The old saying is "as you sow, so you shall reap". But we live in the Age of Kali when traditional wisdom encapsulating ‘eternal truths’ has ceased to have any meaning. The motto of those in power seems to "sow the whirlwind for your opponents and make a run for the safety lest you get caught in the slipstream".
What else explains the minions of Central Government digging trenches on National Highways to keep the protesting farmers from entering the Capital? This was't all. Barbed wire barricades were raised and water cannons were fired on the elderly suffering cold waves. Not to forget the teargas shells that were fired and lathi charges. It would appear that the government had decided on a scorched earth policy to deter an advancing emend army.
Without getting into the merits of the agitating farmers' demands, the arrogant response by some of the Central ministers needs to be condemned squarely. One came out with the snide remarks that those who were protesting didn’t look like farmers. Pray, tell us how a farmer is supposed to look. Clad in loincloth with a ploughshare in hand? Another thought that he could smell more than a smattering of disgruntled Khalistani trouble makers in the crowd.
Anybody with a flowing beard, wearing a turban and speaking Punjabi can be profiled as a separatist. It was surely yet another conspiracy hatched by the 'tukde tukde gang'. It shouldn’t take the government’s investigative agencies to unravel nefarious conspiracies linking the ladies from Shaheen Bagh, and students from JNU and Jamia to the present agitation.
The only crop the BJP/NDA specialises in harvesting is the electoral votes. It doesn’t seem how the poisoned grain is gathered and how the soil has been laid waste for future generations. No one had time to worry about the gathering clouds in the National Capital Region as long as the high voltage municipal election battle was being waged in far-off Telangana.
The party high command has already targeted KCR's fiefdom as the next domino. Massive majorities won at elections or majorities manipulated afterwords do not ensure enduring legitimacy. This loss of legitimacy is what is going to plague the government in the coming days.
No government in a republic can treat the citizen routinely as subjects. It isn’t enough to tell the masses that the rulers know what is best for them. Nor can anyone expressing a difference of opinion - however slight - be denounced as a traitor. The way the sledgehammer of draconian laws has been used against peaceful demonstrators is nauseating in a modern democracy that values the Rule of Law.
And, this brings us to the great disappointment of the Indian people with their Supreme Court. The institution supposed to protect the fundamental rights of the citizen against the savage might of state has often looked the other way. Its orders and opinions have not only left the ordinary citizen confused but also flatfooted experienced constitutional lawyers.
No petitioner knows how the justice will be dispensed - swiftly or delayed; whether the court will risk judicial overreach or treat the matter as executive privilege. Archaic laws of contempt, sedition, preventive detention inherited from the colonial period continue to be used as sword and shield by whoever is in power.
The apex court has recently 'clarified' in sphinx-like statement that 'Each case is different'. It is accorded different priorities and treatment. Did one need a reminder? Now that a petitioner has reached the SC seeking relief from the obstruction caused in emergency health services during COVID by farmers' agitation. It will be interesting to see what view is taken in this case.
At the moment it appears that the farmers have tasted blood and dug in their heels. The government has slowly swallowed its pride and blinked first. It declared that the farmers will not be allowed entry, then grudgingly designated places for peaceful protest were offered. By now, the farmers have seen through the government’s strategy to divide and rule.
After tarnishing the protestors as anti-national and instigated by the Opposition, the government has painted itself into a tight corner. The Haryana CM's ineptitude to drive a divide between farmers of Punjab and Haryana misfired early.
Hurt pride of the Punjabi peasant will take a long time to assuage. The 'award wapsi' is just the tip of the iceberg. BJP may have a dozen grudges against its erstwhile ally, the SAD, but it should treat such problems rising above party politics.
It's necessary to clarify one thing before we conclude. It's easy to demonise the BJP for its divisive politics. But shouldn’t the majority community ask itself if this isn’t the vision of India it keeps dreaming of? Have we not trusted the BJP to deliver what it put openly in its election manifesto? A mythic glorious past seems to dazzle us more than a prosperous egalitarian future. All else is distracting detail.
(The writer can be contacted at pushpeshpant@gmail.com)