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Resistance in the Face of Repression: Stories From Protesting Farmers at Delhi’s Border

Pavan Kulkarni

Across the rows of concrete barricades at the Tikri border blocking the entrance into New Delhi from the neighbouring state of Haryana, a stretch of more than ten kilometres of Rohtak road remains occupied by caravans of tens of thousands of farmers. They have journeyed hundreds of kilometres from different parts of Punjab and Haryana.

On Sunday, with fists raised in protest, these farmers – who have broken many barricades, facing water cannons and tear gas along the way – sit atop tractors up and down this stretch, as loud speakers blasted protest songs in high volume.

On either side of these parades which pass throughout the day are parked tractor-trailers and trucks loaded with hundreds of kilos of cereals and pulses, in preparation for the long haul. Farmers’ organisations claim to have stocked up for six months.

The farmers are clear they will not retreat till the far-right BJP government withdraws the three farm acts. Passed in Parliament on September 26 without permitting a vote count, these acts deregulating the trade of agricultural produce seek to give a free reign for corporations to expand their control over the agricultural supply chain.

To sustain the protest, which is now into its third week, villagers back home send fresh vegetables and milk which arrive in vehicles every few hours. Slogans of “Long Live Revolution! Long Live Farmers Unity!” ring en masse as vehicles carrying more farmers from villages arrive the border well into the night.

Many of the pillars holding up the metro rail track towering over this stretch of the road are marked with slogans painted by the various Delhi-based student and youth organisations whose activists frequent the site to demonstrate in solidarity.

“Modi should give up his illusions”

Beside one such pillar, kneading dough for flat breads served at one of the many community kitchens setup on the road, a 25-year-old Sikh farmer from Fatehabad district in Haryana, explains how they have maintained the relay.

“This particular batch of 15 farmers from our Mangeda village have been here for a week now. When we arrived, 15 other farmers who were already here since November 26, were discharged. The next batch will arrive to replace us soon,” he said. “And the relay will go on – be it for 6 months or 10 years or for however long (Prime Minister) Modi decides to drag this on.”

“As you can see, this kitchen can go on forever. We don’t need to ask anyone for money to keep this going. All the villages in Punjab and Haryana are sending us these rations. They won’t let us run short of any food item because everyone realises this is a fight for our rights as the country’s farming community.”

“Modi did not give me my farmland or the crops grown on it. Generations of my forefathers have soaked our fields with sweat and blood,” he adds. “Modi should give up his illusion that the farmers will go back without accomplishing what they came here for.”

The water cannons, tear gas and violent baton charge unleashed against these farmers as they approached the capital city in large caravans is well documented. However, the repression they endured at the local village level while mobilising for this agitation has received little attention.

“My house was surrounded on all four sides by 50-60 policemen”

Ramachandra – a leader of the farmers’ union, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), and a member of Haryana state committee of Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPIM) – recollects that meetings, small protests and other forms of agitation had begun in villages soon after the farm acts were passed. He hails from the Ratia tehsil (sub-division) of Fatehabad district.

Here, a month after the farm acts were legislated, on the occasion of Dussehra, a Hindu religious festival when it is a tradition to burn an effigy of the mythological demon, Ravan, villagers burnt an effigy of Modi instead.

By the last week of November, it had become clear to the authorities that the mass-mobilisation of farmers had been successful, and tens of thousands were set to head to the capital in protest on November 26. This was planned to coincide with arguably the largest general strike of workers in human history, led by 10 major trade unions of the country. Soon, a crackdown on the leaders began.

“After overseeing the preparations to ensure at least two tractors would set out with sufficient rations from each (of the 66) villages in Ratia, I arrived home at 10 in the night of November 23. By around 1:30 a.m, when my entire family was asleep, my house was surrounded on all four sides by 50-60 policemen,” Ramchandra said.

After arresting him with such a large force, he was booked under a minor charge, which amounts to nothing more than getting into loud, heated arguments or quarrels.

“Anyone booked under Section 751 can be bailed the very next day. However, at the insistence of the government, the sub-divisional magistrate and other authorities to whom the bail application must be addressed went on leave. So I was lodged in a jail for five days.”

