Even a bed has a stand, a nightstand!

A friend sent me a Youtube presentation outlining the nitty-gritty details of India's new Farm Bill 2020. This news seems to be the flavour of the month that hit most portals dealing with news from India. Pictures of Sikh farmers in a protest demanding justice is making its appearance in most channels. Wanting to research more into this, in an investigative manner, I approached a few of my many friends about it. Everything has to be taken in context, I finally understand.

The first person I interviewed said that he has no opinions as he is a Malaysian, and things that happen in India does not bother him. His ancestors left Punjab because the state could not provide; hence, he has no love lost. 

Along the way, I find that the media, which is highly influenced by the West, had a lot of negativities to say about India's 'bad' way of handling the situation. One of the darlings of the liberal society, President Justin Trudeau had a lashing towards India's 'unsympathetic' stance towards people.

Next, an economical èmigrè of Indian stock to Canada had this say. Her Prime Minister was merely echoing the world's sentiments. Only he had the fortitude to verbalise what everyone wanted to say but dare not. My opinion, however, is that she must be seen appeasing her Newfoundland, her masters and not appear showing allegiance to her Bharat Mata.

My research has shown me this. The world is a stage and what is fed to us in the media is a narrative with hidden motives acted by a sleight of hand to fulfil specific agendas. There are more than meets the eye.

In essence, the Bill tries to curb two taunting issues. Firstly, the opening of the market to the farmers and abolition of middlemen. With the change, a farmer can trade his produce with any buyer in any state with the market forces determining its price, not middlemen. For this, the substantial subsidies that the Government is forking out are abolished.

The subsidy issue is harped by the Opposition and the breaking India force to vilify Modi. They instigate the farmers to rise to oppose the claimed oppression. Here, the only who tend to lose are the middlemen. After an initial rise in the price of a commodity, the cost of goods would be stabilised by the market forces, according to analysts. The Government asserts that they are not washing their hands of the farmers' and consumers' affairs. They would periodically come in, in times of crisis, to control prices.

The hypocrisy of the Western powers is in display here. At WTO conferences, they chide India for producing cheap produce, under-cutting other producers and reducing their competitiveness. They attribute this to India's generous subsidy to farmers. The support was introduced in the first place for food security after the many famines that it had experienced, including the wheat shortage in the 70s. But, when the support is abolished, they cry foul! The Canadian Prime Minister's rant is political. It is to appease his vote bank; not to mete justice.

One interviewee told me that knowing things like these, something that would not change his day to day, as a means to stimulate his grey cells. He knows what he thinks is insignificant in the void of the Universe. Still, he has a right to have an opinion, rightly or wrongly. Even a bed has a stand, a nightstand. And a pen and an umbrella too.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. 

You say you want a revolution

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020; Netflix)

Everyone wants to live in a utopia. Even the Islamic jihadis, who are hellbent on destroying everything nice, are looking for that heaven on Earth. The human race continually feels dissatisfied with the way things are run and yearns for reforms. 

Firstly, the society starting with the moderates will initiate the move to change. The ruling regime would appear set in their old ways and seem apathetic to the demands of the majority. Like the 'Emperor in his new clothes', they would be pleased in their own echo-chamber. 

People would rise to the demand for their place in the sun. People would win. Sadly, other self-serving radicals will piggyback on the movement. Controlling a large crowd is no easy task. Emotion runs high, and quickly the peaceful demonstration escalates into a violent protest. Even if the moderates managed to change the status quo, the comrades in arms with different ideologies would steamroll their own agendas. The system will become corrupt. Bear in mind there would exist external forces who are one-track minded on collapsing the whole society so that they can infiltrate with their own plans.

There is an eerie similarity between 1968 America and the 2020 USA. 1968 saw an angry America sending his not-so-fortunate sons of the soil for the slaughter in Vietnam at a draft rate of almost up to 35,000/month. Sending young American men as sacrificial lambs in a land 10,000 miles for a mission so bizarre as countering global Communist threat. That would cost LBJ's re-election ambitions, and the Americans wanted to make their dissatisfaction felt. It was a tumultuous year with Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy, the Democratic hopeful being assassinated. Many civil society group members would congregate outside the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago to express their dissatisfaction in the US involvement in the Vietnam War. 

The Chicago 7: Abbie Hoffman, John Froines, 
Lee Weiner, David Dellinger Rennie Davis, 
 Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin

What started as a peaceful protest quickly escalated to a blood bath when the crowd became rowdy and the police used their might to subdue the mob. With accusations of high handedness by the police and malice intent of protestors, eight civil society group leaders were charged for intending to start a riot. Bobby Searle, the founder of 'The Black Panthers', was initially included in the charge list but later dropped during trial after a blatant disregard for his civil rights.

This movie narrates the drama, and high tension that hung during the trial of the accused (Chicago 7) in a courtroom presided by an old school judge whose standards would raise many eyebrows by today's standards.

Many liberal and left-leaning thinkers assert that the general anxiety of the American is comparable to that of the 1968 generation. With increasing death toll due to Covid, the uncertainties associated with the post-Covid world and the possible imminent loss of world dominance to a Communist country, people are generally angry, in their assessment. This, they say, is the reason for volatility of public as evidenced by Black Lives Matters movements, increasing Islamophobia and hostility to immigrants. Of course, it is not so straight forward. The world has become more complicated since 1968.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.