OPINION

On return from South Africa in 1915, Barrister Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, enjoying an impeccable reputation as a civil rights activist, was advised by his mentor Gopal Krishna Gokhale to visit countryside to know India. Gandhi’s engagement with farmers at Champaran in Bihar in 1917 and at Kheda in Gujarat in 1918, gave a firm direction to Indian freedom struggle and also outlined the role farmers were to play in India’s struggle against imperialism.

It’s important to recall these movements, as the farmers vacate the borders of the national Capital after having waged an agitation for more than a year against the farm laws brought in by Narendra Modi government, which enjoyed overwhelming majority in Lok Sabha. That an absolutely urban region of the national Capital could become centre of a farmer’s agitation was unthinkable till it actually happened.

In that way the agitation of 2020-21 was more widespread than those of Champaran and Kheda and not isolated in nature. It was also an opening for the urban India to came face-to-face with the issues of rural peasantry.

The schools and colleges in the national Capital were once again shut last week by the Delhi government on the pretext of the Supreme Court order on pollution. Though in the very next hearing Chief Justice NV Ramana said, “We’ve observed, don’t know whether it's intentional or not, some sections of media try to project we are villains and we want the closure of schools. You had said we were closing schools and introducing work from home. And see today newspapers!”

The court’s observation once again reiterated the fact that for the Delhi government the easiest thing to do is to shut schools in the name of “concrete steps taken to control pollution.” How can a functioning school add to pollution and a functioning industry will not is something for the Delhi government to explain.

In the results of Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) polls, there is a clear message for the rulers. While poll winners, BJP-backed National Democratic Teachers Front (NDTF) would walk an extra-mile to attribute their landslide victory to the National Education Policy (NEP) of the Narendra Modi government, the fact is otherwise.

NDTF’s presidential candidate AK Bhagi got 52 percent of the valid votes. Abha Dev Habib, the presidential candidate of the CPM-backed Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) came a distant second polling just 32 percent of the valid votes. The Congress-aligned Academics for Action and Development (AAD) managed just 12 percent of the valid votes. In all 7194 votes were polled.

While it can be said that the Left and the Congress managed to hold onto its cadre votes, the BJP backed candidates for the executive panel too registered overwhelming support garnering highest-ever votes for it, with its five candidates figuring in top seven winners. The Left just about managed an ‘unblemished’ record with its fourth candidate crossing the finish line at the last moment. Left is known for proximity with Delhi government.

Ordinarily an unscheduled holiday a school going child or for that matter even a college going student welcomes. So, when the announcement came from the Delhi government last week of shutting down schools and colleges to escape the tyranny of polluted air, it typically should have been welcomed. However, it was not so this time.

Forced indoors for the past 20 months on the account of the Coronavirus, the morning chirp of the children on the colony bus stops had just about started. After a long while, the young men and women had checked out on their respective wardrobes to be at their sartorial best while visiting the college. And then came the shutdown, the easiest thing for any government to do to cover up its follies.

When the markets remained open, when the workshops and factories remained functional, when the cinema halls continued with their regular show, tipplers continued to tumble, then why shut the doors on the ‘future’ of the country. Does keeping away the children from the school and colleges anyway help ameliorate the air quality.

The Supreme Court has raised the red flag on pollution and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has initiated emergency provisions. This happens almost every year. Why does it always take a whiplash from the court to make Kejriwal government wake up in the matters of life and death?

The biggest strength of the Aam Aadmi Party has been its communication skills, especially those of Mr Kejriwal. He has in his eight years long innings in politics so far has managed to successfully pass the blame for his government’s failures on his political rivals. This time too he blamed the farmers but the Supreme Court decided to call the bluff.

The week after Diwali has been replete with news regarding air pollution, which was followed by river pollution. Reports from credible bodies like the Centre for Science and Environment have refused to squarely blame the neighbouring states for all the ills in Delhi’s air.