Perilous fast track

THE life of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who is on a fast-unto-death, is precious — as rightly observed by the Supreme Court. So too are the lives of all protesters who are staying put at Shambhu and Khanauri borders in the bitter cold. And Dallewal himself has said that the lives of farmers pushed to the brink by flawed government policies are more valuable than his own. If every kisan’s life really matters, why have things come to such a pass? And why has the time-tested path of dialogue been abandoned?

Unfortunately, it was only after the apex court’s intervention that senior representatives of the Punjab and Central governments reached out to Dallewal. But it is unlikely that his extreme stand will force the Centre to accept farmers’ key demands, including a legal guarantee of MSP for various crops. After all, over 700 of them had died during a year-long agitation before the Modi government finally repealed the three farm laws. Ironically, Dallewal’s hunger strike and the efforts to dissuade him are eclipsing the big picture — the widespread agrarian distress fuelled by factors such as the debt burden, rising costs of farming and inadequate support for crop diversification.

The SC has urged farmers to adopt the Gandhian way of staging protests. The Mahatma considered fasting as a potent weapon in the Satyagraha armoury, but he made it clear that a Satyagrahi should do it only as the last resort — “when all other avenues of redress have been explored and have failed”. Leaders of farm unions still have the option of pressing the Centre to return to the negotiating table. The marathon talks between Union ministers and farmers’ representatives in February might not have produced a breakthrough, but that is no reason to snap lines of communication. A mutual climbdown is a must to save farmers’ lives as well as livelihood.