Unprecedented and aggressive support to the farmers struggle by united opposition in Parliament fuels battle against Modi model

 

Farmers battle attains new dimension with aggressive support by  united opposition in Parliament

Ground Zero

 

Jagtar Singh

 

The year long farmers struggle reached another level today with aggressive and unprecedented support by united opposition in Rajya Sabha today. The farmers protest rocked the Parliament today like never before. At another level, the fight against Modi model of development gets  major boost.

The farmers organisations have so far rightly maintained distance from the political parties since the agitation pressing for scrapping of the three disastrous farm laws shifted to Delhi on November 26 last. The farmers finally succeeded in taking their protest to Jantar Mantar in the heart of New Delhi by way of staging mock Parliament that has come under global focus.

Every aspect of the farm economy has been minutely dissected at this forum including by farm economists and experts. The chorus is against these three laws that would push a major section of the farmers from farming.

As the monsoon session of the Parliament began, the farmers organisation issued a novel ‘farmers whip’ to the opposition MPs in the two Houses to remain present and take up their cause.

This whip had its most dramatic impact today.

The two issues that have since day one come under focus are the farm laws and Pegasus military spyware. The MPs have also been staging protests outside the Parliament House every.

The battle took another turn on Tuesday when the Opposition turned aggressive in the Rajya Sabha.

This was the day when the opposition parties had decided to allow the passage of a particular bill smoothly in the Lok Sabha while staging protest outside.

Congress Rajya Sabha member from Punjab Partap Singh Bajwa finally stood up on a table surrounded by his colleagues shouting slogans and then threw a file towards the podium. It was total pandemonium. The opposition members raised slogans demanding the withdrawal of three acts.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh too staged vocal protest while sitting on the table and joined in by the collagues.

In the Lok Sabha, Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal utilised the time allotted to her party to speak on the bill to focus on the farmers issues too and ended her speech by raising slogans in favour of the farmers.

It may be mentioned that she had resigned from the Narendra Modi cabinet on the day the Lok Sabha adopted these bills. It is a different matter that she was the first Akali leader to aggressively defend the three ordinances followed the next day by her husband and party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. Now she has been seen standing every day at the entrance of Parliament with placard.

The farmers definitely need this support as they are fighting not their own battle but people’s battle against anti-people policies rooted in the free market that have been followed by the ruling classes in India for the last three decades.

This struggle has to be fought at every level. It is in this context that the battle in Parliament has to be seen.

In the Punjab context, however, there is another important dimension to this battle and the competitive support by the political parties. The state is to go to the Assembly polls in February 2022.

These opposition parties are battling for not just the ballot but support of the farmers organisations too as this is one of the main factors that is going to dictate the outcome of the electoral fight.

Some of the farmer leaders like Gurnam Singh Charuni from Haryana are politically ambitious but these people constitute the minority view.

It may be mentioned here that the electoral dynamics is entirely different from the people’s struggles and this important aspect can’t be overlooked.

The issue here is the competition among the main three contenders to occupy maximum space in the farmers domain. Bajwa today seemed to have outclassed the other competitors.

The farmers might be maintaining respectable distance from the political parties but the support from these parties would go a long way in putting pressure on the Modi government.

The opposition is now resorting to the tactics adopted by the BJP when in opposition of not allowing the Parliament to function.

For the struggle to succeed, it has to be fought at every level,  at the level of the people and the Parliament.

This long struggle is going to impact the polity of the country in the long run, especially its aspect of empowerment of women.