In other words 2020 won! Some might say 2021.
For many people, especially the old timers,
who say that they have never experienced a whole year when nothing went right!
The year started off with a bang, literally.
The Shaheen Bagh protest. The Citizen Amendment Act was the cause. Civil riots
broke out, arrests, violence, complete breakdown of law and order. As usual,
The Delhi Police made for a great audience! It was a full blown disaster.
This tamaasha had hardly died down when the
Lockdown was announced. It happened with the snap of the fingers.
It was like the game we played as children
called ‘Statue’! Everything froze! Businesses, shops, factories, schools shut
down. Curfew was imposed. Lockdown was the official phrase, for me it was House
Arrest!
No movement of humans. This applied
worldwide. People on holiday or business in another country had to stay put!
For months!
No aircraft in the air, no cars on the road.
Globally the environment has never been cleaner for decades.
No one, but no one, anywhere in the world had
an answer to the first of its kind Pandemic which was being called a Manmade
disaster. China was blamed for letting loose this demon called ‘Covid-19’. Its
tentacles spread far and wide to every nook and corner of the Planet.
The Chinese started the game of sabre
rattling in a vicious and fowl manner. In the Galwan area of Ladakh 20 Jawans
and one Colonel were beaten to death, in a primitive way with clubs wrapped in
barbed wire! This was in May of this year.
The Prime Minister assured the Nation that
there had been no intrusion by the Chinese into Indian Territory. The obvious
inference is that the Indian troops had intruded into Chinese Territory while
on patrol.
Informatively our troops were not even
carrying side arms! And the nation believed him! And why not? The Prime
Minister, a great orator had learnt from Pavlov. On his command, a billion
people came out in the evening and banged their thalli’s, pots and pans to scare the Demon ‘Covid-19’! Alas and
alack, the Demon is deaf.
Another spin off of the Lockdown. With the
loss of jobs at over 21%, the middle class became the lower middle class. This
would again affect the economy. The economy which was staggering even before
the Lockdown may have a 10% decrease in GDP. India can look forward to being
the poorest country in Asia in the not too far distance.
The much awaited Lockdown was finally lifted
as has become abundantly clear that the Government acts first and thinks later.
Thus creating a disaster on an unprecedented scale!
There is an Invisible Force that drives
India. They build our roads, they build our buildings, often carrying 6-8
bricks on their heads up 6-8 flights of stairs. They clean your apartments,
cook for the family, wash and clean the utensils but they are not allowed to
eat and drink in the house. They bathe and dress your children but they can’t
use the lift, they use the staircase.
This Invisible Force is the migrant labourer.
They mostly come from U.P, Bihar, Odissa. When the Lockdown was lifted they had
no jobs, no money, no food. So they decided to go back home. No trains, no
busses, no transport of any kind. So they started to walk. Some of them were
600 or more kilometres from home.
The Government had made no arrangements for
the Walking Class. There were
absolutely no provisions for water, food or medical aid. The Walking Class, the poorest of the poor
had been abandoned by the Government and even their Gods, to whom they had
prayed all their lives!
At the height of summer, May and June, with
the temperature in the upper 40s Celsius, they walked barefoot on the burning
hot tarmac. The television channels were happy to show their blistered feet.
In times of their own distress the Government
has no hesitation to call out the Army or the Para Military Forces to help the
Government in controlling the civil population.
Why did it not occur to the Government to
call out the Army to help the Walking Class?
The army has thousands of trucks which could have been deployed to ferry these
poor people home. The Army would happily have provided the medics, ambulances
and water tankers to relieve the Walking
Class of their extreme misery.
At the turn of the century we added a new word to our vocabulary, Milenials.
2020 which has given us a coronacoaster ride will add another word, colonials!
The word Parliamentarians should be replaced by Part Timer M.P!
Previously Parliament used to meet 120 days in a year. In the last
decade it fell to 70 days. 2020 set a new record, 33 days!
They get paid extremely well. In addition they get free house, car,
phone, travel and other perks. They do not get a hardship allowance!
In any case, Parliament has been reduced to locktail hours. Zero Hour
has been cancelled, as has the Winter Session. Reason; danger from Corona.
