Bhartiya Janata Party governments don’t believe in intervening in a situation where somebody is on indefinite fast for some cause and saving their lives. 86 years old Professor Guru Das Agrawal aka Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand had served as a faculty member at IIT Kanpur and later Member Secretary of Central Pollution Control Board. He sat on five fasts during Manmohan Singh’s government but never died. It was because of his fast that Jairam Ramesh, as Environment minister, declared 135 km stretch of Bhagirathi river as eco-sensitive zone, meaning no dams would be constructed here, and Manmohan Singh shelved three hydroelectric projects, one of them Loharinag Pala was under construction and remaining two hadn’t started. He ended his fifth fast in 2013 after Rajnath Singh as BJP president assured him that with Narendra Modi coming to power all his Ganga related demands would be met. G.D. Agrawal wanted an aviral (uninterrupted) and nirmal (clean) Ganga. This required construction of all dams in upper reaches of Ganga and its tributaries to be stopped.
In 2018 he began his sixth fast after waiting for four and half years for the Modi government to accede to his demands. He fasted for 112 days and died a day after he was forcibly picked up from his fast site at Matri Sadan, Haridwar and admitted to AIIMS, Rishikesh. Swami Shivanand Saraswati, the head of Matri Sadan, who himself has fasted many times to stop illegal mining in Ganga in Haridwar, thinks that police action aggravated his condition and he died sooner than he would have, had force not been used on him.
G.D. Agrawal wrote two letters to Narendra Modi before his fast and another two during the fast. But the only response he got from Modi was a condolence message immediately after his demise. In the hard hitting last letter written to Modi, Swami Sanand said that he would hold Modi responsible for his death, if he were to die fasting, and in Lord Ram’s court he will ask for punishment for Modi.
Before this in 2011 Swami Nigmanand Saraswati, also associated with Matri Sadan, died in government hospital under BJP rule in Uttarakhand after 115 days of fast on the issue of illegal mining in Ganga. He was only 35 years of age.
70 years old Devki Nandan Sharma was fighting against corruption for about 13 years in his Gram Panchayat Shankargarhi in Mant tehsil of Mathura district. After petitioning numerous times and when none of the enquiry committees yielded any result, he decided to go on indefinite fast at a temple built on the premises of his house. The last time he fasted at district headquarters he was bundled into a vehicle and was being taken towards Aligarh, he sensed the worst, and on the way escaped on the excuse of relieving himself, He sat on fast on 12 February, 2024. The administrative response was to threaten him with a case against him. When his family members complained of his deteriorating health condition after four months of fasting, an ambulance was sent for him. While he was being taken to the district hospital he died on the way on 12 June.
Jagjit Singh Dallewal, the farmer leader, is sitting on fast since 26 November demanding Minimum Support Price as a legal guarantee, something which the Narendra Modi government promised to the farmers to look into after a 13 months long siege of Delhi by the farmers before the Lok Sabha elections.
The Supreme Court has accused the Punjab government of being guilty of abetment to suicide. It is asking the Punjab government to hospitalise Dallewal so that his life can be saved. Punjab government is pleading that with the fortress built around Dallewal’s fast site by the farmers’ tractors and layers of guarding by the farmers it is not possible to rescue Dallewal without collateral damage to farmers and police. From what happened when Professor G.D. Agrawal was removed from fast site to the hospital, there is enough possibility that Dallewal’s life would be threatened. When the Punjab government says that Union government must consider the demands of farmers, SC accuses it of speaking in the voice of protesters. While agreeing to farmers’ constitutional right to protest, it refuses to be pressurised. SC has also come down hard on other farmers, criticising them for creating peer pressure on Dallewal to continue with his fast unto death. It has questioned the motive of farmers who are letting their leader proceed on path towards death.
However, SC is not holding the Union government responsible for not honouring the agreement with the farmers of working towards meeting their demands. The demands all relate to the Union government. One word from Union government saying that farmers’ demands would be met or it would at least it would consider meeting their demands could ease the situation and give Dallewal and agitating farmers a window of dialogue with the government with the intervention of SC. Why is SC not applying the right amount of pressure in the right direction instead of holding the Punjab government responsible for the situation? It never asked the Union government why it allowed the siege of Delhi for 13 months to be built up?
It is good that at least SC is concerned about Jagjit Singh Dallewal’s life. It has finally woken up to the situation where activists put their lives at stake and government’s don’t listen to them as was evident in the cases of G.D. Agrawal and Devki Nandan Sharma. But SC also needs to understand that these activists are self-respecting individuals and sit on indefinite fasts of own volition. They resort to this action as last ditch effort when they see no hope from the government. Instead of questioning the motive of their colleagues it should ask the government why is it failing in its duty to meet the aspirations of aggrieved citizens? It should hold the government responsible for allowing the situation to be created where somebody has to take the extreme step of putting his/her life at stake?
We only hope that Jagjit Singh Dallewal will not meet the same fate as G.D. Agrawal or Devki Nandan Sharma. But it must be clear to the SC that one entity which can save the life of Dallewal is the Union government by taking a decision favourable to farmers. Why can’t the government which allows private corporations to mint unlimited profits allow the farmers one and half times their cost of production as a legal right?
Sandeep Pandey, General Secretary, Socialist Party (India)
e-mail: [email protected]
