Dwaipayan Sinha
Jadavpur University
India has been a witness to two successive winters of protest, one against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which seeks to take away Citizenship rights from Muslims, and the other against three farm laws that will make the farmers vulnerable to the private traders. The state has come down on the protesters with an iron hand exposing the strong-arm tactics of the government.
Anti-CAA Protests Explained
The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed on December 11, 2019. According to this Act, the persecuted Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist, and Christian minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan would be given citizenship rights in India. This legislation applies to those people who were “forced or compelled to seek shelter in India due to persecution on the grounds of religion”.
The cut-off date for citizenship is kept as December 31, 2014. The government has not included the persecuted Muslim sects from the predominantly Muslim majority countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan seeming to believe that Muslim persecution does not exist in Islamic nations. Critics of the Act have pointed out that this Act discriminates against the Muslim community by declaring that India is open to provide refuge to all other religious communities. They cite Article 14 of the Indian Constitution which provides the fundamental right to equality to all persons. The passing of this Act sparked an unprecedented national protest against this legislation with the gutsy women of Shaheen Bagh leading the movement.
The protest, which started with only half a dozen women on December 15, spread quickly across the country with people from all sections of the society joining it. A huge number of Indians across the country took to the streets in protest against this discriminatory Act. The movement spread to small towns and villages from big cities and large campuses. Even though the movement was led by Muslims in most parts of the country, it was not restricted to only the members of the community. Multiple Shahen Bagh-like protest sites came up across the entire nation. The women sat at the protest sites throughout the winter which saw temperature dropping to as low as 2 degrees Celsius. The protests were characterized by the women chanting slogans against the new Act and singing songs of resistance. On 31 December 2019, the women ushered in the New Year in a novel way by singing the national anthem. Citizens of all religions came out in support of the Indian Muslims, protesting in the face of their disenfranchisement and defending the secular credentials of the Indian Constitution.
Farmers’ Protests Explained
Almost exactly a year later, India was rocked by protesting farmers from Punjab and Haryana as they rode on their tractors and trucks and marched towards the capital of India to start an indefinite sit-in against the three new agricultural laws. When they were prevented from reaching Delhi, they decided to camp at the Tikri and Singhu borders. Later, farmers from Uttar Pradesh joined in their peaceful protest at Ghazipur in the outskirts of New Delhi. The farmers are unhappy with the three new farm bills, namely the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Farmer’s (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, and the Essential Commodities Amendment Act, 2020. They believe that these laws will leave them at the mercy of the ruthless market forces which will eliminate the small farmers who are unable to compete, thus destroying food security.
The protests against these new laws were simmering away in Punjab since September 2020. However, it was only after the Haryana government dug up a portion of the road and put up blockades on the path of the farmers in an attempt to prevent them from entering Delhi that the nation woke up to the farmers’ resistance. Earlier, the farmers in Punjab had laid siege to malls and cordoned off godowns which they believed belonged to the Adanis. They had even occupied railway tracks before the Ministry of Railways cut off train services from the state in October.
The auspicious event of Dussehra saw the farmers burning hundreds of effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and corporate giants like Mukhesh Ambani and Gautam Adani. The national media and the Central Government were forced to take note of the protesting farmers once they set foot in Delhi. Various national leaders of the Union government like Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Tomar and Minister for Railways, Commerce, and Industry Piyush Goyal started engaging with the farmers in a desperate damage-control bid. The farmers declared that they would not settle for anything less than the repeal of the “black laws”. The government was forced to hold many negotiation meetings with the protesting farmers. These meetings did not, however, result in much progress. The government finally blinked and offered to keep the new farm laws in abeyance for 18 months. The farmers continued to put pressure on the present regime and decided to go ahead with a tractor rally on Republic Day. They succeeded in obtaining permission from the Delhi Police for a specified route with a fixed number of vehicles and protestors. The government continued to reiterate that they are open to dialogue and clause-by-clause discussions but are averse to repealing the laws, contrary to the demands of the farmers. Even after several rounds of talk, the impasse between the 41 farmers unions and the Modi government continues.
The Similarities
A closer look at these two protests reveals several similarities.
Both the protests were secular as citizens belonging to diverse religions showed solidarity with the protesters. The protests made several national and international headlines and received a lot of support from overseas. Both the protests have seen the citizens protesting vociferously without organizing under any political banner. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – led Central Government has been unwilling to appreciate dissent and the need for dialogue with the parties concerned. The various government agencies and pro-government news channels have repeatedly portrayed the protestors as “terrorists” who receive foreign funding. In the case of the farmers’ protest, the government has tried to divide the protestors as Sikh and Hindu farmers, Punjab and Haryana farmers, and big and small farmers. However, this has not yielded the results the government expected as Sikhs come under the Hindu religion as a sect in the Hindutva narrative. In comparison, it was much easier to discredit and demonize the Muslim community in the anti-CAA protests. The general population does not perceive farmers belonging to any particular community and the policy of otherization could not be implemented on them. Police repression and the use of draconian laws on activists in jail have been common in both protests. During the anti -CAA protests, electricity was disconnected and carpets and tents were taken away from the protestors in cold. Similarly, the state deprived the farmers of electricity, water, and other basic amenities at the protest sites. The movement of vehicles was made impossible after the authorities installed concertina wires, dug up trenches, and fixed nails on the entry and exit points of the protest. The Singhu border saw iron lances and maces being fixed with cement after the violent incidents of 26th January.
The Contrast
There are, however, certain differences in the state’s handling as well. While the government showed efforts to engage with the farmers, it had blatantly refused to talk to the Shaheen Bagh protestors. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing “Janata curfew” forced the protesters to evacuate the sites. The women had welcomed the interlocutors appointed by the Supreme Court with open arms but could not resolve the long-standing issues with them. The government not only continued to ignore the protestors but also actively maligned them by questioning their integrity and accusing them of protesting for Rs 500 and a plate of biryani. Various pro- CAA rallies were held by prominent BJP leaders asking their followers to “kill the traitors of the nation”. During the anti- CAA protests, the police had blocked the clear side of the road as they believed that the public was being subjected to inconvenience. In contrast, they found out different ways to make the best use of available road space to minimize public inconvenience during the farmers’ protest.
In both the protests, the government’s stance has not seen any significant shift. The ruling regime continues to persist with the argument that such laws have been brought to fix the problems plaguing the country for several decades. The protestors of both movements are also prepared for a long haul. They have repeatedly expressed their intentions to continue fighting for their rights on the streets.
 which seeks to take away Citizenship rights from Muslims, and the other against three farm laws that will make the farmers vulnerable to the private traders. The protestors of both movements are also prepared for a long haul. They have repeatedly expressed their intentions to continue fighting for their rights on the streets.){kind=link}