From the messy barricades on Delhi’s borders, the farmers agitation has moved to digital space. And everyone is wearing ‘nationalism’ on their sleeve.
In what seemed like a coordinated solidarity move, a pack of women celebrities tweeted in support of the farmers agitation.
Superstar singer Rihanna said: “Why are we not talking about this?” along with an image of farmers protesting and a link to a CNN story on the subject. Rihanna’s seven lakh ‘likes’ was followed by Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg tweeting with the hashtag #IStandWithFarmers.
There were others too who came out like porn star Mia Khalifa. The reaction was swift and brutal. One leg of it was the army of private trolls that attacked these women with hate and sexual innuendos. It was misogyny at its worst. The second leg was the government reaction along with coordinated tweeting by Indian actors and cricketers against the ‘interference’ of the Rihanna-Greta brigade. The Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement calling the tweets a “sensationalist” attempt by “vested groups” to intervene in India’s internal matters.
Home Minister Amit Shah led the cyber storm, while cricketers and actors using the government hashtag #IndiaAgainstPropaganda joined the fray. None of them had been active on the farmers issue, and most of the statements were repetitive carbon copies. Someone was coordinating the push back.
Sovereignty at stake?
The theme of the counter-campaign is: India’s sovereignty is at stake. “India’s sovereignty cannot be compromised. External forces can be spectators but not participants,” wrote Sachin Tendulkar. These reactions raise two significant concerns. Private trolling is now a national sport, and has become a part of the murky social media environment. But the government of the world’s largest democracy leading a charge against the tweets of international activists in this manner exhibits a high level of paranoia. An FIR against Greta Thunberg uploading a toolkit!
The absurd overreaction has only managed to boost the international farmers campaign and Meena Harris and Greta Thunberg have come back with a second round of tweets challenging the Indian government. The second concern is the dubbing of contrarian views by these celebs and other international groups as ‘interference’ in India’s ‘internal affairs’. Not a moment is lost in discovering an international ‘conspiracy’. An international campaign should be tackled on merit. But to discover a sinister plot every time there is criticism is a regressive way to duck issues.
Environmental campaigners like Greta Thunberg have similarly criticized Donald Trump and other international leaders for refusing to take timely action on climate change. That did not make them ‘terrorists’. The US administration’s repressive handling of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement drew international condemnation. No one in the US raised the bogey of ‘interference in internal matters’.
Legitimate debate is not ‘interference’.
As the world shrinks, and lines of communication grows, democratic debate must be encouraged not extinguished. And views expressed against the Centre’s stand on farm laws are certainly not an attack on our ‘nationalism’ or ‘sovereignty’. Farmers have their extended families and supporters in the US, Canada, England. They are bound to be part of lobbies to put pressure on our government. What is wrong with that?
Sullied perception
Which brings us to the final leg of our proposition: India gained a big place in the comity of nations because it has stuck to a democratic course despite all its internal problems. There have been no military coups and we continued to grow and attract foreign investment at a rapid pace. However, in recent years, the perception of India as a forward-looking nation has taken a knock. The Citizen Amendment Act was passed in December 2019 that offered expedited citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs and other communities but strangely left out Muslims.
The anti-CAA agitation thus became a rallying point for millions protesting against legalizing discrimination against the minorities; and it robbed India of some of its sheen. On the economic front, India’s image has been sullied by the ever-changing and discriminatory practices against foreign companies. When Narendra Modi took over in 2014, the promise was freedom from “tax terror”. What followed was quite different, as the two international arbitration awards in the Vodafone and Cairn have demonstrated.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled last year that the Indian government was wrong in applying retrospective tax on Cairn Energy Plc. The court further held that the government must pay roughly Rs 8,800 crore in damages to Cairn. Earlier in September last, Vodafone won its arbitration against the Indian government with the tribunal ruling that India’s imposition of a retrospective tax liability of over Rs 22,000 crore was in breach of the India-Netherlands bilateral investment treaty.
These decisions show how much the government is out of step with international law. However, instead of making good the gap, the government has now chosen to challenge the Vodafone arbitration award in Singapore, and may take the same route for Cairn.From Rihanna to Vodafone, these are red flags that indicate we are moving in the wrong direction, one of self-imposed isolation on the world stage.