TLI Opinion
There is a “Bajrang Dal” in every large outfit but they should never be allowed to take over the mature and peace-loving group. The actions of the extremist faction among protesting farmers cannot be approved. But at the same time, sporadic aggressive actions should not shadow the peaceful movement of the farmers.
Based on the merit of the farmers’ demands, government has already offered some tweaks in the three farm laws and is well within its right to give more concessions or not. After all, the government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an elected government and that too with considerable popular support.
Merits of the farmers’ demand aside, the Modi government has been in dock on many occasions over lack of effort on building consensus. Given its electoral heft, it perhaps does not feel the need for required consultation on policy matters. In the past, it had to roll back all major announcements of the Union budget 2019 due to protests from investors. In 2016, it had to withdraw notification on Provident Fund withdrawal after violent protests.
In order to hold implementation of CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019) in the wake of Assam elections, it has not framed rules under the new law. There is long list of withdrawals which suggest government’s decisions are half-baked, ill-thought and premature.
A weak and discredited opposition has only made the situation worse.
The ordinary citizens have paid heavy price for the wrong decisions of the government. After demonetisation, dozens of sick and elderly lost their lives standing in queues to either deposit the money or withdraw cash. The seismic jolt to the economy left lakhs of people jobless. Thousands of enterprises that depended on cash economy shut down. And after years of the blunder, the economy is yet to get back on the track. The government has failed to provide quantifiable data that could suggest note ban helped in any way.
The faulty Goods and Services Tax (GST) continues to be a nightmare for small businesses. In almost four years since the launch of the new indirect tax system, the government has failed to come up with even a smooth and user-friendly website for taxpayers.
The ruling party’s divisive agenda has ensured bagful of votes during central or state elections. Its superb ability to come up with new ideas to divide people on religious lines has no parallel in either the recent past or present. After one major communal bomb, it keeps firing pellets to keep emotions charged. Buoyed by its one success after the other, the party has expanded the scope of experiments and covered more ground.
The successive electoral wins have added to the arrogance of the government. It is only natural. It has happened with other party also. Congress under Indira Gandhi had displayed same tendencies in 70s and 80s.
BJP won in 2014 more because of negative vote for Congress Party. A perception has definitely been built that the win was because of one leader but the quality of his decision-making forces one to rethink. In this digital world, image of a person can be built overnight. There are agencies which offer this service for a payment. All this is an open secret now.
Decisions in a democracy have to be mandatorily taken on the basis of consensus. A majority government does not mean minority should be ignored or excluded. The argument that “only farmers from 2-3 states are protesting against the farm laws” should not be the approach. It is not necessary that those not protesting against the laws are supporting it. They might be silent in absence of right outlet to raise their voice.
People are not protesting against constant rise in diesel and petrol prices. But it does not mean they are happy with the government decision to keep raising duties on them. The government is levying such a high duty on two fuel items when it is not safe to travel by public transport. Its own department Railways is not running all the trains.
People are using personal vehicle even to travel very long distances. As a result, cost of travel has skyrocketed but government continues to collect high taxes on petrol and diesel. This is complete insensitivity towards common man.
The central government must go extra mile to end the farmer protest and make consensus a pre-requisite for all policy decisions.
Image courtesy: Twitter/Anand Singh