Point number 1: Anti national farmers Having protested for months, the government finally relented and allowed them to come and protest (in the national capital) Be it the farmers, the students. the doctors, the people belonging to the banking profession or even the media The opinion of anyone who questions the government or insults it- is not paid heed to and they are met with indifference So, the first thing we have to see is whether their opinion is taken into account or not The farmers say they have come prepared to stage protests for a couple of months The government has asked them to sit in Burari and whether or not they will communicate with them is still uncertain So, this continuous trend of labeling anyone who questions the government as "anti- national" has now been extended to include even the farmers. They've now become the "anti- national force" and attempts are being made to paint them in this light.
Point number 2: Why are the farmers protesting? These anti national folks- that's all they do- raise questions and protest First it was the students, the opposition leaders were anyway Pakistan lovers. And now, these farmers are also protesting But there is a very simple reason behind their protests- the Government has introduced and passed a very controversial bill in the Parliament These are called Farmers Bills. There are various segments of it which have been explained in this episode But put succinctly, these bills encourage privatization in the farm sector and encourages the mega corporates to come straight to the farming sector and then buy produce from the farmers at low prices. The farmers have just one main demand: They want to be assured that they will be given the Minimum Support Price like earlier That is- a minimum price would be set and if they are denied that, then the government would buy from them at a set price The government has not guaranteed that. There is no mention about that even in the bill Why are the farmers of Punjab especially irked by this? Why are they becoming more anti national? That is because the MSP was not maintained by most of the state governments due to paucity of funds. But, the farmers in Punjab did avail the MSP and hence they will be the most affected The reason is quite simple- They want an assurance of MSP and want a control to be exercised over privatization But it's not like the government is going to pay heed anyway.
Point number 3- The role of the B and D media Their role is far more concerning and alarming than the behavior of the government First of all- The farmers that have arrived from Punjab are 31 farmer organizations. No political party as such is involved So, these 31 farmer organizations also include the left leaning farmer organizations as well But, even more startling than that was the role of the media over the past few days Now, we do know that media has been explaining us the concepts of tukde tukde gang, the Khan market gang, the anti nationals etc etc Whosoever raises their questions, the media in its role of a sycophant, discredits them But what we never imagined was them meting out the same treatment to the farmers and not sparing even them So the media began by saying that the farmers were being politically incited and that they were being misguided and that there were Khalistani elements who were a part of all this The media did not spare them. It almost seems as if there was a direct Whatsapp order from above asking them to enunciate that the farmers were "misguided" Now, the farmers cannot be labeled as tukde tukde gang, khan market gang or Pakistanis- that can backfire This is why a new catch word was framed- "MISGUIDED" "Who incited the farmers? Who misguided them? Who sent them to Delhi and why? What is the politics behind this?" "Are political motivations driving the farmers' resistance?" "There is clear and open violence. And there is clear and open political instigation" The media is truly incredible! They will not even spare their own relatives for the sake of some money! But the media narrative worth crores failed because this is the digital age. And our farmers from Punjab are extremely sharp themselves. They too, made videos of their own and one of them went viral which showed who was feeding the police despite the blows and the lathi charge and the tear gas shelling It was our very own farmers!
Point number 4- There is a saying in English- "you become what you hate" The government was so steeped in its hatred of "urban naxals" that it ended up falling in love with the urban naxals! It's like they say- there is a very thin line dividing love and hate It so happened that when the farmers started to move towards Delhi and Haryana then they thought of a great way to stop them- and that was to dig up the national highway! So, they dug up a 30 feet deep trench on the national highway. I have one simple question for you- Are you aware of any other organization that does this? There is one organization in India that digs up the routes in India efficiently in order to prevent the trucks and tractors of others from coming in. And they are- Naxals. Now, you are carrying out this "Naxali" move.... Alright, you pulled off that "masterstroke"! But who are you doing it against? The farmers?!? The farmers can build trenches like these in the morning and then fill them up and drive a road roller over it by the evening So, that is what happened- All these attempts to stop the farmers- the containers, the cement blocks, the digging up of trenches were unfruitful. The farmers emptied the tractors within two minutes But the point is- How do you want your actions to represent you? What government- and we're talking about "developed" countries/ "superpower countries"- that digs up its own highways as a measure against its own farmers?!
