For over a year, farmers have been on the warpath all over India, most visibly around the national capital. They are protesting against the three farm laws passed by the parliament of India in a highly questionable way and are demanding their withdrawal. The farmers appear to be in no mood to give up. The government of India is equally determined not to concede their demand. Various rounds of talks between the farmers and the government have failed to produce results and therefore stand abandoned at present. This is the overall picture.
Now, the violence at Lakhimpur Kheri has drawn renewed attention of the people of the country to this festering sore. The farmers' movement has not moved the BJP. In fact, elements within the BJP seem to have hardened their position on the issue. A video clip reveals how the Haryana Chief Minister exhorted the BJP cadres to organise themselves in every village to challenge the farmers and "meet force with force". This is not an isolated incident because it represents the attitude of the entire party and the government of India to crush the agitation by force, if necessary. Talks are out. Dialogue is a sign of weakness for the BJP and its governments at the centre and in the states.
So, Lakhimpur Kheri was just waiting to happen.
Facts in public domain would show that the local MP, who is also a junior minister in the government of India, was imbued with the same spirit of defiance against the farmers as the rest of the party and its governments in UP and at the centre. In a video clip, he is seen openly saying that the agitating farmers do not know him (read do not understand his 'strength'). All this to much applause from an appreciative audience which had gathered to listen to him. And then this tragic incident takes place in which eight people lose their lives, among whom four were farmers. The allegation is that the farmers were crushed under the wheels of the vehicles which were burnt by the angry farmers subsequently and that the minister's son was directly involved in the incident. The minister's son has denied the charge that he was personally involved. He has claimed that he was not present at the scene of the incident. He has clarified that the vehicles involved in the incident were on their way to receive the Deputy Chief Minister of UP who had been invited for a function in his village organised by him. Now, an agreement appears to have been reached between the farmers and the UP administration under which a judicial enquiry would be conducted by a retired High Court judge and the farmers, dead or injured, would be adequately compensated. The minister's son faces murder charges. The judicial enquiry will take its own time; in the meanwhile, there will be so many other issues to attract media attention from tomorrow, which, with a little help from the government and the 'godi' media ,will enable the people to forget this tragic happening. Those who have gone are gone; those who are injured will recover; soon, it will be business as usual. In any case, all political leaders who wanted to visit Lakhimpur Kheri have been prevented from going there. How long can they persevere?
The violence in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri is the worst since famers began a protest over a year ago
The Lakhimpur Kheri killings however raise many pertinent questions. We all know how the government of UP has been functioning under Yogi. There is a saying in Hindi according to which if a creeper of bitter gourd climbs a Neem tree, you can easily imagine how much more bitter it would become. The government of India has introduced us to a new 'doctrine of state' under which all dissent has to be crushed, if necessary by force. The UP government has further amended it to mean that all dissent has to be necessarily crushed by force. As long as this doctrine applied to the others, specially Jammu and Kashmir, we remained unconcerned. Today, it has come nearer home and applies to us.
The BJP is securely ensconced in power and behaves pretty much as it likes. There is no issue, no suffering, no pain, which the people are not willing to undergo, drunk as they are with the heady wine of rabid communalism. As long as the BJP and its governments are seen charging at the windmills of an unseen and imagined enemy, the people will forgive everything and forget all their pain. Marx had described religion as the opiate of the masses. The BJP under its present leadership has proved that it is much more intoxicating than opiate, because opium makes you lazy and leaves you inert, this potion energises you and encourages you to indulge in violence.
Over the last seven years, India has been introduced to many new enemies of the nation. It was the political parties in opposition who were the main enemies to begin with. The Congress party with Nehru as its symbol is still the favourite target of the BJP. The minority communities in this country, mainly the Muslim minority, were also identified as enemies. Then came the JNU students, the "Tukde Tukde Gang", the "Lutyens Elite", the "Khan Market Gang", etc. Today, the farmers of the country have been added to the list. The definition is simple: if you oppose those in power today, you are an enemy of the nation. Period.
Is the government concerned? Perhaps not. Elections are still sometime away. The BJP knows how to manipulate voter sentiment. Yesterday, it was Pulwama and the surgical strike against Pakistan. And though one cannot, even with a 56"-chest, scale higher peaks each time, we can trust the gullibility of the people in being swayed by considerations other than even the pain they experience at the rising petroleum product prices, the mismanagement of Covid, the deaths due to oxygen shortages, the floating corpses in the Ganga, the loss of territory to China and most importantly, the creeping democratic deficit in the country. Lakhimpur Kheri is already yesterday. Brace for much more violence in the run-up to the UP election.
Yashwant Sinha, former BJP leader, was Minister of Finance (1998-2002) and Minister of External Affairs (2002-2004). He is currently vice-president, Trinamool Congress.
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