OPINION

Ordinarily, Delhi seldom slows down because of an ongoing agitation. The life remained normal in most of the parts of the national Capital even as the North-East district was caught in a bloody riot earlier this year. Our Constitution has been described as being unitary in spirit and federal in form. As far as life and form of our national Capital goes, it’s the reverse that is unitary in form but federal in spirit.

Delhi has this capacity to work through its largely autonomous units defined by the five geographic divisions – East, West, North, South and the New Delhi. These units have been further divided for the administrative purposes. These geographical entities also enjoy distinct cultural and economic identities too. Thus, Delhi all these years managed to remain aloof to national issues being agitated at and around the Raisina Hills in New Delhi.

However, the farmers’ agitation has changed this scenario. A siege has been laid around the national Capital, which is now affecting each of the geographic, administrative, economic and cultural segment of the national Capital. This is happening because a siege of the national Capital is being laid for the first time since the siege of Delhi laid by the British forces in 1857, which ended in the fall of an already tottering, doddering, teetering Mughal reign.

Two famous thinkers of the last century had almost common comment to make on politics, which said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” 

The first person to be attributed this quote is Sir Ernest John Pickstone Benn, a British publisher, writer and political publicist. As a civil servant in the Ministry of Munitions and Reconstruction during the First World War he came to believe in the benefits of state intervention in the economy. However, after the war, in the mid-1920s, he changed his mind and adopted "the principles of undiluted laissez-faire" which is comparable to the ideas of today’s free market economy.

The other person to whom this quote is attributed, some say wrongly, is Groucho Marx. Not even a distant relative of philosopher Karl Marx, Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, and television star. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit and one of America's greatest comedians.

There is subtle political message going out from the Kisan (farmer) agitation on the borders of the national Capital. It has to do with politics of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which is refusing to playout inside the national Capital. The decision of the agitating farmers to lay siege of the national Capital by staying put on the borders and not entering the national Capital has poured hailstorm on the plans of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to liaison with the farmers for 2022 assembly polls in the three northern states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

First to show solidarity with the farmers, the Delhi Government refused to notify the huge stadiums in Delhi as makeshift jails, forcing the centre to turn the DDA grounds in Burari into open jail for the farmers. As mentioned in these columns earlier, Delhi government machinery thereafter moved with alacrity to make these farmers ‘comfortable’ in the Burari grounds, and a huge tent city was set using public funds for the purpose.

But alas! it has been ten days and the camp city on the huge Burari ground has turned into a ghost city (see pic), as the farmers have refused to move in. The ghost tent city at Burari today stands as spectacle of monumental wastage of government funds to espouse political motives.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had masterminded the event of Anna Hazare protest of 2011, failed to gauge the true nature of Kisan protest of 2020. The Anna Protest of 2011 was completely politically motivated to discredit the government of the day and thus those participating looked for ‘allowances’ to be part of the agitation. It’s not the same this time.

Have you ever seen a person who would block the door of his/her own home? Arvind Kejriwal is doing this. It's been over one week since Delhi was cordoned off at the behest of fake farmers sympathisers (a collective political group), all essential supplies from food to vegetables are getting affected. Vegetable prices in Delhi have surged due to it. People of Delhi working in neighbouring cities are finding it tough to reach out to their offices or home and the chief minister of Delhi has been busy in blocking the door of the city just to get political mileage.

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP government in September took historic steps introducing three farm Bills - Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act. 

It is a historic move because such massive reforms were not done in the last 70 years. MS Swaminathan report (recommendation) on farm reformation was submitted 2004 -2005 during the Congress rule but nothing was done. Undenying the fact that eversince the Swaminathan report was made, it remained on only papers and media but could not be implemented on ground. PM Modi led BJP government dared to implement the report and to bring reform in the life of farmers. PM Modi government has dared to keep the ‘middleman’ aside through introducing farm reform Bills. These middlemen are spreading misinformation because they have been securing major benefits and now they are going to lose it. The new farm bill is made to give direct benefit to the farmers.

 The new MSP rule was brought by the BJP government. Opposition parties are spreading fake news about the withdrawal of MSP rule by the government.  The government under the leadership of PM Modi has initiated talks with farmers but middlen like Congress and AAP are creating hurdles and misleading the farmers. 

The government has already made it clear that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism will stay, and adequate protection of land ownership was in place to protect farmer interests. These reforms will accelerate growth in the sector through private sector investment in building infrastructure and supply chains for farm produce in national and global markets. They are intended to help small farmers who don’t have means to either bargain for their produce to get a better price or invest in technology to improve the productivity of farms.

The farmers of the country need to understand that it is the Modi government which has introduced several welfare schemes for farmers like significant increase in budgetary allocation for Agriculture, the allocation under PM Kisan Yojna in which farmer gets direct income support, the Rs 1 lakh crore agri-infrastructure fund, the historic MSP hikes, the measures taken for procurement and technology upgradation etc.

(The writer is a senior BJP leader in Delhi and co-incharge of Jammu and Kashmir)

Delhi is the city which travels from one crisis to another, seldom resolving either. At least that has been the story of the national Capital in the past few months, ever since the pandemic dawned during the spring of 2020.

Last week the newspaper headlines were going berserk on the fresh wave of the Coronavirus cases and the related fatalities, this week we are deluged with the information of farmers of Punjab on the march to Delhi. They are the same farmers who allegedly turned the city into a gas chamber burning parali (paddy stubble) in their fields, and now they with their ‘ominous’ presence left city’s traffic in a gridlock.

Ordinarily, the Arvind Kejriwal government, which has been blaming the farmers of Punjab for turning the national Capital into a gas chamber, should have taken a stern view of their march. But on the contrary, it has decided the fete them in the city, giving sufficient signals of it being kind towards their cause. It goes without saying that Mr Kejriwal would go to these farmers in spring of 2022 seeking support during Punjab assembly polls for the kindness extended to them in Delhi during the winter of 2020.

The kind of alacrity with which the Delhi Government machinery moved to make these farmers ‘comfortable’ in the Burari grounds, the same readiness in other matters would have saved the city residents of many of their miseries and the ongoing catastrophe caused by the pandemic surge.