Point no. 5: The government did not stop at digging roads. The Delhi Police even asked permission from the Aam Aadmi Party government which is ruling Delhi to convert stadiums into temporary jails since stadiums come under the jurisdiction of the Delhi government. The thing is ... they have to play the host. They had already dug up roads, shot water cannons and tear gas shells. Now they needed to do something after the farmers arrived, too. There needs to be some space for them to stay. Therefore stadiums are to be converted into jails. What is ironic is that the permission is being sought from the Arvind Kejriwal government. The last time when stadiums were converted into jails on a mass scale was during the Anna Hazare movement which was fronted by people like Arvind Kejriwal. Thankfully, Arvind Kejriwal government told them too shoo and denied them the right to convert our stadiums into jails. But the preparations were on a full swing! And this is the respect that is being shown to our farmers that it was planned to convert stadiums into jails and imprison them.
Point no. 6: If you can’t convince them then discredit them. If you haven't been able to understand this formula till today then you are indeed blind. Anytime, anyone has raised a question against the government, a discredited element comes into the picture. When students raise questions then they become tukde tukde gang and Afzal lovers. When bankers raise questions then they become political elements. When doctors raise questions then we do shower them with flowers but do not pay their salaries. Opposition raising questions become China lovers. Academicians raising questions become urban naxals. So, this is the trend that is being continued. It has become predictable now. So, where to find something from...misguided farmers is fine but how to discredit them? How to ruin their reputation? Label them Khalistani elements! Forget about Pakistan and London, the Khalistani movement is not even active in Punjab even. There aren’t many to pay heed to it. But it is being made out to be Khalistani elements who want to come to Delhi. This is the narrative that is being built. Look, what is true and how much of it is a lie doesn’t matter. Stream some bulletins on prime time, place some puppet anchors and the make it trend! And this is exactly what has happened. But unfortunately, they forgot that even in today’s time, both farmer and soldier are respected a lot. However, farmers do not respect the government anymore. Neither do students, doctors or bankers. Only the soldiers deployed on the border are still with the government. But when he complains about his food, even he is kicked out. As long as you are not raising any questions, all is well!
Point no. 7: You are using tear gas shells on farmers. Superb...superb...what a masterstroke! Tear gas shelling on farmers is all the more ironic because these poor fellows are left with tears only. In today's time, what do farmers really have? Farmers who die at the rate of 28-30 deaths per day...That's right! Almost 30 people who commit suicide are related to farming. This is the situation of farming in India today. Our government had promised three years ago that by 2022 farmer's income will be doubled. The farmers are so happy because of it that they were coming to the national capital to celebrate for which you threw a water party cannon on them too. So, it is a matter of great despair that we are unable to understand farmer agitation. Farmer agitation too is being made out to be political agitation and Khalistani agitation. Whereas, the fact is that the country's farmers are in tatters. They are screaming for their rights. They are dying. But the government....all is well!
point no. 8. There is a move that has picked up. There is a direction... if you look at it clearly that is the need to label the voice of protest and the voice of dissent as illegal. It is a kind of need for the government that is neither they will let anyone speak nor let anyone oppose. You have already seen the CAA movement. Till today, no one has found any evidence as to how it was anti-national except the fact that it was a protest. Even today, people are languishing behind bars...political activists are languishing behind bars. Similarly, there is a good plan in place to make farmer agitation an illegal agitation. If you look at it...even the court today says that why do you write against the government? What is the need to write against the government? This is the situation in today’s time when there is an endeavor to brand any voice or any dissent as illegal. Now you might feel how does it matter to me? It is perfectly alright....exactly how Germans felt as well. When doctors, students, activists, farmers, opposition, media were being targeted then there was no need for them to speak up But when you will be targeted then there would be no one left to speak for you. Just remember this! I had thought of taking a break by coming to the hills but I could not stop myself. It was quite necessary to talk to you people when such things are going on in the country.
Thank you.
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