For 40 days, farmers from Tamil Nadu have been staging a protest in New Delhi demanding that they receive drought relief funds from the government. It is notoriously difficult for the agriculture sector to receive any attention from the government or even the public. Therefore, they have resorted to heartbreaking and often dehumanising forms of protest like putting rats and snakes in their mouths, wearing skulls of farmers who committed suicide around their necks, stripping naked and even drinking urine. Yet, the media discusses this form of protest as 'theatrical', 'innovative' and 'bizarre'.
Yet, they have not even been spoken to by the government, forget getting their relief funds.
This seems to be the new mode of dealing with protest movements in India. Complete ignorance, as if it doesn't even exist. We saw this earlier in FTII, where students who demanded that their chairman be removed from the post. The students sat on a hunger strike and suspended classes. The government did not even negotiate with them. We saw this with the Justice for Rohith Vemula movement, which despite nationwide protests could not dethrone the vice-chancellor of University of Hyderabad.
The modus operandi is simple. If you ignore them, they will either lose faith or the media, civil society and public will forget about them. It has been a successful tactic.
In any society with a concerned citizenry and a strong civil society or even a properly functioning press, such tactics wouldn't work.
The citizenry, most of which is poor, doesn't have the clout to influence such movements. They are in fact victims of the state's brutality and indifference. The middle-class, which does have some clout, is aspirational and sees anything in the way of greater financial strength as 'anti-national' or 'anti-development.'
The civil society in India was not so strong to begin with. But with systematically targeting foreign funding to these civil society groups, the government has weakened it further.
The media? Well... it finds innovative ways to shock you and focus on all the wrong issues.
Sorry, farmers of Tamil Nadu and India. You do not matter anymore. We have left you behind, on our way to a world of smart cities, bullet trains and dreams woven out of thin air. Forever, we shall be enchanted by them and you shall be invisible to us.
Yet, they have not even been spoken to by the government, forget getting their relief funds.
This seems to be the new mode of dealing with protest movements in India. Complete ignorance, as if it doesn't even exist. We saw this earlier in FTII, where students who demanded that their chairman be removed from the post. The students sat on a hunger strike and suspended classes. The government did not even negotiate with them. We saw this with the Justice for Rohith Vemula movement, which despite nationwide protests could not dethrone the vice-chancellor of University of Hyderabad.
The modus operandi is simple. If you ignore them, they will either lose faith or the media, civil society and public will forget about them. It has been a successful tactic.
In any society with a concerned citizenry and a strong civil society or even a properly functioning press, such tactics wouldn't work.
The citizenry, most of which is poor, doesn't have the clout to influence such movements. They are in fact victims of the state's brutality and indifference. The middle-class, which does have some clout, is aspirational and sees anything in the way of greater financial strength as 'anti-national' or 'anti-development.'
The civil society in India was not so strong to begin with. But with systematically targeting foreign funding to these civil society groups, the government has weakened it further.
The media? Well... it finds innovative ways to shock you and focus on all the wrong issues.
Sorry, farmers of Tamil Nadu and India. You do not matter anymore. We have left you behind, on our way to a world of smart cities, bullet trains and dreams woven out of thin air. Forever, we shall be enchanted by them and you shall be invisible to us.
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