Describing the conditions inside the prison, he added, “My cell had only one tap. I had to use the same water for drinking and for the open lavatory inside the cell. At night, in this cold winter, I had to sleep on the floor with only a thin sheet and a blanket. The food we were served with was also unhygienic. Me and other comrades who were jailed went on a hunger strike.”

“No national media was paying attention to these developments in the villages at the time,” he said. But “all the lawyers in Ratia had been on strike in protest from the very next day of the arrests. Demonstrations were held in different villages. Finally, when I was released along with others on November 28, I realised that as a result of this crackdown, the size of the mobilisation had doubled, as more and more infuriated had farmers joined in.”

That very night, Ramachandra hit the highway, accompanied by other farmers on a caravan of more than two hundred tractors from Ratia. Enduring such repression in villages across Haryana, whose state government is also ruled by the BJP, the farmers, under the leadership of different unions, set out to Delhi in seemingly endless columns of tractor-trolleys, some of which were reported to stretch as long as 40 kilometers in length.

With them were an estimated one to two hundred thousand Punjab farmers, who had already crossed their state’s southern border into Haryana, and were enroute to Delhi. Farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and other neighboring states have also since been heading towards Delhi, most of whose major borders are closed with barricades.

BJP resorts to religious polarisation, again

However, the ruling party singled out the farmers from Punjab, who are predominantly of the minority Sikh religion and happens to be ruled by a state government led by an opposition party, Indian National Congress (INC).

Using its giant propaganda machinery spread out in the social media and television news, the BJP sought to defame the movement by portraying it as one instigated by Khalistani terrorists.

The Khalistani movement was a violent campaign for the secession of Punjab from India, which had reached its peak in the 1980s and the 1990s. Previously, the BJP government’s labeling of the minorities, youth and students dissenting against its policies as fifth-columnists had succeeded in turning a considerable section of the society against them. However, its attempt to use the same tactic against the protesting farmers has backfired.

Ex-army servicemen to return medals

“The farming communities of Punjab and Haryana, which have sent us here to the Delhi border, have sent their sons in equal numbers to serve in the army,” said another 23-year old farmer from Haryana. “Two of my own brothers are at the China border guarding Indian territory. And the government has the nerve to label our struggle as anti-national and separatist?”

Flaunting on his overcoat the medals he was decorated with during his service, Retd. Captain Balaur Singh says with pride, “I am a former soldier”. Now an old man, he moves slowly. Youngsters from his village help him with a chair.

Taking a seat, he explains that at his age, he has chosen to endure the harsh winter weather and other hardships of life on this roadside caravan – where at least four farmers have succumbed – because he was a farmer before he served in the army, and returned to farming after service. This is the case with most soldiers, he explains.

“We have formed an ex-servicemen committee in Punjab, made up of retired soldiers and officers of all ranks. We have decided that if the government refuses to withdraw these farm acts, we will return all our medals and continue to struggle with farmers for however long it takes. Because there is an inextricable tie between soldiers and farmers in this country,” he says. Onlookers cheer, “Jai Jawaan! Jai Kisaan! (Hail the soldier! Hail the farmer!)”.

The failure of the BJP to paint these farmers as the enemies of the nation has been demonstrated by the success of the nationwide shutdown on December 8, called for by Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) – an umbrella organisation of 500 farmers’ organizations across the country. (See separate report on this in this issue of Janata.)

(Article courtesy: Peoples Dispatch.)

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‘We Won’t Get Scared’: The Spirit of Farmers’ Protest Is Inescapable in Punjab

Pawanjot Kaur

Niamian/Fatehpur/Baras (Punjab): There is an uprising in Punjab. People in the state are acutely aware that they are at the epicentre of the ongoing farmers’ stir. They know that all eyes – domestic and international – are on the farmers’ movement.

Many in the cadre are enjoying this attention. Elaborate discussions on Twitter spats between celebrities, minute by minute updates on the table-talks, and the media coverage of their movement are taking place in almost every household.

