Deep design hits massive secular mobilisation based struggle of farmers that threatens Hindutva agenda

 

Deep design  hits massive secular mobilisation based struggle of farmers that threatens Hindutva agenda

Jagtar Singh

Ground Zero

 

India is witnessing unprecedented churning in socio-political domain at the time when the Hindutva juggernaut remains unchallenged.

The struggle by the farmers  for the repeal of three contentious farm laws that was triggered in Punjab  and is now acquiring pan-India character  has now strong multi-dimensional undercurrents. It is the biggest secular mobilisation that in the long run can upset the divisive Hindutva agenda which is the core philosophy of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party by providing the much needed platform.

This has happened at the time when with almost every political party worth its name has utterly failed to confront this juggernaut that already has marginalized the second biggest religious formation in the country and the Sikhs are the third. This mobilisation has the potential to impact over time the ways India has been governed with colonial mentality. The farmers are trying to dictate pro-people agenda and are not seeking some doles and it is this assertion that is important for the future and the decision making process.

The deep design was the hoisting of Nishan Sahib at a flag pole of the historic Red Fort by a section of the protesting farmers who happened to be the Sikhs to sabotage the secular struggle.

In any other space and time, this repeat performance would have had different meaning as it was in 1783 that the Sikh flag had fluttered over the Red Fort, the seat of Mughal rule in India. This was for the first time that any other flag had been hoisted at this place. The take over of Delhi by General Baghel Singh is part of Sikh history and folk lore.

However, what happened on January 26  was a move to hit the farmers struggle hard and part of the design to malign this struggle as having been backed by the Naxalites and the Khalistanis. Adding fuel to this smear campaign launched by the BJP is the US based Sikhs for Justice headed by one Gurpatwant Pannu, a law graduate from Panjab University. This organization has little support base in Punjab  and attained more importance after it was banned by the Modi government and also targeted by Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh.

Small bits of information as to what happened yesterday that diverted attention not from the otherwise impressive and massive tractor parade, but also provided the much needed handle to beat this resistance. As the actual parade started, it was welcomed by the residents of Delhi by showering flower petals.

Deep Sidhu, a Punjabi film actor whose pictures with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah turned viral after the shocking event at Red Fort, took over the main stage of farmers at Singhu border with his supporters late into the night and hours before the tractor parade was to start. His speech was provocative and he did not agree to the route of the parade. The KIsan Mazdoor Sangharash Committee that is not part of 32 farmers organization spearheading the struggle also gave the same call. This group started hours before the scheduled time from Singhu border and found virtually no resistance as the police looked the other way as they rammed through the barricades.

Another mobilization at Ghazipur border took headed to Central Delhi and managed to reach ITO. It was at this point that protesters were heard saying that the target was the Lal Qila and about 25 tractors managed to break through the obstacles. They are learnt to have told their leaders that they would camp at Lal Qila. What is intriguing is that Deep Sidhu too reached Lal Qila  around the same time and started raising slogans. He honoured  with siropa the man who hoisted the Nishan Sahib atop a flag pole that earlier  had  no flag. As he was leaving on a tractor, he was confronted by a farmer leader. Sidhu ran away on a motorcycle as if it was parked there just for him.

All hell broke lose as the TV screens focused on the Red Fort action by these people. The picture of a Lal Qila dome with protesters is no different from that of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 by the Sangh and the BJP activists in the presence of top leadership.

One has  to listen to Sidhu’s earlier recordings to understand as to how has he been trying to divert the secular mobilization from the very time he appeared on the stage at Shambhu on Punjab-Haryana border where a permanent dharna was organized. He talked of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and invoked the name of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale whose memorial is in the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex. He could be seen in the company of some self-styled Sikh ideologues  associated with radical thought.

The farmer leaders are ordinary people who are now confronted by a gigantic challenge that they might not have anticipated. They had earlier successfully countered the attack of the struggle being dictated by the Khalistanis and the Naxalites. The saving dimension is the background of Deep Sidhu that went viral. He was the campaign manager of Gurdaspur BJP MP Sunny Deol in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The immediate fall out is the cancellation of farmers march to Parliament on February 1.

The farmer leaders would have to chalk out new strategy to carry on the movement with the same tempo and at the same time, defuse such designs of the deep state.

Farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal was trying to arrest the demoralization among the protesters resulting from what happened yesterday.

Taking the struggle to the logical conclusion has now become a bigger challenge that on the morning of January 26.

But then Punjab is a sensitive border state with volatile religio-political dynamics.