DNA Special: Is Bharat Bandh a show of strength or simply protest against government?

Monday was the 12th day of the farmers’ agitation. After five rounds of talks between the Centre and farmers’ unions remained inconclusive, the sixth round of talks will take place on Wednesday (December 9). However, prior to that, the protesting farmers have called a nationwide ‘Bharat Bandh’ on December 8 (Tuesday). The leaders of 20 Opposition parties including the Congress, Samajwadi Party, NCP, DMK, Left Front, among others have supported the ‘bandh’. The Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Shiv Sena have also joined ranks with the Opposition that has stood up to back the protesting farmers. The Aam Aadmi Party too has backed the ‘Bharat Bandh’. Here, we want to analyse whether this strong opposition from so many parties is actually a show of strength for the farmers or simply an opposition against the government.

If we take into account the number of parties supporting the bandh, we see 133 MPs are in favour of the nationwide strike, which is only 24 per cent of the total MPs in the Lok Sabha.

In 2010, when the UPA government was in power, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar was the Union agriculture minister. He had then written letters to the chief ministers to amend the APMC Act in their states in order to create space for the private players to play an important role in the agriculture sector.

The letters written by Pawar surfaced on Sunday (December 6) with many claiming that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre has made the same set of changes in the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act which were backed by Pawar. However, today it is Pawar who against the same law.

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had tweeted on July 27, 2016 when the Shiromani Akali Dal was ruling the state that if the Akali Dal government does not cancel the Retail Agri Business Project, the income of the farmers of Punjab would have tripled. There was an agreement between the Chief Minister of Punjab and a large corporate house in August 2006. The company buys AGRI PRODUCTS of Rs. 3000 crore from farmers. The government then said that it would benefit 1 lakh 50 thousand farmers and triple the income of the farmers. But in the year 2009, the Akali Dal government of the state had cancelled it. The same Captain Amarinder Singh today is opposing the new law for farmers today.

On Monday, we also saw Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visit the Singhu border where he briefly interacted with some of the protesting farmers and also inspected the arrangements made by the city administration for them.

Even as Kejriwal did not visit the main protest site, he was surrounded by scores of agitating farmers as he reached Guru Teg Bahadur Memorial near Singhu border (Delhi-Haryana border).

The farmers’ protest is also getting support from Canada, UK and America. Anti-country forces abroad are weakening the country under the guise of farmers ' agitation.

On Sunday, demonstrators gathered at the Indian High Commission in London in support of farmers protesting against farm laws. The protestors raised anti-India and pro-farmer slogans.

Led by Tanmanjit Singh Dhesi, a Punjab origin Labour MP, 36 British lawmakers on December 3 wrote to the foreign secretary Dominic Raab seeking the intervention of the government on the farmers' issue in India. 

The letter also urges the British government to communicate its concerns to the Modi government and call for an urgent meeting to address the situation.

In the letter dated December 3, Dhesi wrote, "Over the last month a number of MPs would have written to you and the Indian High Commission in London about the impact to the three new Indian laws on exploiting farmers and those dependent on farming in India. The introduction of these new laws by the Indian Government (Centre) have despite  the coronavirus, triggered widespread farmers' protests across  the country for failing to protect farmers from exploitation and to ensure fair prices for their produce."

"This in an issue of particular concern to Sikhs in the UK and those linked to Punjab, although it also heavily impacts on other Indian states. Many Sikhs and Punjabis have taken this matter up with their MPs as they are directly affected with family members and ancestral land in the Punjab. Being famous as "India’s Bread Basket" many Punjabis rely on farming for their existence. Therefore these new laws present the Punjabis with a  huge problem with some describing it as a "Death Warrant", the letter further read.

Another important point is that since the Aam Aadmi Party is also supporting the ‘Bharat Bandh’, people in Delhi could face some issues.

Though the majority of auto-rickshaw unions in Delhi have not supported the bandh, some auto and taxi unions are supporting it. This also includes mobile app-based taxi services. In this case, you mind find it difficult to get taxis on hire.

Some parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Tamil Nadu could also be affected by the bandh.

Loss to the economy:

One day of ‘Bharat Bandh’ causes an estimated loss of about Rs 32,000 crore. This is just an estimate and the real figures might be much higher than that.