The right to protest peacefully, a right that is guaranteed by the Constitution as a fundamental right doesn’t seem protected anymore. Anyone who pays slight attention to the news recently would be aware of the extreme police brutality and use of force exerted on demonstrating farmers. The farmers are protesting to pressure the government into bringing reforms that will aid them and not add to the tally of farmer suicides in our country.
In this modern and urban world, we tend to forget the crucial role of farmers in our society and how all of us rely on them for our sustenance, yet none of their problems are ours. The farmers are marching to Delhi to make the government fulfil the promises it made 2-3 years ago, and what better time to demand it with the general elections around the corner? This might be the very reason why the police have received orders to do anything to hinder the farmer protests. This includes building concrete walls, heavy barricading of roads and razor-sharp wires and fences. Mobile services have been shut down in Delhi, metro stations closed and even roads dug up so that the farmers may not pass in the tractors. The crowds of farmers have been dispelled with pellet guns and a barrage of tear gas shells dropped off by drones.
The BJP-ruled Haryana government’s police even went to the extent of slapping the National Security Act (NSA) on farmer leaders and started the process of seizing their properties and bank accounts along with registering attempt-to-murder and rioting cases against several farmers. The ground situation has been described as a war field and the treatment of farmers who just wanted to peacefully protest in the national capital has been so shocking that it made a protesting farmer reiterate, “We are farmers, not terrorists”.
Violence at Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Wrestler’s protests, 2020 farmer protests, and 2022 Muhammad remarks protests all hold a testament to the BJP government’s ‘allergy’ to any and all protests.
Police and paramilitary forces are being used extensively to suppress any opposing voices that rise, resulting in scores of injuries and deaths. In conclusion, the citizens are not allowed to protest peacefully or show their dissent without a violent crackdown being initiated by the law enforcement forces on the direction of the government, which leads us to an important question, are we still truly living in a democracy?