Needless PSY-OPS to resume rail traffic in Punjab
Close to seven weeks after Punjab’s farmers began their indefinite agitation against three farm sector reform laws enacted by the Centre, the matter appears to be nowhere near resolution. In contrast, even basic issues like restoring rail traffic have become bargaining chips.
All rail services in the state have been halted since October 3 in protest. But as wisdom dawned that the agitation was a double-edged sword as it was paralysing life in general and the economy in particular, negotiations began on resuming rail traffic. While the railway ministry wants both passenger and freight trains to resume parallelly, a network of 30 farmer unions want to stagger operations with goods trains plying first. In other words, both sides are staring down at each other and refusing to yield.
Even CM Capt Amarinder Singh, who trashed the Centre’s farm Bills and framed a set of alternative laws, is exasperated at the refusal of farmer unions to fully lift their rail blockade. The rail roko is bleeding the industry, which has already lost `30,000 crore over and above the carnage wrought by Covid, he reasoned. Coal stocks for running power plants are low and lakhs of tonnes of paddy are needlessly piling up for want of rail transport to other states, bringing Punjab to its knees.
Yet the game of one-upmanship continues. When the rail roko began, farmers had squatted on the tracks; so the railways had a genuine reason to halt services. But at present, the agitators are neither on the tracks nor on the railway platforms, yet the Centre’s psy-op continues. And the rail ministry’s my-way-or-the-highway line appears specious. Being the smartest mass party in the country, the BJP would surely realise that the Centre’s stubborn attitude is creating bad optics in a state where it doesn’t have a strong base.
As for the farmers, they’re intent on scaling up their fight with a Dilli Chalo agitation on November 26-27.
One way to resolve the stand-off came from Amarinder’s trusted bureaucrat Suresh Kumar the other day. He suggested amending the Centre’s farm laws to introduce ironclad MSP guarantees to bury the hatchet. It could well be a starting point, but is the Centre ready to look for a middle ground?