Pictures circulated by others, including the Congress, have pointed out that the real reason for turning back was that the rally he wanted to address and had prepared for had 70,000 chairs but only 700 attendees. The lack of crowds despite the attempt to busload numbers points to the fact that the Prime Minister has suffered a loss of standing so severe that an apology and a withdrawal of the farm laws he wanted to push down the gullets of unwilling farmers has not done much repair, particularly in Punjab. They indicate anger and even a sense of contempt that has gotten deeply embedded in the people of Punjab, thanks to the farm laws project. That anger has, unfortunately for the BJP, boiled to the surface again because of what was said in Punjab this time, remarks that have been seen as denigrating the State. The otherwise little-known Congress Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has turned out pretty well in this episode by showing around reporters and display how he is stopped on the roads often and how he meets with people and how they then quietly disperse. He drives the point further by saying Punjab will not use force against ordinary people blocking roads in protest, and the contrast with the highfalutin ways of the BJP is complete.The entire drama comes as Punjab goes to the polls. Channi has a point when he says that protests in general increased ahead of the enforcement of the Election Commission’s model code of conduct, under which the decision-making process will stop till elections are done. This is standard across all states at election time. But the empty chairs that waited to greet the Prime Minister are an indication of something different – they tell us that the withdrawal of the farm laws has not closed the case with the protesting communities and groups.The withdrawal of cases against those who were a part of the protests, the disbursal of relief to the farmers who died in the protests and a decision on the Minimum Support Price are demands that will continue to breed discontent unless they are met swiftly and in full.That brings new significance to the remarks by the Meghalaya Governor Satyapal Malik at an interesting time – post the withdrawal of the farm laws and just when the election activity in the key States of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh is about to pick up. Malik has reported that his personal conversation with the Prime Minister on the farm laws and protests turned into a fight, and that the Prime Minister was very “arrogant”. It tells us again from authoritative accounts that the leader in charge of the nation cannot countenance a different point of view, even from friends and colleagues. Malik said he was dispatched to meet the home minister instead. It is clear from the conversation that the abortive attempt at pushing the farm laws will continue to damage the Prime Minister. Mallik also served to remind the country and the establishment that the issue is far from settled, that the protestors’ have only suspended their agitation, not called it off. The government will have to work with honesty to fulfill its promises on compensation for those killed in the protests, the MSP frameworks and withdrawal of cases.
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