Let’s be real, the televised address by PM Modi, on the birthday of Gur Nanak Devji’s birthday is a political PR stunt. In it, he promised to repeal the 3 farmers laws that sparked the biggest protest in history. It is a sharp U-turn that is steeped and reeking of political chess rather than the absurd lament from Modi during the address that ‘whatever I did is for the farmers’.

He called for protestors to return home. He called for the end of agitation. He called for his laws to be repealed. All in time for the protestors to hurry home and enjoy the festivities of Devji’s birthday and prepare for the state elections due to be held in Panjab and UP in the coming weeks.

Bearing in mind that the largest protest in mankind’s history could not alter the BJP’s course of capitalist conflict with the farmers, and bearing in mind that almost 600 people lost their lives in that protest through state backed violence, and bearing in mind that these protests took place in a Covid year, through a global pandemic, through the searing heat of summer and the bitter cold of winter, this is a huge political 180 about turn.

All of what we understand democracy to be, the free speech of humanity, the peaceful right to protest, all of this was swatted away by Modi just like a mosquito is when it buzzes around him and annoys the hell out of him in the middle of the night as he was nodding off to a sweet slumber of serenity knowing he’d secured a second term of premiership on the ticket of increasing capitalism and a crescendo of xenophobia?

‘Whatever I did is for the Farmers’

The PM’s U-turn therefore is not in recognition of the mechanics of democracy. It is the complete reverse. It is the absolute show of autocracy – whereby a decision is made on a whim. Just like there was no consultation at the time of introducing the laws, so there will be no consultation when they are reworded and probably even more problematic once the state election of Panjab and UP return positive results in favour of “the ‘Reformer’ Modi”, as he will now pitch himself, no doubt.

In short, we can expect the following 3 things:

  1. The BJP will secure positive election results in Panjab and UP in March 2022 – the two most affected states by the Farmer Laws.
  2. As soon as the ballot boxes return, a new set of Farmer laws will be initiated by the State of India
  3. Nothing except more erosion of India’s democracy would have been achieved

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