Received this intriguing, engrossing & enlightening write up by #SantanuSengupta on the #farmersandolan. It's an excellent & worthwhile read!

"Excellent writeup by santanu sengupta

“Two minutes, and one tweet.

Two minutes. Two minutes can make a bowl of delicious Maggi,

or change the course of a movement. Well, two minutes, and one tweet, perhaps.

In just two minutes, the hitherto predictable younger son of a giant farmer leader, forever lurking in his shadows, from whom the government had never expected any serious resistance, rewrote the

entire script, and how.

The government had been prepared for everything.
- The predominantly Sikh striking farmers had been branded as Khalistani anti-nationals, just as the predominantly Muslim anti-CAA protestors had been branded as Pakistani anti-nationals.
- So called

‘locals’ had been given safe passage by the police to pelt stones and attack protesting farmers. The Shaheen Bagh and Delhi massacre blueprint had started playing out again, with an air of smug inevitability about it.
- The attempt to infiltrate the ranks of the protestors,

hijack the protest, and give it a very convenient spin, had almost succeeded. Deep Siddhu’s Trojan horse had almost broken through the gates. Almost.
And then, Rakesh Tikait’s two minutes on national TV, his genuine tears, his obstinate and perhaps, uncharacteristic, refusal to

cede ground, put a spanner to their best laid plan.

Modi-Shah have a fish bone stuck precariously in their collective throats now, if they were fish eaters. These farmers, who have arrived at protests sites in droves, are Hindus, are Jats, are overwhelmingly recent BJP

supporters. It would have been relatively easy to portray the protests as a predominantly Sikh uprising, and enact the Delhi plan from last year. But, lakhs of Hindu farmers joining the ranks, their resolve steely, has spoiled the pitch. Also, it is Haryana and UP today. It

could very well be Karnataka and Bihar in a week.

And now, Rihanna’s tweet yesterday, and the ensuing international attention to the government’s glorious doings, and the farmers’ protest, has made things even more problematic.
The result?
It has had to adapt and be reactive,

rather than proactive. It looks a touch desperate, and panicked. Its attacks seem more naked, more vitriolic. The fascist fangs are well and truly out, for the world to see.
- Take for instance, the government’s twitter handle today responding to tweets by Rihanna and Greta

directly, and ‘scolding’ them. It is unheard of. It is ridiculous. Governments do not respond to individual tweets.
- Take for instance, the crores spent on building barricades, trenches, barbed wires, what have you – inside its own country, a few kilometers from the nation’s

capital, not at enemy borders. And for what? To prevent its own farmers from assembling.
- Take for instance, the internet shutdowns in and around Delhi. Yes, internet blackouts have happened for months at a stretch in Kashmir, but there, the government could at least hide

behind the fig leaf of anti-India terrorism. There’s nothing to hide behind now.
- Take for instance, the slut shaming and absolute filth let loose on Rihanna and others, by the likes of Kangana and other B-town celebs in the government’s pockets – absolute, total, stunning

drivel.

Clearly, the rattled government has had to veer from its well-rehearsed, apparently flawless script. And now it is hurtling down a steep decline at breakneck speed, looking to crush everyone in its way.

How this will end, I do not know. But I know this. When fascists

become this desperate and this panicked and this brutal, the end is certain, if not close. A certain gentleman named Trump comes to mind. I have also seen the farmers’ faces, bloodied ones smiling in steely determination, arms raised in jubilant defiance. The farmers are in it

for the long haul. They are not going to give up.
I desperately, desperately want them to win.
And so should you.
If not for anything else, for the simple reason that, these astoundingly brave people are the sentries behind whose broad shoulders, we bourgeois have taken refuge.

If they fall, the barbarians will overrun the gates."

#farmersprotest
#KisanAndolan"

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