Yearning of an Indian Farmer
By: Gagandeep S Issar
Tags: Agriculture, Farming, Protest, India

Ongoing farmer protests in India will be remembered as the greatest peaceful demonstration for human rights in the history of modern world. Seventy years ago, India adopted its constitution, recognizing India as a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, and Democratic Republic. This momentous decree came as a ray of hope to millions of Indians who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice, a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their independence struggle. But Seventy years later, the farmers of India are still not free. The life of a farmer is still sadly crippled by the poor food storage and distribution system in our country. As a result the Indian farmer is still being forced to sell under minimum support price for his produce. Seventy years later, rural India is still languishing with dilapidated school buildings poor medical facilities. Instead of improving the plight of these farmers by strengthening the existing APMC* system, the Government of India has come up with three carefully drafted bills to further deteriorate farmers lives and convert farmers into farm laborers. And so, farmers are forced to come to India’s capital city of Delhi to raise their discontent against government’s shameful act.

By bringing these farmer bills, in a sense Government of India has given the farmers of India a bounced check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds when it comes to assuring them with a minimum support price of their produce. But the farmers refuse to believe that our country’s justice is bankrupt. The farmers of India refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so the Indian farmers have come to this hallowed spot of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji’s martyrdom to remind India of the fierce urgency of repealing these laws.

My dear fellow Indians, this is no time to engage in the luxury of ‘chalta hai’ attitude. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of our divisive political views to the sunlit path of equality for everyone. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of divisive politics, and religious intolerance to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make the war cry of Jai Jawan, Jai Kissan a reality. I urge my fellow Indians to not be unmindful that these very farmers made India into a food surplus nation by ushering Green Revolution in our country. Farmers are braving bone chilling winter for a legitimate discontent and it will surely bring a spring of freedom and equality. 2020 is not an end, but just a beginning. And those who hope that the farmers need to blow off steam after Prime Minister’s hollow verbal assurances will have a rude awakening. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in India until the farmers are granted their rightful dues. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of the current government until the bright days of justice emerge.

My dear farmers, there is something that we need to always remember: in the process of gaining our rights, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us continue our protests in the same civic manner. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for rightful demands by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s taught high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our protest to degenerate into physical violence. Every day, we must resolve to meet the Government’s shrewd force with firm belief in our inner conscience and ethics. The BJP/RSS IT cell, and most of the mainstream biased media which has engulfed the farmer protests must not lead us to a distrust of all other Indian people, for many of our sisters and brothers, as evidenced by their presence in the protests, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny, and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. Remember, we can neither walk alone nor turn back. We should also aim to forge our relationships further by developing cooperatives in the field of fertilizers, bio-fuels, manufacturing, storage, marketing and distribution of food products to capture maximum benefits of food supply chain.

And, to those media channels who are asking us, “When will you be satisfied?” Our answer to them is that we can never be satisfied as long as farmers are the victim of vicious intentions of these farmer bills. We can never be satisfied as long as our fellow farmers struggle to put food on the table for their children. We cannot be satisfied as long as the farmers continue to commit suicide due to inadequate pricing of its produce while common man continues to pay through the nose for farmers produce. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their basic rights of good education and medical facilities. We cannot be satisfied as long as a farmer in Bihar cannot sell his produce at Minimum Support Price since dismantling of APMC since 2006. We cannot be satisfied until Rabindranath Tagore’s dream of Amar Shonar Bangla is unfulfilled. No, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until Guru Gobind Singh Jis vision of Maanas Ki Jaat, Sabhe Eko Pehchanbo is fulfilled and justice rolls down for every Indian like pious waters of the Ganges and that of Yamuna.

My dear protesting farmers, even though we may face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, we must not lose our deeply rooted hope in the Indian constitution. We should all hope that one day our beloved India will rise and live out the true meaning of its Preamble: To secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity, and to promote among them all,

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation.

May the people from Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha, Dravid (Southern India states), Utkal (Orissa), Bengal, Vindhya (mountain ranges), Himachal, Ganges and Yamuna, and the rising waves of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal — all rejoice and sing the story of your victories in the times to come.

Jai Hind!