The micro-level management of the cadre by farmers’ unions has ensured that wedding ceremonies, farm-work and other essential engagements of people are done without too much trouble. In addition, Reliance petrol pumps, Reliance marts, toll plazas, and Adani’s cold storages continue to be under the siege of farmers.

According to Paramjeet Kaur, a member of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan), 68 small- and medium-sized, day and night morchas (rally) are taking place in Patiala district alone. At one site in Ghagga, 32 villages have set up a day and night sanjha morcha (common sit-in) where protesters give speeches, sing songs, run a community kitchen and generally keep the energy high.

Gurpreet Kaur Baras has been put in charge of the morcha until she makes her second trip to the Tikri border. After she leaves, her husband will be in charge of the morcha. The in-charge mobilises those who haven’t joined the movement yet, coordinates with the press and generally takes care of things at the protest site, Gurpreet told The Wire.

Baras is a large village with around 2,500 people as a part of its panchayat. A village-level committee has been formed in Baras by the farmers’ unions to keep track of who is coming back and going to the Delhi morcha, and when. The committee also keeps track of resources which are needed – flags, tarpaulins for trolleys and food among other things.

One hour away from Baras is the village of Fatehpur. No committee has been formed here. Shingara Singh, one of the agitating farmers came back to his village from the Singhu border to tend to his potato farm on December 8. The next day, a new group left the village for the border in relay. According to the villagers, the village must be duly represented at the morcha.

“A group of us came back to harvest our potatoes. The ones who have left today, finished harvesting potatoes before going. I came back last night and today half of all my potatoes will be harvested. Other than potato harvesting, there’s not much work in the farms now,” said Shingara Singh who, like many others in the village, grows potatoes, wheat and paddy.

Each season, Singh sells potatoes to Pepsico and takes wheat and paddy to the APMC mandi. This season, he is hopeful that potatoes will bring good returns. A year ago, he suffered extreme losses. The MSP of wheat and paddy sustains Singh. He started growing potatoes in order to diversify his farming. With the implementation of the new farm laws, he is fearful that if the MSP of wheat and paddy eventually gets removed, both crops will become susceptible to price fluctuations of the market– just like potatoes. Besides, Shingara Singh’s experience in selling his produce to a conglomerate hasn’t been very good. He is sceptical of new private corporations joining the market.

Standing in a field full of freshly harvested potatoes soon-to-be converted into branded chips, Shingara Singh said, “I’ve come back for essential potato harvesting. I left my tractor and my trolley at the morcha. It wouldn’t have looked good if I removed my trolley from the rows of trolleys lined up at the Singhu border. So I borrowed my friend’s tractor to harvest potatoes”. “onney mennu bhaicharey ch de ditta (he gave it to me because of our brotherhood),” he added.

A few metres away from the farm, at Shingara Singh’s home, his wife Baljeet Kaur said that people fighting for their rights, like they were doing now, made her happy. “Other than my husband, I also sent my 29-year-old son to the morcha for a few days,” she said with a sense of pride.

“I really wanted to go to the protest too, but someone has to be here as well,” she said, as she sat in her courtyard, next to an under-construction hall and kitchen. Shingara Singh, standing beside her, added, “we are also renovating our house. Labour works here all day. So the farm, the house and the morcha, everything is on our minds right now.”

The sarpanch (village head) of Fatehpur, Jagroop Singh, who left for Singhu a day after Shingara Singh arrived, lives in a joint family. His older brother, sister, wife and mother are cheering for him back home. His mother, in her 80s, said that Modi Sahab must listen to her kids soon. “We gave votes to Modi thinking that he is our brother, he also took votes from us by calling us sisters, then why is he doing ‘chaar sau beesi’ (trickery) with us. Modi sahab must listen to our kids,” she said.

Family members of those who are at the protest site say that they have ‘no tension’ because according to them, this is a just fight which, they firmly believe, will be won by them.

“Koi tension nahi hai sannu (There’s no tension amongst us)”, said Baljeet Kaur. Four to five houses away, at Jagroop Singh’s home, his older sister said that it is Modi who is giving them tension, and not the time spent at the morcha.

