There are a lot of things I don’t understand. One of them is the logic behind chakka jams, the road blocks.
How is causing inconvenience to anyone, who just wants to go about do his work, earn their bread and come home a legit form of protest. How is bringing the nation to a standstill, the very country you claim to love and vow to die for, helping?
At a time when the world economy is in shambles, no thanks to the Chinese coronavirus that has infected crores of people worldwide, leaving over 2 lakh people dead in just a year, how is this bid to stop economic activities across nation a good idea? Of all the economies in the world, India is pegged to be one of the fastest to recover despite pandemic.
And the opposition parties in India are standing by the chakka jams. These will also be the first to whine when companies have to shut down because of the heavy losses incurred by these road blocks. It is imperative to know that the ‘farmers’ have been blocking Delhi borders since past more than two months.
No matter what happens, it is the national capital that has to suffer.
Like last year, it was anti-CAA protestors who had blocked the Delhi-Noida road for over two months. This when the law they were opposing was not even applicable to them. The Citizenship Amendment Act only fast-tracks Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities in three neighbouring Islamic countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Non-Muslims from these countries who have taken refuge in India, were to get fast-tracked Indian citizenship. “But what about Muslims in these countries? What if they seek refuge in India?” Sure, they can take the regular route. “But Indian Muslims are being left stateless”. How? No one knows. How can an Act, not applicable to Indian Muslims, leave them stateless? It still baffles me. But these Shaheen Bagh ‘dadis’ were ‘fighting for their identity’.
Speaking of protesting against things needlessly, the ‘farmer unions’ like Bharatiya Kisan Union and even opposition parties like Congress and others had demanded and promised the exact same things these new farm laws give. They wanted free market, they got free market and are not protesting against free market. The hypocrisy is staggering.
Which brings us to chakka jams. What does chakka jam do? It brings in international media attention. That is also why the ‘tractor rallies’ were carried out. The ‘farmers’ tried to instigate the police to use force by trying to mow them down and even desecrating the national monument just when the official Republic Day parade was happening just few kms away.
What did it bring? International media attention. Hollywood celebrities and celebrity protestors were tweeting ‘why are we not talking about these human rights violations’ for blocking internet.
Wait, so blocking Internet is ‘human rights violation’, but blocking roads is ‘democracy’.
These ‘road blocks’ also occur with the same ‘human’ angle. There will almost always be a wedding party which takes part in these protests. Or these ‘protestors’ will clear up the road block for ambulance. ‘You see, we don’t want to cause inconvenience to anyone’, they will tell the media. Once camera is off, they are issue death threats to elderly people who just wish to see a doctor.
Chakka jams and tractor rallies are nothing but a spectacle, well planned and well organised to get international attention and defame India on global platforms.
