In the ongoing agitations against the three farm laws spanning nearly two weeks now, Wednesday was perhaps the eventful one. All talks so far involving the stakeholders from highest level have hit the wall and the picture that emerged late evening clearly suggests the impasse is not going to end anytime soon. This is despite all the assurances given by the Central government, including a written one on Minimum Support Price (MSP). Will sound prophetic, but the way the entire affair was handled right from the beginning, it was perhaps inevitable. An issue delicate like this ought to be handled with extreme care, openness and prudence. None of them hardly have been followed, resulting in a hurt to the farmers’ sentiments and breaking of the ice seems nowhere in sight.

It’s hardly necessary to retell what lead to the height of this deadlock and why the interlocutors, all top-ranking, have failed. The bills, even before they attained the statuses of laws were mooted as “historic”, “path-breaking” and with all such equally weighty prefixes. Logically viewing and keeping in mind the fact the nation is a running democracy, there were expectations that talks would be held and alternate views would be given room. What actually happened is known to all. The customary discussions and debates in the temple of Indian democracy, the Parliament, were strikingly little or almost absent and there was an inexplicable hurry in passage of the bills that raised eyebrows and a pertinent question- why this hush-hush mode this time? The farmers, who are going to be influenced greatly by the ‘changes’ were taken for granted which they are now viewing as a scathing insult. It’s now deep-rooted in their minds that entry of big corporates will be detrimental and extreme economic insecurity will just be unavoidable. The cumulative effect are just on the onset of manifesting- all proposals, comprising assurance on MSP and several other tweaks in the laws have been straight away rejected by the farmers’ bodies. The writing on the wall is in bold- total recall of the farms laws and nothing less. The protests, which so far have been national capital-centric are now being planned to take the pan-nation shape by blocking of major highways through which essential commodities are transported. 2019 winter was full of discontent due to the trio of CAB, PRC, NRC and this time, it seems there will be a repetition. The country has already lost its erstwhile economic prowess and now back-to-back social disharmonies are looming large on horizon.

The current signs are enough to foretell that things may go out of control. The Centre must make an objective assessment of the actuality and act fast accordingly.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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