At Baras, Gurpreet Kaur said, “We are not worried about anything. All those farmers who have lost their lives at the border are martyrs for us. We don’t say they died. Death comes at home. On the battleground, it is Shahidi (martyrdom).”

At another small village called Niamian, situated closer to Mohali city, the grandchildren of Jaspal Singh Niamian who has been at the Singhu border since the last two weeks, are itching to go to Delhi.

“Je Modi ni maneya, pher mai vi jaungi morchey te (If Modi doesn’t agree, I will go to the protest too)”, said 10-year-old Yashmeen Kaur. Her younger five-year-old brother jumped into the conversation and said, “Main vi jawanga (I will go too)”. When asked why he wants to go, he said, with a toothless smile, “Oh ni pata, par jaana hai (Don’t know why, but I want to go)”.

As schools remain shut because of the coronavirus outbreak, kids – now with a lot of time and energy with them, are widely thinking and talking about the morcha. “Bachey bachey nu pata ki horeya hai (Every child knows what’s happening),” Paramjeet Kaur of BKU-Ugrahan told The Wire at Baras village.

Jaspal Singh’s granddaughter Yashmeen said, “Assi dharney di rees kardein haan, khed khed de haan, sadey dadaji nu poori support kardey han (we imitate the dharnas when we play in the neighbourhood, we are giving full support to my grand dad)”.

In Baras, Burmanjot, a 12-year-old boy, who came back from the Tikri border with his father and grandmother just a few days ago, did not shy away from saying why he was protesting. “We are protesting because we want Modi to take back the laws,” he said. The words Modi, morcha and haq (rights), are on everyone’s lips.

The months of November and December usher in the wedding season in most parts of North India. In rural Punjab, all weddings are wrapped up before December 15. This is because from December 15 till January 15, Sikhs observe ‘Shahidi’ (Martyrdom) of the four Sahibzadas (sons) of the tenth Sikh guru Gobind Singh.

But without delaying the ceremonies, the mobilisation for the protest has happened alongside. “I have been busy with my son’s wedding, so I couldn’t join my brother Jaspal at the Singhu border. Last night, we took my son’s baarat and today I’m free. I will leave for the borders as soon as possible,” said Avtar Singh Niamian who missed the presence of his brother at his son’s wedding.

The ladies in Niamian also did a ‘Jaago’ function, as it is a ritual before a Sikh wedding, where they visit one home after another singing songs and eating food. “But this time,” Avtar Singh said, “there was sloganeering against the government at the ‘Jaago’ ceremony”.

Various videos of wedding ceremonies infused with sloganeering in favour of the movement have been circulating on the internet as well. One video, which recently went viral, shows a group of singers singing ‘boliyaan’ regarding the farmers’ movement. Boliyaan or couplets are often sung at ceremonies in Punjab to express certain emotions or situations. The couplet, in this particular video, says, “Even if Modi, Modi’s father or Modi’s father’s father comes [to halt the movement], we won’t get scared.” The uprising created by the farmers’ stir has proven to be quite large and deep-rooted among masses in Punjab.

“I want to tell Modi that we are marrying our children with limited guests because of the movement. I spared only three days for my son’s wedding. But we did it nevertheless. We married off my son with farmers’ flags. I want to tell him that from now on, all our ceremonies will have sangharsh (struggle) in it, it will have flags in it,” said Gurmeet Kaur at Baras, raising her henna coloured hands.

At Baras, The Wire met around 20 women who had gathered at Gurpreet, the in-charge’s house. Their determination to win ‘the battle’ was reflected clearly in their fiery sound bytes. None of them is ready to take ‘no’ as an answer from the government on the farm bills.

“We have taken care of everything here, we take care of our homes, go to the nearby morcha daily, work on the farms as well. We cook collectively on one big tawa (griddle) and chulha (stove). If any of my sisters are not able to cook or buy home supplies, we coordinate and deliver it to each other,’ one woman said.

The participation of women in this movement can be put on a slightly higher footing than men. They have allocated equal attention to the movement and household work, including raising their children.

