Of late, India has been witnessing a rather new phenomenon – manufactured and ill-informed protests battering cities, which are to host all-important foreign dignitaries, no less than the head of states from mainly India’s allies around the world. Whether it be former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, U.S. President Donald Trump, or now, UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson – a section of motivated people in the country have made sure that state visits are marred by violence, and continue to plot against India by besmirching the country’s name while using violent agitations to prove their point of India being engulfed by an all-pervasive anti-government sentiment.
With the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson all set to visit India later this month as the chief guest for the annual Republic Day parade, farmer unions camping on the borders of the national capital in opposition to the three revolutionary farm laws have now announced that they would be taking out a ‘tractor parade’ in New Delhi on 26 January.
Informing the same, leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha told a media contingent of Saturday that tens of thousands of farmers will enter the national capital on Republic Day, and carry out a tractor parade if their demands for repeal of three farm laws and a law guaranteeing minimum prices for crops are not met.
Of course, it was not given a miss by anyone that the supposedly humongous tractor parade being planned by the farmer unions coincides with the state visit of UK’s Prime Minister. At a time of Boris Johnson visiting India, the protesting farmers are attempting to hog the limelight internationally by organising a parallel tractor rally on Republic Day. Needless to say, the sole motive is to demean and smear India internationally and convey the message that the country is going through major strife, even as Boris Johnson and Narendra Modi get ready to further strengthen Indo-British ties.
Meanwhile, with the protesting farmers vouching to enter the national capital illegally on Republic Day, there is no ignoring the fact that largescale violence could erupt, further muddying India’s image in the eyes of Boris Johnson and even the global community. Last year too, during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to India in February, anti-CAA agitators and Islamists had effectuated a bloodbath on the streets of Northeast Delhi. Of course, while the violent mobs and their paymasters thought that this would trigger Trump to lambast India, the U.S. President maintained his composure, and in fact, refrained from commenting on the violence (which was anti-Hindu) citing it to be the country’s internal issue, adding that the same was an ‘individual case’.
Further, Donald Trump said that he was satisfied that Modi worked “really hard” on religious freedom. “I had a very powerful answer from PM Modi…He told me that they are working very closely with minorities in India…PM Modi said that there are 200 million Muslims in India and that his government is working closely with the minorities,” Trump said.
Months ahead of that, the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe’s much-anticipated state visit to India and the Northeast was called off, due to violent mobs taking to the streets of Assam’s capital city – Guwahati, which was to be the main venue for Abe’s stay. The visit was slated to focus on Northeast India, and a successful touchdown of the Japanese Prime Minister would have meant an infrastructural and developmental turnaround for a region of India historically neglected by successive governments. However, misinformed protesters took to the streets of Guwahati to unleash a level of violence not seen in the state in years.
The Japanese Prime Minister was set to bring with him largescale investments for Northeast India, which would in itself be a huge snub to China. Yet, here too, due to protests, the visit was called off, resulting in the loss of a lifetime opportunity for the Northeast.
If the same is being planned during the upcoming visit of Boris Johnson as well, rest assured, it cannot be a coincidence and reeks of a larger anti-India plot at play. The government should come cracking down hard on all elements seeking to create anarchy in the county during the visit of various state heads, beginning with the UK Prime Minister’s visit later this month.