deliberate ploy to engross the government further in the developments of this farcical protest that aims to sabotage agricultural reforms in the country. 

Hence, it is not intriguing at all that the chief architects of this anti-establishment agitation such as Rakesh Tikait - who at a Mahapanchayat in Kolkata earlier this month accused the Modi government of deceiving the farmers of the country and tried to stir up anti-Modi sentiments within the farmers’ community in Bengal - are going a level up by openly appealing the electorate in poll-bound states like West Bengal to cast their votes against the BJP. 

The game is simple. Whatever hurts the government’s plan of action with regard to the new farm laws will be employed as a tool in the name of democratic dissent by protesting groups such as the BKU. 

Moreover, it is cherry on the cake if the same helps put roadblocks against the BJP’s acceleration in the poll-bound states of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

 

Nationalists must repose faith in Modi government’s J&K policy which is gradually reaping dividends, cynicism and skepticism will only hurt the nationalistic cause

Talk about the separatist lobby in Kashmir gradually losing their mojo and becoming irrelevant in the larger scheme of things! The current scenario reflects a conspicuous representation of the same. 

Oddly enough, despite having tasted electoral success in the District Development Council (DDC) elections - the first-ever democratic exercise post the abolition of Article 370 and 35A and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir - there has hardly been any resuscitation of the wily secessionist agenda which the mainstream separatist politicians in Kashmir have been running overtly and covertly for years. 

One could attribute this oddness to a host of factors but arguably one of the biggest factors is the clarity and efficacy with which the Modi government has approached its Kashmir policy in the last two years, giving a clear-cut answer to detractors and antagonists. 

image source : peoplesreview.in

In his address to the Parliament earlier in February, National Conference Chairman and Lok Sabha MP Farooq Abdullah invoked Nehru and Patel while playing the Muslim card like a broken record and condemning the scrapping of J&K’s special status as an effort to estrange Kashmir’s majority Muslim community. Abdullah’s rant was a reiteration of duplicity which India has witnessed for decades - stating how “faithful” and “loyal” the NC and other Kashmiri political birds of the same feather are to the Union of India. 

However, his speech reeked of the desperation of a stalwart Kashmiri political leader who has now reduced to a shadow of his former self, sending out a strong impression those in the valley with separatist and anti-establishment leanings have resigned to the fact that the times of treating Kashmir as a cottage industry to ensure its delineation from the rest of India are long gone. 

image source : greaterkashmir.com

The Modi government and those working towards the nationalistic cause can take heart from the fact that even after managing 110 seats in the DDC polls as against the BJP’s 75 although the former failed to cross the halfway mark of 140, the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) looks lacklustre and deterred by the manner in which J&K is amalgamating with the Indian mainstream in this new chapter in the region’s modern history.

NC, which is the principal party in the Gupkar alliance, and other frontline players such as the PDP are languishing in the same old boat of separatism while masquerading as political parties pledged to the Indian constitution, without having a fresh narrative to offer to their voter base in Kashmir. 

The alliance has turned itself into a bunch of cats on a hot tin roof, whose anxiety to maintain political relevance is easy to gauge. In the absence of a new blueprint, the alliance is having to resort to the old tricks in the book which have become obsolete in the Modi era. It is fair to argue, therefore, that despite having consolidated themselves as a unit and done reasonably well in the DDC polls, the Gupkar lobby is at its weakest today. 

If the current scheme of things does not beckon the advent of a new era in J&K's political landscape ensuring unadulterated allegiance to the Indian Constitution, it is difficult to tell what does. If this does not infer that the Modi government’s renewed Kashmir policy after the abrogation of Article 370 is slowly but steadily reaping the desired harvest, it is difficult to tell what does. 

The restoration of 4G internet services in all parts of J&K and the passing of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2021 in February, which brings around 170 central laws in the UT, are developments that demonstrate the return of not just political normalcy in the region but also stability in a holistic sense.

Speaking in favour of the bill in Lok Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated and reassured in unambiguous terms that the government was committed to restoring J&K’s full statehood “at an appropriate time”. Shah made it abundantly clear, as he and PM Modi always have, that the union territory status of J&K is temporary and the region will return to its earlier status of a state once the government is convinced of a conducive and harmonious atmosphere in Kashmir. 

image source : newsonair.com

Delimitation and resentment among separatist Kashmiri leaders 

NC’s refusal to associate with the Delimitation Commission hints at the broader strategy of the Gupkar lobby to create roadblocks in process of J&K’s political recovery. In February, NC Members of Parliament - Farooq Abdullah, Muhammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi informed the Delimitation Commission about their inability to be a part of the commission and urged against the delimitation exercise, as the J&K Reorganization Act 2019 is under judicial scrutiny in the Supreme Court of India. 

Delimitation has been high on the agenda for a long time as far as the Modi government is concerned and for the right reasons. It is an exercise that is imperative to put an end to years of dichotomy in political representation between Jammu and Kashmir wherein the former has perennially been treated as the lesser, with its seat share almost always less than its share of population and electorate. All the chief ministers in the erstwhile state of J&K, barring Ghulam Nabi Azad, have been Kashmiri-speaking Muslims belonging to Kashmir. 

Through delimitation, the government hopes to address longstanding concerns about Jammu’s political underrepresentation and guarantee adequate representation to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). An increase in the number of assembly constituencies, the introduction of reservation for STs, the extension of the right to vote in assembly elections to West Pakistan refugees in the region and border alterations have led to the indispensability of a timely delimitation. 

Delimitation will ensure that the regions of Jammu and Kashmir attain political parity. Naturally, the idea of delimitation does not go down well with the Muslim-majority separatist political fraternity in Kashmir and hence the resentment. 

But despite the clarity of purpose in the government’s J&K roadmap - 

there seems to be a growing trend of pessimism and mistrust regarding the same among a section of cynics and skeptics in India’s nationalistic circles, not just within the lobby and the united political opposition. This sudden surge in dislike for the Modi government’s Kashmir blueprint, particularly among Kashmiri nationalists who have adopted a critical tone against the administration’s approach, is misplaced.

This is the time for Kashmiri nationalists and nationalists spread across India and everywhere in the world to repose faith in Modi’s Kashmir vision, although with constructive criticism wherever necessary. However, reckless and unwarranted criticism unleashed by nationalists will only play into the hands of the pseudo-secular lobby who lick their lips at any opportunity of creating rift and confusion among the ones devoted to Indian nationalism.