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.