Rihanna Is Absolutely Right, We Need To Talk About These Farmer Protests

Singer Rihanna on late Tuesday evening (3 February) decided to speak up about the ongoing farm law protests at the Delhi border by farmer unions and their supporters.

Rihanna, while sharing a CNN link about suspended internet services at the protest site said with an exclamation mark and the farmer protest hashtag, "Why aren’t we talking about this?!".

This soon sent the protest's sympathisers in a tizzy, many of whom hailed it as a big validation of the protesting farmers and their demands. Some journalists also tried to drive home the point of Rihanna's potential impact by reminding people about her 100 million twitter users.

Many also swiftly countered Rihanna's actions by terming it as an undue influence by the West into India's internal matters.

Now the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has also termed the recent comments by foreign individuals and entities on the social media over the farmers’ protests as 'sensationalist', and urged them to ascertain facts before commenting on such matters.

As the debate rages on, it is important that we pay heed to the core question raised by Rihanna and indeed start talking about it.

Let's begin.

The internet ban which Rihanna seems to be ruing was first put into place on 29 January, in the aftermath of the coordinated and widespread violence unleashed by the farmer protesters in Delhi on Republic Day. No such internet ban was imposed prior to these violent protests.

By all accounts, the farmer protesters were leading a pretty comfortable life on Delhi's borders. Videos and pictures went viral of the protesters sleeping in insulated and waterproof tents, baking and eating pizzas and using massage chairs. In some cases farmer protesters even built brick and cement flooring for their tents.

One farmer had spent nearly 35 lakhs to modify his tractor equipping it with a GPS system and powerful music system to play high-volume music. He further paid Rs 5 lakh for the trolly, which included modified seats with sofas.

So what happened on 26 January that the government responded with an internet ban and a thorough barricading to prevent the protesters from stepping into the National Capital.

Let's talk about it.

The farmers began the protest by breaking the terms and conditions they agreed with the authorities. Not only did they prepone their protests, they began breaking police barricades and forced their way into Delhi from Singhu and Tikri borders amidst the Republic Day celebrations at Rajpath.

The requests by cops to wait till the culmination of the parade fell on deaf ears and the protesters forcibly entered Delhi.

Soon, disturbing visuals of protesters began filtering out. A protester was seen attacking a policeman with a sword, later videos allegedly captured cops showing injuries sustained in the sword attacks.

We should talk about it.

The farmer protest soon mutated into a rampage. The protesters were caught on camera attacking police personnel, vandalising their vehicles and also vandalised public transport. Many cops were injured as protesters attacked them using sticks, many were thrashed.

If this was not enough shocking visuals emerged from the Red Fort where they tied ropes to the gate of the monument in order to bring it down. The farmers soon forcibly entered the monument and unfurled Sikh flags. Such a desecration of the Red Fort has never been witnessed in Independent India.

If Capitol Hill attack was a threat to democracy and drew condemnation from international actors, we must most certainly talk about Red Fort attack.

Over 300 police personnel were injured in the mayhem unleashed by the farmer protesters, some also ended up in the ICU. Videos also showed how protesters brutally attacked police personnel, many of whom were forced to jump into a deep ditch at the Red Fort to save themselves.

If this was not enough, the banned Sikhs For Justice outfit had announced 350,000 USD award for unfurling of Nishan Sahib on the Indian Parliament.

Rihanna raised her voice sharing the CNN article, reading the half-baked truth and one side of the story. However, we can’t blame international media, when our national media outlets were sharing fake news about the Republic Day tractor rally violence.

Several media outlets along with some prominent Twitter accounts and personalities irresponsibly put out unverified news that a farmer was shot dead by police.

Police had denied this immediately to other media houses, saying the man was killed when his speeding tractor turned turtle while breaking barricades. Later, the post-mortem report of the deceased person suggested the cause of death to be head injury after his tractor turned turtle. A video of the incident was also shared on social media.

Thirty seven farmer leaders including Yogendra Yadav, Medha Patkar and Buta Singh have been named in a Delhi Police FIR which alleges that these leaders were responsible for the violence. Rakesh Tikait has been caught in a video asking farmers to be armed for the protests.

If anything, we must thank Rihanna and other international celebrities alike, and we should most definitely talk about it, but by ascertaining the complete facts.