Netas, officials, cops, protestors crush civil liberties

We are told that we live in the world’s biggest democracy, governed and guided by an enlightened Constitution. But if we look beyond the form and scrutinize the state of civil liberties, we will find that the people are at the mercy of the shenanigans of politicians, the apathy of bureaucrats and cops, and the whims and fancies of professional revolutionaries. Some such revolutionaries, masquerading as farmers’ leaders, are holding the denizens of Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi at ransom.

Caught in the crossfire, ordinary men and women suffer in several parts of north India. In seven Haryana districts— Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa—mobile internet services were suspended on February 11, the suspension getting extended on February 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, and 24. Today, they were restored. The suspension was, according to officials, “to prevent any disturbance of peace and public order in jurisdictions of Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa, including Dabwali, districts in Haryana.”

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, which are leading the ‘Delhi Chalo agitation, couldn’t care less. They want to pressure the Centre to their demands, including the minimum support price (MSP) be made a legal right for 23 crops and a farm loan waiver. The demands are unreasonable and immoral as I wrote elsewhere, but then professional revolutionaries have nothing to do with reason and morality (https://www.news18.com/opinion/opinion-why-msp-is-the-bane-of-agriculture-8781362.html).

Nor do they give two hoots to the millions of commuters in Delhi-NCR who have to face traffic jams and take circuitous routes because of the arrangements local cops have made.

Politicians, on their part, are concerned about their electoral prospects. This is the reason that the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress are supporting the agitation; they hope to embarrass the Bharatiya Janata Party and maybe hurt it in the forthcoming general election.

Officials and policepersons are also insouciant about the travails of commuters in Delhi-NCR and the Punjab-Haryana border. The ultimate sufferers are the men and women on the street.