The Modi Government has obviously given a long rope to the farmers who have been agitating against the three farm reform legislations. The agitation has crossed 10 months, punctuated by a politically loaded nation-wide hartal/bandh with limited impact a week ago, and the government was still looking the other way. Yet, the scenario is worsening at multiple levels, as is evident from the highly condemnable act of a SUV running over agitating farmers at Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh. It killed four farmers while another four persons lost their lives in the subsequent protests. Granted that the running over of the SUV on farmers might not have been a pre-meditated act but the BJP will have a lot of explaining to do as to why such an incident has happened at all, mainly as the son of a junior central minister has been accused of direct involvement in this unpardonable sin.
The minister’s son denies he was involved, but accusing fingers are pointed at him. A convoy of BJP vehicles was on its way to receive a senior state minister, and the SUV ran into the crowd. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, who attempted a visit to the families of the bereaved family and was detained, has asked a pertinent question, “Why has the “man who did this” not been arrested; and why the minister, Ajay Mishra Teni, has not been sacked from the ministry. Also pertinent is the poser from Priyanka Gandhi to Prime Minister Modi, that, “When the PM sits at the head of an Azadi Ki Mahotsav rally in Lucknow, he must also go and meet the families of the bereaved families.” Priyanka was kept in detention for a full 24 hours and then arrested by the UP police. Left to herself she was not making much of an impact after her entry to politics. But it would seem the BJP government in UP is bent on building for her a larger aura. In a democracy, she as a senior leader has the basic right to visit the bereaved farmer families. Her detention and arrest made no sense.
At this late stage, the Modi government is also seen to be in a mood to accept some of the demands of the agitating farmers, short of a wholesale withdrawal of the three reform laws. The farming community would, otherwise, teach the BJP a lesson in the upcoming assembly polls in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Question is, why has the Centre allowed matters to drag so far.
