Gratitude is a valuable trait. An important part of humanity apparently, it is one quality that our species, the homo sapiens, claims to possess. However, the government seems to have lost every last ounce of it. It is a shame, and I shake my head in resignation as I type this, that our country is at war with the very people who built it. Our country is at war with the people who’ve kept it alive. It is at war with itself. Our government likes to be on the news, often for all the bad reasons. I could write a list of all the things it has done in the past that have let us down, but I will let that be. I do not want to embarrass our Centre any further, when it is perfectly capable of doing so on its own.
This article isn’t about facts. We know about them already. The purpose of this article is for us to realise the gravity of the situation. The media is propagating pictures of trenches, walls, tear gas, water cannons and other hindrances that were set up by the Central police to prevent the protesting farmers from entering the Capital. It seemed that the outskirts of Delhi were converted into an obstacle course.
I fail to understand the logic here. How do you douse a fire by adding fuel to it? This action by the government was one of complete cowardice. If they were so sure of the Bills they were proposing, why would they be scared to face the people who will supposedly benefit from it? A similar chain of incidents occurred less than a year ago, one that scarred our people, and continues to froth and bubble silently backstage.
A government’s success is determined by the satisfaction and prosperity of its common citizen. Sadly, our government is far too busy taking care of the needs of the corporates, making sure they are happy and comfortable when they are already basking on silk rugs, while the commoner struggles to keep their blanket on themselves. The tenacity of the farmers and others who have joined them in support is commendable and inspiring, especially considering that we are in the middle of a pandemic and Delhi’s temperature goes really low in winters.
It is their will power, grit, sense of brotherhood and the Centre’s audacity that is keeping them warm as they sleep out in the open on these December nights at the Delhi borders. It is truly sad that a few people lost their lives as they fought for their livelihood. I hope the cause for which their families had to lose them gets fulfilled soon.
One distinct difference, or I would say improvement, which can be noticed in both the ruling party’s and the infamous Delhi police’s response towards this protest is that their violence is minimal as opposed to the usual response of open firing and brutality even during harmless, peaceful protests. In one aspect, the farmers are at advantage. They have lesser social divisions among them, which makes it harder to label this protest as a communal movement and that adds to its success.
The country desperately needs to revise its norms. The farmers deserve better. Just revoking these farm bills is not adequate. The people who feed this country deserve more respect, better social status and financial security. Their produce should be paid for justly, the middlemen taking away most of their profit must be stopped, suitable loans at low interests should be made available for farmers, resources should be reasonably priced and genetically-modified crops should be banned.
The government needs to develop schemes that ensure this and much more, instead of focusing on the rich or on trivial issues that have the potential to cause nationwide unrest. Being a predominantly agrarian national, not providing security to farmers is an embarrassing failure to any ruling party.
If this gets accomplished, it will change the lives of so many people involved in agriculture and substantially reduce farmer suicides. Additionally, it will attract more people to the profession, which is a pressing requirement today as so much arable land has been left unused or is being converted into construction sites, because that appears to be more profitable.
They say a country reflects its ruler. They say it right. It is high time the government starts looking at the people who elected them to power and not those who will always be in power.