MYTH BUSTED
   Date :18-Feb-2021

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THE Central Government has almost succeeded in busting the myth that the current protests going on near New Delhi is not an agitation by genuine farmers. The central agencies have gathered enough evidence to prove that the protests are nothing but actually a well-organised political racket stemming from international conspiracy. No matter the bravado by the leaders of the protesting mobs, it is almost clear to everybody that in due course of time, the agitation would melt -- in the absence of substance as well as of popular support. The common people are fairly clear that the locals in whose areas around Delhi the protests are going on are now up in arms against the agitation and are asking the protesters to vacate their precincts.
 
If this is the reaction on the popular front, in the two Houses of Parliament, too, the Government was able to silence the Opposition whose members refused to take part in a systematic debate on issues of farmers’ welfare. Point by point, the members from the Treasury benches busted the Opposition bravado, exposing their dirty political designs. The Government was hugely successful is showing to the nation that the Opposition could point to not one single case when a agricultural mandi (market) was shut down on account of the three new legislations sought to reform the farm sector. The Opposition was found slipping into ‘pouts’ of shameless silence when asked to explain a single point in the new laws that went against farmers’ welfare. One of the most important failures of the Opposition was that its leaders -- across the ideological spectrum -- did not follow the most basic and simple norm of initiating and carrying forward debates on issues that they could raise through parliamentary procedures.
 
These realities did not go unnoticed from the public attention. In fact, the Opposition looked all the more pathetic and afflicted by the fact they had been left with no alternative but to accept what the Government had to say. And on those occasions, the Opposition walked out, leaving the floor to the Treasury benches to continue with business. It is only a matter of time when the so-called farmers’ agitation melts down completely. On the political front, it has seen a terrible failure. And on the security count, the Government agencies have proved that foreign elements were trying to play havoc with the country’s sovereignty.
 
The so-called farmers’ agitation, thus, proved to be one more attempt in the past six years by a jilted Opposition to corner Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and his Government and embarrass the nation. Of course, the Opposition is helpless and hapless as it does not know how to and where to corner the Modi-Government and on which count. It has no issue left on which to stand on and dare the Government. In a mature democracy, Opposition should behave more responsibly and support the right moves by the government. But that is not happening. The only way left for the Opposition to follow is take cantankerous positions on non-existent issues and perforce oppose those in power. And the more the Opposition does this, the worse its hold on the popular opinion would become in due course of time. Such a fait accompli had never befallen the Opposition in India in the past seventy years.
 
The Opposition, thus, has become a bunch of mindless leaders without followers. True, many of them will get elected to various Houses in the future as well. But many of them will start melting out of public view in the years to come. That appears to be their self-invited fate -- just because they threw their individual and collective consciences out of the window and presented themselves as automatons in a bigger political upheaval sweeping across the country in the past few years. Every democracy needs a responsible Opposition, and a contrarion voice to keep a check on those in power. In India, the people are deprived of all that simply because the Opposition has continued its dogged downward march.