The anger regarding the farm bills in Punjab has been projected mainly on three people – Modi, Adani and Ambani. The challenge of the Delhi morcha, and other strikes, is directly for them. Women, men and children call the trio out in a single breath. But Avtar Singh Niamian thanked Modi for bringing the new laws and uniting Punjab like never before.

“I want to thank Modi, because he has united everyone in our village. Whatever differences we had have been put aside. Even at Punjab-level, all communities have come together”, he said. “Assi ik hor ik gyarah hogaye (One and One have made Eleven),” he added.

Unlike UP and Haryana, the police and administration in Punjab have not interfered with peaceful protests and mobilisation of farmers since the last three months. The agitation in the state will soon complete four months. To those agitating, only the repeal of the laws may justify the sacrifices they are making and the hard work they are putting in.

(Article courtesy: The Wire.)

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Human Costs High: 15 Farmers Die in Two Weeks

Courtesy: Sabrangindia

As of December 10, 2020, 15 protesting farmers sacrificed their lives while decrying the three farm laws forcibly passed by the government, reported The Tribune. The death count is akin to the number of days spent by protesters at Delhi’s Singhu border.

Among the deceased, four farmers died due to accidents while 10 people died due to heart attack and one protester, Ajay Kumar died due to hypothermia – a condition caused by exposure to extreme cold. Two of them were women. Gurmail Kaur from Chand Patti village near Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda district died after suffering a cardiac arrest while protesting at a toll barrier in Sangrur’s Kalajhar village on Tuesday. Similarly, Rajinder Kaur from Gangohar village died at the Mehal Kalan toll barrier due to a heart attack on December 7.

Similarly, many protesters suffered serious injuries while marching towards Delhi. BKU (Ugrahan) General Secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokri fractured his arm. Mahinder Kaur from Alorakh village in Sangrur district fractured her leg in an accident but she refused to return without seeing the protest to the end. Her photo was widely circulated on social media.

Despite the growing list of injuries and deaths, Kirti Kisan Union Rajinder Singh said farmers will not return to their villages until the government repeals the laws. Earlier, 15 protesting farmers died in Punjab by November 20.

In response to these deaths, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) that deals with the management of gurudwaras in northern India announced financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh to farmers’ families who lost a loved one during the protest. Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh announced financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh for two farmers’ families from Mansa and Moga districts.

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Kept Under House Arrest, Gujarat Farmers’ Leaders Disguise Themselves to Join Delhi Protests

Pawanjot Kaur

Farmer leaders from Gujarat – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state – say they have had to disguise themselves to evade heavy police surveillance and join the protests against the farm laws.

Palbhai Ambaliya, Yakub Guraji and Jayesh Patel, along with other leaders and representatives from the farmers’ unions of Gujarat, had formed an umbrella organisation called the Gujarat Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, on December 6, to mobilise support for the ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest by farmers in north India.

However, almost every leader present at the December 6 meeting was put under house arrest by the Gujarat administration to thwart any plans of protests, several of the farmers said.

While the popular narrative around the farmers’ stir has been that only Punjab and Haryana farmers are agitating against the laws but the truth is that farmers from Gujarat are not joining it because they are not being allowed to, the farmer leaders told The Wire.

Excerpts of the conversation with Palbhai Ambaliya.

Pawanjot Kaur: First, how did you escape the police?

Palbhai Ambaliya: On December 6, the Gujarat government somehow found out about our meeting which was conducted in Ahmedabad under the banner of the Gujarat Kisan Sangharsh Samiti. At the meeting, we had announced that a Kisaan Sansad programme will be held on December 11.

Before hosting the programme, we asked the government for permission, but it was rejected. Our plan was to hold the Kisan Sansad and leave for New Delhi in a rally 2,000 peasants and workers. The Sansad was scheduled to have speeches about the farmers’ issue alone. But the government didn’t grant us permission.

On top of this, from December 10 onwards, the police started arresting all farmers’ leaders one by one.

