The farm bill
protests seem to take Delhi by siege. Yet the predominant proportion of farmers
protesting are from a single state Punjab. The very nature of the protest does
point towards enough indicators of a political protest being disguised as a
farmer’s protest. The left liberal ecosystem in India that has long thrived on
the patronage of the Congress and its lackeys is desperately creating a Ram
Lila 2011 redux. More than the Ram Lila fast by Anna Hazare per se, it was the
Congress response to it that effectively sunk the Congress. The Congress and
its ecosystem is recover from the same and want to do a Ram Lila 2.0 on Modi.
Yet their efforts so far have not fructified. The electoral victories have once
again proved that Modi continues to be trusted and popular. The Congress is in
serious danger of turning irrelevant. It is in this context one has to look the
Punjab farmers protests which has shifted its action to Delhi.
The right wing
on the social media and Twitter in particular have been vociferous on economic
reforms. In their perception, Modi turned out to be very different that Margret
Thatcher whom they thought they would see in Modi. They wanted Modi perhaps to
stress on Hayek as his Bible which they could not get. Time and again, they
have brought back memories of how Margret Thatcher handled Coal Strike in
Britain with an iron hand. Each time an agitation happens, they believe the
response must match that of Thatcher. Yet today, as Modi seems to stand firm,
the right wing seems to be hiding. The right wing rarely finds merit in any of
the Modi’s actions and usually finds fault with him for the smallest of the
things. Time and again they have faulted Modi for what they term poor communication.
In their assessment, Modi doesn’t communicate well and thus the problems arise.
In their terminology, all agitations find a root in Modi’s perceived inability
to communicate. Yet with passage of time, unlike their idol Thatcher who stood firm, they begin to vacillate fast.
Like in the JNU incidents and consequent arrest of Kanahiya Kumar, they were
finding fault with Modi of mishandling rather than standing firm. The problem
with the right wing in India especially its social media version is its cowardice
notwithstanding the strong nature of the word. They cannot stand firm and start
to get scared a moment a counter-attack is made. They want a battle to be won
without any counter-attacks nor any damage to their side. They do not want
casualties. They cannot stand firm in the face of adversity. The moment a small
attack is made, they begin to develop cold feet and start to advocate retreat. This
is not just small time twitterati but celebrities on social media whether they
are journos or otherwise. Be it the JNU incidents, OROP protests, the Balakot
strikes and aftermath, Shaheen Bagh, political fights in West Bengal or Kerala,
the right wing has demonstrated it has a very weak heart. It cannot stand any
response that might be even in smallest doses hints at some damage. Hard to
accept, but no battle is ever won with casualties. There is no war which has
not seen bloodshed. No war is won in a single day. There would be moves and
counter moves. The challenge is confront the countermoves despite the adverse
nature and the possible damages it might cause. The moment they sense a small
unit of counter-attack, the panic sets in the right wing and they turn their
ire on Modi. All that has to be blamed is Modi’s communication. If communication
was so bad, they perhaps cannot explain why Modi has scored electoral victories
again and again since 2014. It is only because of his ability to communicate that
he has been able to strike a chord with the people and gain their trust. In their
world view, people are misinformed and hence the agitations happen or
alternatively, Modi has not addressed all their grievances because of what they
term the obstructive and obdurate bureaucracy. Yet nothing is farther from this truth.
There is a story
of Tenali Ramakrishna that comes to the mind. There is one so called chess
expert who visits the court of Krishnadevaraya and challenges his courtiers to
a game of chess. Tenali Rama accepts the challenge. The game proceeds for long
hours. Everyone has by and large dozed off. Seeing this opportunity, the expert
starts shouting from the roof top saying he has won. Everybody feels that
Tenali Rama has lost and nobody his willing to listen to his explanation. The same
story keeps happening again and again. It is the ecosystem that starts talking
around how certain piece of action goes against a certain section or for that
matter entire society. CAA had nothing to do with Muslims but the projection
was it was anti-Muslim depriving them of their citizenship. Similarly farm
bills have nothing to do with MSP but the entire seems to revolve around there.
It is not misinformation that exists in the commentariat. It is the deliberate
misinformation that gets spread and no amount of communication can cover that. The
initial thrust or the pincer attacks have to be absorbed. It is only after the
initial attack has faded that the counter- strategies begin to work. This is
bound to happen again and again. There is a well thought out strategy that is
being put into place when these attacks happen. The momentum is always with the
attacker for that moment. The counter moves lie in wearing out the attacker. The
attacker wants to provoke and gain the sympathy for the underdog. The human
tendency across the world without exception is to favour the underdog challenging
the mighty state irrespective of the ideological leanings. The underdog wants
to be attacked so that his or her cause gets furthered. The counter-strategy
lies in not playing to their expected books. Punjab has a history to it when
the Congress at the Centre fell into a similar trap created by the Sikh groups.
As observed, the
strategy for the BJP led government would be to make unconventional counter
moves that hit their underbelly. The more alternate faces are manifested away
from the farmers issues, the better would be for a counter move. The right wing
must realise that developing cold feet would not serve the purpose. The right
wing gets easily scared but a good option for them is to stay silent and allow
the government to handle the protests.
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