Two famous thinkers of the last century had almost common comment to make on politics, which said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”
The first person to be attributed this quote is Sir Ernest John Pickstone Benn, a British publisher, writer and political publicist. As a civil servant in the Ministry of Munitions and Reconstruction during the First World War, he came to believe in the benefits of state intervention in the economy. However, after the war in the mid-1920s, he changed his mind and adopted “the principles of undiluted laissez-faire” which is comparable to the ideas of today’s free market economy.
The other person to whom this quote is attributed, some say wrongly, is Groucho Marx. Not even a distant relative of philosopher Karl Marx, Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, and television star. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit and one of America’s greatest comedians.
Now between these two espousers of free market, they probably managed to give one of the best definitions of a kind of politics which repeatedly asks for the intervention of the state. However, these two gentlemen did not perceive the kind of politics which would unfold in the national capital, to which the agitating farmers are currently laying a siege.
Here we have a situation where the laws of the central government for a free market in agriculture sector are being challenged by the agitating farmers and they have cordoned the national Capital. On the other hand, the government which administers the city, where the seat of the central government is situated, is going ahead full steam in support of the farmers.
Is it of any consequence to the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal that the supplies to the local markets in the national capital may dry up due to the farmer’s siege? Or is Aam Aadmi Party’s electoral stakes in poll-bound Punjab a bigger concern at the moment for the ruling party?
For Ernest Benn and Groucho Marx, such a political model with no accountability of the elected government to govern must have been unheard of. Otherwise these two quick-witted public figures must have formed an opinion on it.
Earlier this year, the Delhi government did not mince words in blaming stubble burning by Punjab and Haryana farmers for choking the national Capital with ‘parali’ fire. The AAP’s political leadership is now holding fast in their support.
Ever since the farmers’ agitation peaked, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has been working overtime to woo the farmers. First, to show solidarity with the farmers, the Delhi government refused to notify the huge stadiums in Delhi as makeshift jails, forcing the Centre to turn the DDA grounds in Burari into an open jail for the farmers. Following this, Delhi government machinery moved with alacrity to make these farmers ‘comfortable’ in the Burari ground, and a huge tent city was set using public funds for the purpose.
But as part of their strategy, the farmers have so far stayed put on the borders laying siege of the city and not entering it, turning the tent city into a ghost town. Anxious to register his hospitality with the agitating farmers from Punjab, which goes to polls in 2022, the CM visited protesting farmers at Singhu border on December 7.
The protestors have thus far remained on the borders. The AAP again tried to register its support to the farmers with party leadership claiming that Kejriwal has been put under house arrest by the Centre-controlled Delhi Police following his visit to the Singhu border A charge which the Delhi Police has obviously denied.
Almost immediately issuing a rebuttal, a senior Delhi Police official said sharing a photo that there was minimal deployment of security personnel at the CM’s house.
The farmers have so far refused the hospitality of the Centre, with whom they are negotiating, and thus for Kejriwal to feel that they would eat from his hands was misplaced. The lack of clarity within the AAP government on line to be adopted vis-a-vis the farming community was also evident in the notification of the farm law by the Delhi government even as in public they took a pro-farmer line.
(The writer is a senior journalist and political analyst. Views expressed are personal.)
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
Comments
0 comment