The manic obsession with staging protests

There is a saying in English, "People who stay in glass houses should not throw stones at others." But that must change now because our politicians stay in glass houses which are bullet proof and throw boulders at each other.

Let's start with the paddy procurement issue in Telangana. The state government wants to utilise this issue for electoral benefit. The Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had been saying in all his media conferences and public meetings that Centre was discriminating against the state and that there should be one nation one procurement policy.

He also insists that the Centre should purchase entire quantity of paddy produced in the state on par with Punjab. He claims that by not doing so it amounts to violation of policies of GOI and thunders that he would take it up which would be akin to separate Telangana movement.

The fundamental question here is if the state government is so sure that the Government of India was flouting its own policy, why not approach the Supreme Court? What does the Centre have to say on this? It says that there are 17 states including Telangana which have been listed under Direct Procurement System. The policy under this system is uniformly applicable to all the states.

So what does it say? Under this system the State government has to undertake direct purchase of paddy/rice and wheat and also store and distribute these food grains under National Food Security Act and other welfare schemes. The Central government undertakes to meet the entire expenditure incurred by the State governments on the procurement operations as per the approved costing.

As per the agreement with FCI, they are required to do the procurement, mill the rice and the Centre purchases the rice. This is the agreement between the GOI and all the 17 states.

But the government does not mention anything about it. Since 2014 to date, it never raked up this issue. Now that the relationship between the Centre and state has soured and since TRS wants to take a plunge into national politics, it seems to be using this as a steppingstone to launch anti-BJP propaganda.

In November, the TRS announced to intensify its fight against the BJP. It sent a delegation consisting of ministers led by IT Minister K T Rama Rao. After waiting for few days in Delhi, the delegation could finally meet Minister for Food and Civil supplies Piyush Goyal and urged the centre to buy Rabi crop. They also sought clarity on the procurement of boiled rice, raw rice and paddy from the state during Rabi. He said based on the Centre's clarification, the state government would chalk out its future plan to take up other crops instead of paddy.

The Centre made it clear that there was no question of buying boiled rice since there was no demand for it and there was no scope of export of boiled rice. The Telangana Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy had stated the paddy output in Telangana was expected to be 1.3 crore tonnes during Kharif 2021 season and the Centre assured to procure only 60 lakh tonnes of paddy and 40 lakh tonnes of rice.

The Centre said it was procuring paddy and rice as per norms and advised the state government to encourage cultivation of other crops like oil, cereals, red gram and green gram. Goyal also said that it was the state which failed to honour its commitment and did not supply the promised quantity of paddy during 2021 Rabi season.

A lot of noise was made over this and the TS government announced that since the Centre was not willing to buy Rabi crop, it would close the market yards and asked farmers to go in for alternative crops. It also said if they produce paddy, it would not be the responsibility of the state government to buy and they should not blame them.

Beyond that nothing was done to encourage alternative farming. No technical advice was given to them on alternative crops. The farmers decided to go in for paddy cultivation saying that if they opt for alternative crop during Rabi, the soil would not be fit for paddy during Kharif. Now the government has taken a 'U' turn leading to war of words between the TRS and the BJP.

One thing that needs to be understood is that all this noise and posturing does not help the farmer. What he is concerned is about MSP and purchase of paddy. He is not bothered whether state buys or Centre and what the rule book says.

Analysts feel that there is a possibility of some instances where some paddy would be burnt in protest alleging indifference of the Centre as part of political strategy. Attempts will be made to up the ante against BJP-led central government. The farmer would blame both the Centre and state for his loss. Let us hope that the TRS and BJP would try and keep the farmers out of their political games. What farmers need is a helping hand, not making them pawns in electoral politics.

Another issue that has become a puzzle for the common man is the mania to take up protests. On Friday the TRS leaders led by MLC K Kavitha held dharna against hike in gas price. But on the same day the TRS government announced hike in power charges. It has also increased the bus fare and rates of bus passes. It refused to forego even a small portion of the taxes it collects on petrol and diesel prices.

While this Kolaveri is on, at the national level the Congress party and other anti-BJP parties are upset over the way the BJP has been using the Kashmir Files issue which they feel could be a strategy of the saffron party to polarise the Hindu votes in J&K whenever elections are held.

We have seen how some leaders like Telangana Chief Minister KCR and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reacted and made comments which amounts to ridiculing the Kashmiri Pandits.

One thing the leaders need to first understand is that they should go through the pages of history and see why Kashmiri Pandits had to leave their homes and go to other parts of the country as refugees. What happened with them and the turmoil they had to face. The leaders who criticise the Centre for its reported failure in sending the migrant labour from different states to their hometown during lockdown period should try to understand the sufferings of the Kashmiri Pandits as well.

If you look back at the situation that prevailed in Kashmir in January 1990, it would bring out pathetic stories. The Kashmir Valley witnessed one of the worst nightmares. They saw how political rivalries and militant insurgency led to gang rapes and killings forcing this Hindu minority to flee the Valley.

It was perhaps one of the most unprecedented exoduses in India's history. Women were molested and raped in front their children. Men were told to leave their womenfolk behind and leave the state. The fact remains that the Union Government and the state government failed to handle the situation effectively.

Trouble it is said started brewing since 1980 when Farooq Abdullah changed the names of about 2,500 villages from their original names to new Islamic names. By December 1989 situation turned serious as newspapers, posters and mosques issued declarations asking Kashmiri Pandits to convert to Islam or leave Kashmir or get killed and it was said that killing would start with children and women. The Congress government at Centre ignored the alerts sent by the then Governor Jagmohan.

The successive governments ignored them and nothing was done to heal their hurt. Even to date they do not know how to seek justice for those who were killed and get to the truth of what happened since 1989 onwards culminating in the worst nightmare.

Another problem they are facing is how can the Kashmiri Pandits protect their distinct cultural identity and survive and what would be their future? No judicial committee was constituted to find out how many Hindus or Muslims were killed. Some of the Kashmiri Pandits of course managed to do well and create comfortable lives across India and abroad but this is undermined by the real loss they had suffered before leaving Kashmir. Their linguistic culture is at stake. For them survival was nothing but assimilation into North India.

It is time for BJP which hopes to get some advantage out of the Kashmir Files film to explain what it proposes to do to for all those Pandits who would like to go back to their home state? How would they be rehabilitated?

Similarly, the anti-BJP parties led by regional satraps need to explain what they would do for the Pandits if they come to power as Kashmir is integral part of India and they cannot afford to blink at it and in the meantime, they need to remain silent even if they do not like Kashmir Files film and if they have any reservations. For purpose of appeasing one section other sections cannot be belittled.