In September 2020, the Farm laws were passed in the parliament, when there was limited presence of legislators, with next to nil questioning. When the law makers from non-BJP parties failed to stand for the farmers, they (the farmers and tillers) took up the fight themselves. The farmers’ protests began in August 2020 in a scattered manner across the country. On November 26, 2020, farmers began their march towards the national capital in protest against the farm laws. That put the central government in a huge discomfort.
As the daily infections of Coronavirus begun declining and the recovery rate started improving, the farmers’ protest gathered steam with thousands of more participants joining in from various states.
Gradually, the farmers’ protest turned into a movement and international community showed solidarity with the farmers. It was also reported that the Biden administration might invoke Magnitsky Act of 2012 against the Ambani and Adani groups who stand to benefit from the farm-laws at the cost of farmers’ welfare.
The farmers’ movement spearheaded by organizations like SKM, BKU, AIKS garnered not just national but international support. Tweets by renowned pop-star Rihanna and climate-activist Greta Thunberg favouring the protesting farmers stirred up a hornet’s nest of accusations and counter-accusations and blame-game. The GOI was embarrassed when its arrest of activist Disha Ravi was criticized and trolled heavily.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau too supported the right of farmers to hold peaceful protests in India. In several countries, people of Indian origin came out on roads in support of the protesters.
By Republic Day, 2021, the number of new infections of Coronavirus had fallen to 12,689. On the same day, there was a farmers’ tractor march planned to highlight their demands. The march turned violent with participation of fringe elements whose intention was to malign the farmers’ movement. Through provocation from the fringe elements, some of the participants in the march broke barriers to storm Delhi, breaching the Red fort, dissolving into unprecedented scenes of anarchy.
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Subsequently, in February, the number of Covid-19 cases started rising and soon enough, the country began reeling under a second wave of the pandemic. According to Union Health Ministry’s data, on February 26, the new number of daily cases stood at 16,488, it was 62,258 on March 26 and it grew to a whopping 4.01 lakh on April 30-May 1.
The second wave of the Coronavirus brought its own set of challenges for the country and the farmers’ movement. It showed the incapacity and indifferent attitude of the government towards the suffering of the people, with infected sleeping in public toilets, people waiting helplessly on roads & in ambulances, and pyres burning on streets and dead bodies being taken in trash vans & thrown in rivers across different states. In this situation, the farmers came ahead with help for the needy patients who were literally abondoned by the governmemt.
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Impact of second wave of Covid-19 on farmers’ protests
The farmer-unions spearheading the farmers’ movement are determined to continue their protest, despite a sharp rise in the number of novel coronavirus infections. Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of 40 protesting farmers’ unions, that is spearheading the movement against the contentious farm-laws, has announced multiple guidelines and precautions to be undertaken at the protest sites.
BKU leader Rakesh Tikait while addressing a farmers’ panchayat at Prem Nagar village in Haryana’s Bhiwani district, asked villagers to follow all Covid-related protocols like wearing masks, following social distancing norms and maintaining hygiene. The mahapanchayats have come as a near-death-blow on the efforts by the government to subdue and quell the farmers’ movement.
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Tikait told the farmers, “Do not hide the disease if you get it, if anyone falls sick, get timely treatment and you will be alright.”
In the avalanche of Covid-deaths that have followed the second wave, the farmers’ movement that was grabbing national and international attention and highlighted in headlines, has been somewhat overshadowed, but not forgotten.
The issues have been apparently put on the back burner, on the government’s end. Series of formal talks between the Centre and the protesters failed. The talks which happened 11 times between December 2020 and January 2021, has not resumed since February, when the daily Covid19 infections started rising again.
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Leader of BKU Rakesh Tikait has been saying that the farmer-unions are ready to discuss the three contentious farm-laws with the Centre whenever it wants to resume talks. He also asserted that the discussion would have to be about repealing the legislation.
While addressing a farmers’ panchayat at Prem Nagar village in Haryana’s Bhiwani district, Tikait said, “The farmers have to carry on with their agitation for long, but they would certainly not return to their homes without a victory.” Tikait further reiterated that the protesting farmers will continue the agitation peacefully uptill the time their demands are met.
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Though the protests against the CAA-NRC was somewhat dented by the Covid19 surge in early 2020, the farmers’ movement is way more resilient, agile, tactical, intelligent and responsive to both the pressure from centre and from the Covid19. It has become more functionally-resilient, situationally-alert over the months. When centre tried to shut down internet, to clamp the movement, the farmers used the mikes of temples from nearby villages in Haryana to coordinate their efforts. The farmers have a full-time cyber team in place to counter any efforts to sabotage the movement. Recently, in Kundli, Sonepat, Haryana, young farmers had gheraoed the senior leaders of organizations like the SKM urging them to plan for a drastic march to parliament. The farmers had also been proactive in distributing food packets, when the migrant labourers have been returning to their home states in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic. They have also been busy in arranging Oxygen for the patients suffering in and around the national capital during the latest crisis. No signal has ever been given which hints that the farmers have given up.
The fiery spirit of the farmers, their organizations and leaders is still alive and so is the farmers’ movement.
