Use Of Consensus And Dissent Could Have Been Prudent Options To Sidestep The Fracas On Jan 26

By D N Singh What has come to the fore after the Republic Day reveal that, dissent and rule has reached a state where it requires some revisits to the basics. The day may go down in the history as an embarrassing chapter without even discussing in detail that what went in between the agitating farmers and the security forces. Be it any issue but the basic thing is consensus and, of course, the dissent. The postmortem or an analysis brought out to public domain that, the farmer leaders lost control and the rest part were allegedly monopolized by the hooligans or the elements engaged by external forces to stage such an ugly scene in many parts of the national capital. Were It All Orchestrated! There were further assumptive notions being aired that, either there was a drastic failure on the part the intelligence wings or, the police itself allowed such elements to sneak into the capital and it were all orchestrated as scripted to derail the entire agitation lasting for over 58 days. “That was, may be, an opportune time for the dispensation to demean the strikers’ position, perhaps, who ceaselessly demanded the abolition of the new farm bill” said Ashish Verma, a Delhi based senior journalist. “Else, at no point of time the farmer leaders had shown any inkling of adopting such a path of collision” added Verma. And such an interpretation gains credibility because, when the government had made it clear that, the laws will be in hold for about 18 months, there was hardly any occasion for an abrupt outrage amounting to be incriminating and loathsome. There Was A Binary     There is a binary which cannot be lost sight of easily. The entire lot of agitating famers had suffered a few cracks beforehand and such things were widely seen in several television debates and the other, are the ones who were on a hot pursuit for scrapping of the three points viewed to be most contentious. Mutual Lack Of Restraint   Many still wonder, if there was a plan to hold the implementation and that was announced shortly before the celebrations, it would have been wise to do the same more in advance than choosing a pen-ultimate time when the strikers sensed a partial victory. Similarly, after such an announcement by the government, the farmers could have chosen the prudent option of holding back the Tractors’ rally. Lessons From History So the moral that comes out after the unfortunate clashes in Delhi that, to understand anything that is eyebrow raising, prolonged discussions are the best recourses. It is not about the modern day issues like farmers’ bill or CAA and so on but, it dates back to history of Maurya dynasty and, even the epic era when Mahabharat was written. When discussions played the bigger roles. Discussions and dissent have their due place because, none of the characters of the past were there. They were the victors who wrote history and subsequently, the epic writers or later, the historians re-wrote the history giving adequate room to consensus and dissent as well.   About the Author: DN Singh is a Bhubaneswar-based senior journalist. DISCLAIMER This is the personal opinion of the author. The views expressed in this write up have nothing to do with the www.prameyanews.com