Farmers’ protest

The weeks-long farmers’ protest in India took a deadly turn on Tuesday as protesters broke through a police barricade and swamped the Red Fort in Delhi. At least one farmer was killed and over a 100 people, including at least 80 policemen, got injured. After scuffling with the police, protesters eventually raised a Sikh flag and a farmers’ union flag next to the Indian flag at the fort.

The raising of the Sikh flag is being treated as an act of separatism by many, including key protest leaders. This is because the protests have been, by and large, peaceful and secular. Indeed, in a rarity for the Modi government, the assault on poor farmers has had little to do with religion and more with gratifying the BJP’s corporate backers. Notable protest leaders have been quick to blame instigators, including a Punjabi movie actor, but to their credit, have also accepted blame for their protest taking a violent turn, showing more maturity than most politicians.

The instigator accusation is the most interesting development in all of this. Deep Sidhu, the actor, has been accused of being everything from a Khalistan supporter to a BJP plant to a mere attention seeker. Protest leader Yogendra Yadav directly accused Sidhu and gangster-turned politician Lakha Sidhana of trying to flare up protesters for several days, with Sidhu unsuccessfully demanding a leadership position in the movement. He also noted Sidhu’s close ties with Bollywood actor and politician Sunny Deol, and through him, the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Opposition politicians have also accused him of being affiliated with the BJP’s parent party, the terrorist-adjacent RSS.

The accusations gain strength when we recall Modi and the BJP’s proclivity for using fake news and false flags to further their political goals. We only need to recall the ‘air raids’ post-Pulwama and other incidents when Pakistan was on the receiving end of Indian domestic propaganda attacks. In fact, Pakistan has long warned of the Indian government’s fondness for using such tactics when backed into a corner. Indeed, it would not be surprising to learn that, with popular opinion favouring farmers over Modi, he is using a false flag to paint them as terrorists and force them to accept the government’s position.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2021.

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