No matter how much Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann tries to woo the industries and investors to Punjab, as long as the farmers’ organisations keep on holding the state and its people to ransom, it is highly unlikely that anyone will invest in Punjab.
Rather, given a chance, a good number of industries are considering shifting out as the farmers’ protests have become routine. Protesting farmers have become a law unto themselves as no political party or government seems to be prepared to confront them over the way they have been holding the common public to ransom.
Industrialists in Punjab have started drawing parallels with West Bengal of the 1970s when the Communists started ruling the state and trade unions had complete dominance. A prosperous industrial state like Bengal was made to suffer.
The same thing is threatening to happen in Punjab as the farmers continue to hold the state to ransom.
The farmers, if they really are farmers, by staging protests and blockades cause losses to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees, besides causing a lot of harassment to common people and still, they get away with it, feels the industry, while adding, as long as they are not held accountable and answerable this practice of road and rail blockades is going to continue.
Only on Wednesday, the railways had to cancel and divert dozens of trains. This is just one example, as it has now become a regular feature. Industrialists in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar disclosed that trade and business started to suffer from the first farmers’ agitation in 2021. When it had started to recover, the farmers again started to protest, thus bringing the situation back to square one.
Representatives of trade and industry are strongly arguing for strict measures against the train and road blockades as this directly hits their business. Not only the big industries are hit, but even the small hoteliers, taxi and cab operators, to quote a few examples only, also suffer.
At the same time, the people responsible for their suffering go scot-free. As long as there is not a strong deterrent against such blockades, there will be no respite and people will continue to suffer, a trade representative from Ludhiana told this reporter.
There is simmering anger against the blocking of train traffic by some farmer organisations at Shambu. Several trains have either been cancelled or were diverted. With the General Elections in progress, nobody seems to be accountable and answerable as the authority right now lies with the Election Commission of India.
The farmers are demanding the release of some of their activist colleagues who have been arrested by the Haryana government. The farmers are already protesting against the BJP candidates in both the states of Haryana and Punjab. They are having a free run as the administration in both the states has not been preventing or stopping such protests by “farm leaders” against the BJP and in some instances in Punjab, against the Aam Aadmi Party also.
The way these organisations are trying to stop BJP and AAP candidates from campaigning should not happen at the first instance. Besides, it is obvious that there are always a handful of protestors, in most cases a dozen or so, who have been protesting against the political leaders.
As the country is in the midst of the General Elections, nobody wants to confront them, while the silent majority of common people is being made to suffer. With dozens of trains having been cancelled, thousands of commuters have been subjected to immense harassment. They feel helpless, as they cannot do anything.
Time and again there have been appeals made to farmers’ organisations not to block the train or road traffic as this leads to harassment of common people who have no say in decision-making anywhere. By subjecting these people to such harassment the farmers’ organisations are only creating more enemies and losing all the sympathy.
The farmers should better campaign against those whom they hold responsible for their plight in the elections and urge people not to vote for them instead of holding people to ransom by blocking their way. In fact, it is mostly the people from Punjab, Jammu Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh who suffer whenever there is a rail or a road blockade. The farm leaders should understand that it is the people of Punjab who have supported them and with rail blockades it is mainly the Punjabis who are suffering.
Most of the hotels in the holy city of Amritsar have reported a huge loss of business ever since the second phase of farmers’ agitation started in February this year. The taxi operators have also reported heavy losses. For the farmers themselves, it is a no-stakes agitation. They don’t lose anything.
During the elections, there is virtually no government in existence. It is high time that the courts take suo moto notice of the suffering caused to people by these protests and ask the protestors to stop or at least move aside and allow rail and road traffic.
There also needs to be some permanent solution to the problem, particularly in Punjab, lest it goes the Bengal way.
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