Things have taken a weird turn in the wake of the 2020 Indian farmers’ protest against the three farm acts passed by the Indian government. A few days ago, the farmers enhanced their protest by calling to boycott services offered by major corporate brands, including Adani and Reliance.
While the boycott extended the peripheries of agriculture and food services, Punjab saw a decline in the number of active Jio sim users as part of the protest. Recently, Twitterati has urged people to boycott Jio Saavn in order to show support to the protesters.
What Was The Issue All About?
The protests began due to the Indian farm reforms of 2020. The three bills passed by the Indian Parliament – The Empowerment and Protection Bill; The Promotion and Facilitation Bill; and the Essential Commodities Bill, were to provide farmers with multiple marketing channels.
The farmers’ union although, considered the laws to be ‘anti-farmer’ and full-fledged nationwide protests began on 26 November 2020.
The Indian economy is largely based on agriculture and more than 80 per cent of farmers are small-scale farmers. The farmers fear that the introduction of the acts will lead to the end of the mandi system and the agricultural industry will be taken over by corporate industries.
Also Read – Demystified: Why Are The Farmers Protesting If The New Bill Is Meant To Benefit Them?
Does The Boycott Really Help?
While the union has announced another nationwide protest on 14 December 2020, the farmer leaders have announced that they would be boycotting corporate projects (especially emphasising the Adani Group and Reliance Industries), malls, and any utility that provides revenue to the government.
The protest demand also states a boycott of ‘Jio products’ on a national level, along with boycotting ‘Adani-Ambani’ projects.
Although the boycott might eventually fizzle out, it is an example of an open challenge to overturn increasing capitalism. If the bill passes through, the corporate setup is said to benefit the most due to the ambiguous nature of the bills.
Other than making a statement, such a boycott will not affect the farmers, the government or the corporate industries economically since Jio even today is one of the largest cellular network providers in the country.
Twitter Reacts To This
Recently, Twitterati has tried to contribute their support to the farmer protests by calling for a boycott of Jio Saavn – a music streaming app. One of the most used song applications by the youth today, Jio Saavn is a membership-based streaming platform and partners with several Bollywood production houses.
‘#Boycott_JioSaavn’ along with ‘#किसान_कमल_काटेगा’ is even trending on Twitter shortly after the farmers called for a boycott on Jio products.
Farmers have been fighting for their rights for the last three months. Support the farmers sitting in the cold, rainy weather in Delhi. Let's boycott Ambani Adani #Boycott_JioSaavn pic.twitter.com/PEyrtVaxz9
— Simranjeet Kaur (@simrankaurzz) December 13, 2020
https://twitter.com/JassSin96907531/status/1338018901771300866
https://twitter.com/jatt_junction/status/1337998344958832642
There are several people who are also using the hashtag without having a deep knowledge of the situation.
jio is a chaina product stop using this #Boycott_JioSaavn pic.twitter.com/KAPUBokmmZ
— PREET KIRAT (@PREETKIRAT1) December 13, 2020
https://twitter.com/MdToush77506104/status/1338026264704110593
Things have taken quite an interesting turn in the farmers’ protest this week, and protesters are still blocking the entries to the capital city.
What are your thoughts on the boycott? Comment below.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Twitter, Business Insider, MySmartPrice
Find the Blogger: @AishuPoshu
This post is tagged under: #Boycott_JioSaavn, #किसान_कमल_काटेगा , Agriculture Bill, Delhi Chalo, Delhi riots 2020, Indian Farm Reforms 2020, Indian farmers’ protest, Boycott Jio Saavn
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