shambhu-border-blockade-10-months-of-public-inconvenience

The National Highway number 44 between Delhi and Ludhiana has been blocked at Shambhu border in Punjab since February 14, this year. It is almost ten months and the ‘protestors’ (for they are not farmers) sitting there remain unmoved. 

 

Hundreds and thousands of people are affected every day. Travelers have to take a detour to bypass the road blockade. Even the courts have ordered for the opening of the highway. But nothing seems to work.

 

As the Ludhiana-Ambala traffic gets diverted due to the road blockade at Shambu, via Zirakpur, Chandigarh-Ambala highway also remains congested and clogged. A journey that should normally take about 45 minutes, now at times takes two hours. Reasons, some ‘protestors and disruptors’, deified as ‘annadaatas’ (givers of food) have blocked the road. They have set up quasi-permanent settlements at the blockade site, with free electricity, free food that comes as a donation, free water and everything. Those sitting on “protest” enjoy every luxury there. The makeshift settlements have air conditioners and air coolers also installed there. 

 

Given the ‘farmer’ name the protestors have assumed, nobody dares to touch them. Every political party prefers to be politically correct with them. The BJP governments at the centre and in Haryana and the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab chose not to take any action, because of parliamentary elections, followed by Haryana assembly elections and then Punjab by-elections. The BJP was obviously scared of the hostile narrative that any punitive action may generate and adversely impact its electoral prospects.

 

Now all elections are over. The governments at the centre, in Haryana and Punjab, need to take note of the harassment faced by lakhs of people every day. In fact Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has quite often reminded the farmers that “excess of everything is bad”, while referring to their frequent protests and road blockades. But he also could not go beyond the “decent” rebuke.

 

Now the protestors have again started their “protest” march, which they claim will be peaceful, towards Delhi. Anything that disturbs order cannot be peaceful. Clogging roads by tractor trolley is not a peaceful protest. It is a disruptive action and must be dealt like that. If the farmers have to stage a protest in the national capital, they can go to the Boat Club, Ram Lila Maidan, Jantar Mantar and any other places. Why cause harassment to lakhs of people. Ideally farmers should form a committee, which will seek appointment with the Prime Minister for a meeting. Instead they are trying to make it like a “campaign to conquer” some front, which should not be acceptable to any civilised and democratic country. 

 

The real fact is that the protests do not come at any cost to these protestors. After completing the paddy harvest and sowing the wheat, the protestors are absolutely free till the next harvest in March/April. Wheat does not need any extra time or care. Also, the ‘farmers’ wherever they sit and disrupt traffic, get all the facilities. From early morning tea to late night “refreshments” everything is made available at the protest sites. Why would anyone, with ample time at his disposal, not sit at the protest when he has nothing else to do and that too with so many facilities?

 

‘Farmers’ do have a right to protest. But they do not have any right to disrupt and disturb the lives of lakhs and lakhs of people every day. Besides, there is a proper and legal way to lodge a protest. Holding people to ransom is pure blackmail. 

 

It is high time that the governments at the centre and in Haryana and Punjab take all the corrective measures, even if it means some coercive action, to clear the roads. The central government must enact a stringent law against road and rail blockades. Hundreds of thousands of work hours are lost. People, stuck on the highways and on railway tracks feel helpless and they do not have anywhere to go. It is frustrating for the common man who is being punished for no reason. 

 

Political parties may have a reason to be “politically correct” and mollycoddle the “disrupting protestors”, but it should not come at the cost of the peace and comfort of tens of millions of people who are subjected to sufferings. All the three governments having stakes in the current disruption must coordinate with each other and evolve a joint strategy to stop such disruptions, as it is too much and has gone too far. 

 

The opposition parties, including the Congress and Rahul Gandhi in particular, will do well not to try to get even with the government by standing by protesting disruptors. The Congress, Gandhi and all other opposition parties must realise that they are as much the representatives of the common man as they are of those disruptors whose case they are pleading. 

 

Enough is enough. No civilised and democratic government should allow anarchy to prevail. 

 

What the protestors and disruptors are intending is to unleash a state of anarchy by causing disruption and disturbances in the lives of common masses. The governments owe it to their people to ensure peace and comfort of the masses. The least it can do is to assert its authority against the “protesting disruptors”, whose sole agenda is to confront the government. They may be entitled to such disruptions, but why harass the common masses. 

 

Just because the ‘protesting disruptors’ are opposed to Modi or the BJP government at the centre does not mean that the opposition should blindly support them in the blind belief that “enemy’s enemy is a friend”. It may not always hold true. 

 

All those political parties, which are supporting or mollycoddling the “protesting disruptors”, are only alienating the silent population belonging to the mainstream, which feels desperate and helpless when it is subjected to unprecedented, unparalleled and undue harassment in the name of constitutional and democratic rights. Constitutional and democratic rights cannot be an exclusive prerogative of just one section of people, just because they can block roads and hold the system to ransom. There are multitudes of people who are equally entitled as much to the democratic and constitutional rights, as the “disruptors”.