Kisan struggle challenges divisive agenda of BJP and its anti-people pro-corporate model of development

 

Kisan struggle evolving as assertion of diverse socio-cultural reality of India, questions divisive narrative

 

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

The struggle by the farmers for their very survival threatened by three contentious farm laws imposed by the pro-corporate Narendra Modi government without broader consultations is now evolving as a challenge to the divisive politics and agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The assertion of diverse socio-religious-cultural reality at the Sunday Mahapanchayat at Muzaffarnagar, the city in Western Uttar Pradesh that had triggered divisive politics in 2013 by engineering communal politics, is an indication of the non-sectarian and non-communal politics for which this struggle by the very people rooted to the soil could get transformed into platform for this mobilization.

This is the most positive aspect of this struggle that has also the potential to upset the electoral dynamics of the ruling BJP that is at the heart of the divisive politics and the Hindu Rashtra narrative.

The slogan ‘Har Har Mahadev-Alla hu Akbar’ that was raised from the stage of this conclave is manifestation of the changing reality in the region that had remained polarized for years.

It is pertinent to mention that the connotation of these slogans that were raised at Kisan conference is different from ‘Jai Shri Ram-Alla hu Akbar’ heard from the Shiromani Akali Dal stage in Chandigarh recently. In that case, these slogans reflected the changing basic character of the once Sikh party that used to articulate the concerns of this minority community and this change is dictated solely by electoral-political interests.

The impact of the Kisan struggle on the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab is to be watched. The most important is UP as this state would set the trend for 2024 Lok Sabha election.

It is in this context that the challenge posed by this struggle to divisive model of BJP’s politics is all the more important.

The divisive narrative suits the corporates the most going by the huge profits earned by this sector in India ever since the coming into power of the BJP at the centre.

And there is another interesting aspect. The most adversely hit by this pro-corporate model is the middle class that proliferated after the economy was liberalized and constitutes strong support base for the divisive agenda.

The Muzafarnagar conference has succeeded in conveying that the issue was not just the three farm laws but the pro-corporate model of development that is anti-people.

The Congress that has been getting phased out both under the impact of polarized politics and its own non-functioning, has been failing to perform its role as the main opposition and that space continues to be vacant.

It is in this context that the emergence of the farmers struggle as non-communal force is important. The Congress represents total confusion as Hindutva can’t be confronted by opting for soft Hindu line. It is the communal politics and the development model that it patronises that has to be aggressively opposed. The Congress lacks both will and capacity.

It is from the Muzaffarnagar Kisan Mahapanchayat that the call has been given to strongly counter this anti-people divisive agenda and development model.

This is the beginning and that too from a region that so far was highly polarized.

It has been decided to carry forward this mobilization with a call to ensure that the electoral prospectus of the BJP are severely hit. It is the BJP that has brought in the three contentious farm laws to virtually hand over the farm sector to the corporates.

This call has to be seen in the context that this the most peaceful and the longest agitation in recent years in India has so far failed to move the Modi government. The demand is to drop the three laws and ensure procurement of crops at minimum support price.

The only option left is to fight the Modi government and the BJP at the political level and attack where it hurts the most.

The emergence of a much needed platform and a force to counter and confront the anti-people divisive agenda and  assert the diversity of India that is under threat is significant in this backdrop.