In recent days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been calling those who support the peasant agitation ‘new types of militants’. Modi’s statement that a new FDI has come here and that it is not an acronym for Foreign Direct Investment but a foreign destructive ideology was an outpouring of extreme intolerance towards Farmers’ protest struggle. Modi has repeated that adjective even after the controversy over his statement that those who support the peasant agitation are militants.
It is not uncommon for Modi to feel that it is a big mistake for people to fight for fundamental issues; because he is not a person who has stood with such struggles at any stage of his life. He may have been impressed only by the protests against the demolition of churches and the construction of places of worship. Those who carried out the ‘karseva’ to demolish the Babri Masjid may not be able to grasp the essence of the peasant struggle.
Modi cannot help but remember the fact that Mahatma Gandhi was the greatest activist India has ever seen when he derides ‘andolan jeevi’. The picture of Veer Savarkar, who conspired to assassinate the biggest militant the country has ever seen, appeared on the wall of Parliament after Modi came to power. For the time being, Modi may not be ready to deny Gandhiji and his eventful life of struggle. Because it is difficult for Modi or his party to accept from the bottom of their hearts the fact that we call Gandhiji the Father of the Nation. It is not uncommon for a party that worships the man who planned the assassination of the Father of the Nation, to make statements like the one Modi made.
Modi is utterly dissatisfied with the arrival of ‘foreign destructive ideology’ in India. When foreigners protest against anti-people measures taking place inside the country, Modi finds it a destructive idea. At the same time, when commenting on anti-democratic developments in other countries, he does not consider himself to be an advocate of foreign destructive ideology by the rulers of those countries.
Modi and his party are furious that Twitter has not complied with its directive to remove tweets related to the farmers’ agitation. BJP leaders have warned people not to think Twitter is above the law of the land. Twitter is an initiative that bans the US president from believing he is above the law in his own country.
Twitter has clear criteria about who should be banned and when. The government is trying to teach Twitter the law by banning the internet in an anti-democratic manner to suppress the protests. It is only natural that a government that denies the basic rights of the people of Kashmir through an Internet ban is frustrated over its attempts to bring Twitter within its ambit.
