After the violence nation saw live on Republic Day, there will likely be no farmers’ rally on February 01 the Budget Day on lines of Republic Day. Two farmer unions have withdrawn from the protests. The Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan and Bhartiya Kisan Union (Bhanu) will no longer be part of the farmer protests.
There is no denying that the farmers committed a blunder by deciding to take out Tractor Rally on January 26 without appreciating the likely consequences of mob getting out of control. Before that, the farmers’ agitation had been hailed as peaceful, non-violent, disciplined and well organised. For almost two months, they sat on the road and the world took note of them. They had no reason for indulging into theatrics to be heard or be noticed more than what the people knew as the Government was not only compelled to listen to them but to also climbed down by agreeing to put the farm laws on hold for eighteen months. So it was beyond comprehension what they wanted to prove with a tractor march, other than to showcase their strength. Now, one can safely say that they were wrongly advised, as their strength was something that had already been proven.
The decision-makers of the movement did not realise that it is always difficult to control and discipline a rally. And if a rally is on the move, then it is harder to manage. In such a situation, it is easy for anti-social elements and saboteurs to mingle in the crowd in the garb of volunteers and create mayhem at the opportune time.
Had the farmers’ leaders accepted the government’s proposal to suspend the three contentious laws for 18 months, while continuing to negotiate with the government would still have construed as victory.
The farmers too have to understand that they cannot hold on to their agitation for eternity. The ecosystem at the moment is not supportive of any democratic movement. Every movement is likely to fizzle out if it fails to maintain its focus and deviate from its original agenda while human factors to add on.
Two dozen FIRs, over 200 people detained and hard posture of the government would further aggravate the situation. In its own investigation, Twitter has suspended over 500 Khalistani accounts which allegedly instigating violence and spread misinformation about farmer protests and bills.
What is adding more fuel to it is the self proclaimed investigators on Twitter. They are tweeting and retweeting videos and ‘facts’ they know or got to know. In one such video spokesperson of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, Rakesh Tikait, is seen and heard speaking “ to join the tractor rally with jhanda and danda “because the government is not listening.” Was this a veiled instigation? This war of words on social media platforms has all ingredients to cause harm to the Farmers’ movement that deviated from pursuing their cause to prove their might.
