Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The real darkness on horizon
The logic of the state’s political strategy is to find any pretext for social division and state repression. The immediate elite reactions to the unruly and shameful scenes in the wake of the farmers’ protest in India’s capital, especially at the Red Fort, were two-fold. The first was to feign shock and horror, and to channel everyone’s inner nationalism and get them to rally behind the cry of order. The flying of the Nishan Sahib flag at the Red Fort, as inappropriate as it was, was treated as an existential threat and national desecration. The second was relief that the unruly scenes now delegitimised the farmers’ movement, broke the momentum of the protests and would protect the agriculture bills. India’s problem is solved.
But this attitude should not disguise the fact that we were
all trying to find a respectable way of expressing our deep authoritarianism
and unleashing another round of repression. The leaders of the farmers protest
will be targeted with all the national security arsenal that the state has used
in previous protests, from Bhima Koregaon to
the Citizenship Amendment Act. This includes using the National Investigation
Agency (NIA), detention, state harassment, and encouraging mobs to target
legitimate protestors. For instance, Yogendra Yadav is already experiencing
this at more levels than one can imagine; it is remarkable that people like
him, our true patriots, still keep the democratic faith. The real perpetrators
of disorder will not be punished while those exercising the right to democratic
protest will be demonised. States like UP will unleash their arsenal of state
lawlessness in the name of law and order. But the worse is: We will all cheer
for authoritarianism….
Discussion
on Indian Agriculture and the ongoing Kisan agitation
Navsharan
Singh: A million reasons to march
Jairus
Banaji on the Indian corporate strategy of subordinating farm households and
family labor
STATE OF
RURAL AND AGRARIAN INDIA REPORT 2020. By the Network of Rural and Agrarian
Studies
Jairus Banaji on the Indian corporatist strategy of
subordinating farm households and family labor
