IN A DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY, GOVT. AND HIGH COURTS CAN STOP PEOPLE FROM TAKING TO THE STREETS!
Farmers are sitting on the streets, raising debts on their heads and losing their lives, but still the country is not facing food shortage.
Chandigarh: The responsibility for the Lakhimarpur Kheri incident lies with the central government even though it was carried out by others. Such was the fear of the unthinkable that the wise people of the country were urging the Central Government to listen to the farmers. The patience of the farmers in the face of the harshness of the Center is still running within the bounds of respect and dignity of democracy but the government's minister has become the cause of violence.
With the kind of pictures and videos that are slowly coming out of Lakhimpur Kheri, it is feared that the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs is himself responsible for the violence. The man who is in charge of the Home Ministry bows his head in shame when the peaceful peasants are attacked on his back. Even the Prime Minister should bow his head in shame after churning out today's incidents that a minister of his government was involved in such a bloody accident. This person should have been behind bars but with the kind of reports that are coming out, the administration seems to be trying to fool the farmers.
The real picture is changing in the postmortem reports, which has now forced the farmers to stop the cremation of the bodies of the martyrs. According to witnesses, the vehicle which was caught on fire and the driver along with four others who died were not the faults of the farmers but something was placed in the car which could have set the vehicle on fire. Now, due to this incident, the court is using harsh language against the farmers and is asking why the farmers are protesting when the agriculture laws are in the court.
Last year, the Chief Justice defended the right of citizens to speak up for their rights in a democracy, but now the violence is being referred to and sometimes blocked. If the Supreme Court is to be impartial and strict, it would ask:
- The road is blocked not by the farmers but by the governments. It is almost a year since the farmers have been living under the shadow of guns by erecting concrete barricades on the roads, more than 600 farmers have been martyred and why has the government closed the roads as well as the communication route? Should such strong opposition to government law be allowed to be ignored by a democratic government and a court like this?
- In Lakhimpur Kheri, farmers were waving black flags when a Union Home Minister drove over them and killed four farmers. The apex court needed to pay attention to the language and actions of government ministers after the incident as the violence was instigated by Union Minister and Haryana Chief Minister Manoharlal Khattar. Farmers are the victims.
- The Supreme Court itself should answer why there has been no hearing on agricultural laws from the last year. It has been a long time since the report of the committee constituted by the Supreme Court was tabled and when will the court get time to read it?
Farmers are sitting on the streets, raising debts on their heads and losing their lives, but still, the country is not facing a food shortage. But the attitude of the governments and the courts has increased distrust in the minds of the farmers which has made them stay on the streets and will continue to do so. If the government and the courts do their job keeping in view the needs, demands, and aspirations of a democratic country, then no one will have to sit on the streets.
-Nimrat Kaur