Recently, 35000 agricultural workers marched from nearby villages into Mumbai, made a demonstration and returned after the state government agreed to all their demands. If we look at how the whole story was played by media, I have only one word - "poetic".
Emotional, pitiful pictures of farmers were posted everywhere in the media while hiding the political affiliation of these protesters with the Communist Party. Had this been a genuine mark of 'distressed farmers', they would have looked a bit diverse. But all of them were wearing Red Caps (Red is the Symbolic color of the Communist Party with Red denoting "Blood" of workers killed fighting Capitalism). All of them were carrying Communist Party flags which show the "Hammer and Sickle" symbol. The hammer and sickle symbol was first used during the Russian Revolution of 1917. Hammer stands for the industrial workers and the sickle represents agricultural workers. This symbol represents the unity of the two groups - the typical vote-banks of the Communist Party everywhere.
What have the Communists done in India so far? Apart from destroying the whole economy and work-culture of a communist state like West Bengal; forcing industries to shift out of the state? Communism is a theoretical and romantic idea which has been discarded in most of the developed and democratic places of the world. It has been classified as regressive and detested by anyone who has a bit of understanding of the world economics.
What were the demands of these farmer-supporters of the Communist Party? (1) Waiver of loans - sure, let us destroy our government banks; well whatever still remains of those (2). Handover ownership of forest land to adivasi farmers - nice, please destroy our forests; burn them down along with their birds (3) Hiking minimum support price for crops 1.5 times - yes, government should buy crops at higher cost and let the grains rot in the storage houses.
All three demands were unreasonable and uneconomic. But that is how politics works. After all, those who came to Mumbai were not just any farmers. They were members of Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, the farmers’ collective of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). That is why only 35000 of them came to Mumbai (Maharashtra has approx. 1.4 Crore farmers population).
Why did not the media tell me also about their political affiliation but kept calling them "poor farmers"? Why did not the media tell me more about their demands, with forest-burning plan and all; but kept showing me their "broken chappals"?
It was so because media houses are truly the "News Traders" - a term Modi ji had used way back. They do not stand for "Truth" but stand for only making "Money" using whatever means. Ironically, these media houses of today represent the true "Capitalism" - which Communist Party was supposed to fight. But until they serve its purpose, who cares?
Now these Communists are planning to move to Delhi - trying to repeat their feat of Mumbai. Beware - you would soon be flooded with more pictures of "Broken Chappals"!
News: After Maharashtra, farmers march towards Delhi, demand loan waiver