During the September Session, Corona cases were numbering around 95,000. At the
moment it is about 25,000. Figure
out the reasoning here.
For these Parliamentarians a new House is being built. It’s going to be
64,500 square feet of space and cost about Rs.1,000 crore! It will be able to
accommodate 1,224 M.P.s. The Foundation Stone has already been laid but the
Hon'ble Supreme Court is not amused. Actually they are very concerned with the
Central Vista Project. Ten buildings are to be razed, hundreds of trees are to
be axed. The Delhi Government agreed to 400 trees to be translocated in the
area.
The Government has different ideas. There are reports that the trees
would be shifted about 20 kilometres from the Central Vista.
It is hoped the Supreme Court does not give a green light for this
project. Rs. 1,000 crore could build hospitals and schools, which is the need
of the hour.
In their careful and Nachiavellian thinking Parliament has rushed through three agricultural laws. That has inflamed the farmers. Not without reason. However, read carefully analysed the laws are anti-citizen.
Since protests seem to be the order of the
day the farmers also decided to protest. So far it was students in general, JNU
in particular, from Dalits and Muslims. The CAA protest was an eye opener both
of the Governments thinking and the reaction from the Citizens.
Closing the year are the farmers protests,
who are not up in arms but on tractors and laying siege to Dilli.
I used the word Dilli because that is how the
Punjabi’s pronounce Delhi.
Delhi has been the seat of the oppressors of
the Punjabis, namely the Sikhs. Be it the Mughals, the British and in more
recent times, the 1980’s the Congress.
The recent Agri Laws favour the Corporates
who had long eyed the food bowl of India as a money maker rather than a
necessity that feeds millions.
The Punjabi farmer, again mostly Sikh finds
the laws oppressive and suffocating.
One of the laws prohibits a Citizen to
approach the Courts of Law in case of a complaint against the Government. So
what is the Judiciary for?
The farmers protest is being hailed as one of
the largest peaceful protests in the country. Some say in the world. That
should be taken with a pinch of rum in this cold season.
The Woodstock Festival in the USA against the
Vietnam War in the 60s had something like half a million people (Five Lakh).
The Punjabi farmers have a point. Not only is
his livelihood being threatened but he stands to lose his lands.
With this future they will make a stand, hard
and fast and to the end.
The Government is also not willing to back
down.
So...........
One of the reasons is that the Government are
traders, businessmen and have little respect for a farmer who is labelled as
‘bourgeois’.
To discredit the farmer the Government has a
Department of Dirty Tricks (Goebbles had one!) the Farmers have been referred
to as hooligans, Khalistanis, terrorists!
A man
was caught at the Dilli Border amongst the protestors. He was handing out
pro-Khalistan posters.
“See!” said the Government. “Khalistani’s are
involved!”
The man was captured and bundled into a tent.
In true Punjabi spirit he was offered tea, lassi and snacks and made to feel
like a guest. That is the art of interrogation. Gentle persuasion, no violence,
police style.
The man confessed that he was an RSS agent
and told to distribute the posters!
It’s worth repeating the Wisdom of the
Ancients; “In his lifetime a man needs a lawyer, a doctor, a policeman once.
Also a Pundit or Granthi to get married, hopefully only once!
“But a farmer you need three times a day,
every day of your life!”
This is the man the Government wants to
crush.
Tilling the fields is as dignified and
creative as writing a poem!
As I write this, the year had ended. There
has been no progress in the talks with the Farmers and the Government.
This
episode should give you an inkling as to why.
There
was a report in one of the local TV channels from the Singhu border. An elderly
man, flowing white beard, blue turban Nihang style sat huddled against the cold
with a razai draped around his shoulders.
The
interview over, the reporters showed concern for the elderly
warrior."Dadaji, you've made your point. It’s bitterly cold here. Why don’t
you go home!" They spoke in Punjabi.
The
Old Man replied in chaste Punjabi. “Beta, eh dharna nahi hai, eh gherao nahi
hai. Eh morcha hai! Main maidan-e-jung nahi chad sakta!"