As soon as I got to know of this, I left my home at Dwaraka and made my way to Junagarh to dodge my impending arrest. I switched off my phone. Once I reached Junagarh, I switched my phone on briefly. The police managed to trace my phone somehow. I got a couple of calls from the police saying I must not leave the place.

But then I switched my phone off again. I knew which way the police were coming for me, so I took the opposite route. I went to Kutch, then from there to Gandhinagar. I navigated my way through the state while the police were chasing me.

At Junagarh, I decided to put on a disguise. I changed my hair. I usually wear a traditional dhoti but I bought a pair of jeans and a shirt and put them on. I gave my car to someone else, and got myself another car. I reached Udaipur on December 12.

Similarly, Dahyabhai Gajera, another farm leader, was under house arrest. But while the police were at his front door, he managed to escape through the backdoor with the help of his son. His son quickly dropped him off at a nearby bus stand. From there, Dahyabhai took a bus to Udaipur secretly.

As we speak, over 16 farm leaders from Gujarat are under house arrest. Not everyone has the strength to evade a police chase like this. Very few of us could do it. Despite all this, there are around 150 people who have been able to leave Gujarat so far. Some of us have reached the Delhi-Jaipur border and some are at the Singhu border.

PK: Since when have Gujarat’s farmers been vocal against the farm laws?

PA: The farmers of Gujarat have been mobilising against the ordinances since the very first day. When it became a Bill, we condemned it. When it was passed by a brute majority, we condemned it. But none of us were allowed to voice our condemnation on a larger scale.

A day before farm organisations called for a Bharat Bandh, the chief minister [Vijay Rupani] addressed the traders of Gujarat via the press to say that they must not support the farmers. The government also issued a Section 144 order. All this is being done to create an environment of fear.

PK: Why does the Gujarat government not want you at the Delhi protest site?

PA: Let me tell you the biggest fear that they have. Look at the way the government is praising the new laws that they’ve passed. They’re trying to meet people in the village to convince them of the laws. Just like this, a few years ago, the government had launched a crop insurance scheme, which was also praised like these laws are being praised.

But in Gujarat today, the entire scheme has proved to be a big failure.

The insurance companies and the government are corrupt. This scheme was also called prime minister Modi’s dream project. If it was a dream project, then why was it suspended in Gujarat? We will talk about all this at the Delhi morcha and that’s why they don’t want us to be there. The real Gujarat model will be revealed to everyone.

(Article courtesy: The Wire.)

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Farmers Fight Corporates, Free Tolls

Courtesy: Sabrangindia

Tired of the roundabout manner of treatment by the central government, farmers’ leaders at Singhu border declared boycott of all Adani and Ambani products such as Jio sim cards on December 9, 2020.

The decision was announced as part of a series of protests to condemn the three farm laws announced by the government.

Along with mobile sim cards, Reliance Jio has launched apps such as JioSaavn and smartphones like Lyf all of which will also be boycotted by farmers. After months of expressing apprehension towards potential corporate takeover, this is the first outright call against corporates by farmers.

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12 Dec 2020: Responding to the call of the farmers’ leaders to open all highway tolls leading to Delhi, Haryana farmers wholeheartedly responded to the call, over-powering toll staff and opening points from December 11 night. Dubbed the Toll Free Movement, farmers not only in Punjab but various parts of India also held protests outside toll plazas denouncing the farm laws passed by the central government.

Farmers’ organisations headed towards the Delhi-Chandigarh national highway 44 (NH44) checkpoints at Bastara in Karnal district and at Panipat district. They also laid siege to the Kaithal toll along Hisar-Chandigarh national highway (NH 152), Milk-Majra toll plaza on Panchkula-Saharanpur highway in Yamunanagar district and Gullarpur toll plaza on Assandh-Karnal highway. Later, farmers’ unions headed towards Rohtak-Makdoli toll plaza.

Concerned district administrations imposed section 144 that prohibits an assembly of four or more people. But it was blatantly ignored by police officials who did not stop farmers from opening highways. Toll personnel also did not attempt to stop protesters who resolved to keep the road open for the next 24 hours.