Even as the left-liberal media is trying hard to project the ‘farmers’ protest in the national capital as some sort of an uprising against the Modi government, it is being estimated that not even 1 per cent of the total farmers in the country are part of these protests indicating that a large of numbers have no issues with the three farm bills passed by the Modi government.
Ever since farmers from Punjab camped on the roads leading to the national capital to protest against the farm reforms thus causing a massive inconvenience to the public, the ‘liberal-secular’ media ecosystem has been desperate to hail these protestors and depict these so-called protests involving alleged ‘farmers’ as another revolution against the incumbent Modi government.
However, in reality, these ‘farmers’ from Punjab holding the state into ransom by blocking the roads are no representatives of the collective interest of the country’s farmers at all. The alleged farmers from Punjab, who are rejoicing freebies like pizza and foot massages along the Haryana-Delhi border, form a minuscule part of India’s farmers collective.
Interestingly, out of the 15 crore farmer households in the country, the Punjabi farmers who seem to have grievances against the farm reforms forms less than 0.75 per cent of the total farmers in the country. According to Prof Ashok Gulati, there are more than 14.6 crore farmer households in the country and Punjab has less than 11 lakh farmer households, thus making their representation less than 1 per cent.
Even in the case of Punjab farmers, not all farmers from the state are opposed to the farm reforms. It is only a handful of them, anywhere between 20,000 to 80,000 farmers are camping at the four sites – Singhu, Noida, Ghazipur and Tikri. Most of the farmers at the protest site have been allegedly brought by the Arhatiyas or middlemen to protest against the three farm laws, who have been made irrelevant in the new laws.
Not all protestors are farmers
It is also important to note that not all protestors at the protest sites are farmers. The protests that allegedly began as an opposition to the farm laws have now taken the form of political protests. Supporters of political parties, including the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Aam Aadmi Party and the far-left, Islamists organisations are also fighting each other to appropriate these protests to further their political agenda.
We had also reported how anti-Indian elements such pro-Khalistan outfits have hijacked the ‘farmer protests’ are using to further their secessionist agenda. Foreign-based Khalistanis and certain entertainers with a shady history have been extremely vocal over the course of these protests.
Most importantly, organisations that have connections with pro-Khalistani outfits are now operating in these protest sites to facilitate the so-called protests against the Modi government. Pro-Khalistan organisations, in order to attract the crowd to these protests, had also come up with the idea of luring the so-called protestors by offering free pizza, foot massages at the protest site so that they could not only retain the already exhausted protestors but also attract new ones.
If one takes into account of all these numbers, one can say that the protests against the Modi government, which is now being depicted as a ‘farmer uprising’ by the left-liberal media are nothing but “manufactured perception” to fool the rest of the country. The protests are neither the manifestations of real grievances of the farmers nor representing the real farmers of the country.
Protests are political in nature, hijacked by Islamists and Khalistanis
The protests are purely political in nature, which is being exposed day-after-day with Khalistani forces successfully hijacking these so-called farmer protests. Just yesterday, we saw how these protests took a dangerous turn after the alleged ‘farmers’ openly expressed their solidarity to left-wing terrorists and Urban Naxals in the name of protesting against the government.
The protestors had demanded the release of terrorist sympathisers and enablers such as Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bhardwaj, Varvara Rao, Anand Teltumbde, and riot accuses such as Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Khalid Saifi etc.
The farmers’ unions and organisations that have been leading the so-called ‘farmer’ protests against the centre also lack credibility. Only a handful of farmers association, mostly controlled by far-left leaders, have managed to influence some farmers from Punjab to hit the streets against the Modi government.
One organisation, in particular, Bharatiya Kisan Union have used the opportunity of ‘farmers’ protest to hail Naxalism and demand the release of riots accused and terrorist sympathisers.
Darshan Pal, President of Krantikari Kisan Union, who is coordinating among various organisations participating in the protests, became a farmer just a few years ago. He is also a working committee member of the All India Kisan Sangrash Coordination Committee (AIKSCC). Shockingly, he is also a Maoist leader. Darshan Pal was one of the founders of People’s Democratic Front of India (PDFI). PDFI is a constituent of the Maoist movement, the left-wing terrorism in the country.
Not just that, the farmers and middlemen (Arhatiyas) in Punjab play by different rules of procurement and MSP system than the rest of the country making them some of what distinct than the rest of the country. The farmers in Punjab are not part of the Direct Benefit Transfer system and one-third landowners in the state are absentee landlords, who have rented out their lands to farmers.
It is also reported that the current protests are also allegedly fuelled by these Arhatiyas, who fear of losing their existing hegemony in the procurement process. The three farm laws passed by the Modi government aims to bypass these intermediaries in the procurement process.
Farmers across the country welcome farm laws, writes letter to govt not to withdraw out of pressure
Apart from one or two isolated incidents of protests, mostly symbolic ones carried out by few farmer groups aligned to the opposition parties, no major farmer protests have been taken place in the rest of the country. Interestingly, apart from Punjab and some pockets of Haryana, even farmers cultivating in those states ruled by the non-BJP government have also stayed away from these protests largely.
In fact, most of the farmers have openly come out in the support of the three laws passed by the Modi government that has freed them from the earlier restrictions imposed by the APMC acts passed by respective state governments. Several videos, testimonies in favour of the three farm laws have come up on social media platforms highlighting how the majority of the farmers, if not all, have welcomed the much-needed agro reforms.
Recently, around 1.20 lakh farmers from Haryana had expressed their support to the farm laws and had written a letter to the Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar demanding them not to succumb to the pressure and withdraw the farm laws.
As depicted by the media, the three farm laws that are part of comprehensive agro reforms did not originate with the Modi government. These significant reforms, which is a continuing process and are not end in itself, were initiated by the past governments. Continuing the reform agenda, the Modi government brought three farm laws to ease the procurement system in the country thus enabling the farmers to get higher returns for their produce.
The Modi government has had enough deliberations on these reforms and had conducted about 1.4 lakh training and webinar sessions before introducing the three bills in the parliament. Contrary to the claims of opposition parties that Parliament has hurried the farm laws, the Modi government has reached out to nearly 93 lakh farmers, in the last six months over the agriculture reforms.
Echoing similar observations, Prof Ashok Gulati – one of country’s topmost agricultural economist, had said that enough discussion has taken place on farm laws for the last 17 years and it was time for bringing actual reforms in the agro sector. The professor, who is an Infosys chair on agriculture at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) had also said that the communication gap has been fully exploited by some political parties and activists to create a fear psychosis among the farmers.
Despite all the glaring evidence that these protests have nothing to do with farmers or agriculture, the left-liberal media has been trying extremely hard to show otherwise displaying their intellectual dishonesty and lack of professional integrity.