Identical signs painted in red ink on a white background caution visitors from accessing two adjacent sides of the Ghazipur border. But each seeks to convey a different meaning as the farmers’ protest nears the three-month mark.
One has been placed on police barricades beyond which layers of security arrangements and razor wire seek to box farmers in. The other has been placed by farmers on a makeshift, mini garden they created last week in response to, and in peaceful defiance of, these very arrangements.
Protected by green fencing on all sides, the small patch of land — which they dug up, added soil brought from various villages, and sowed potatoes, sugarcane, and flowers — serves as a symbol of all arable land in the country that they take turns to water and cultivate.
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“Police have used the sign to warn us against moving towards the Capital, which they want to protect through all these barricades and sharp wires. Our sign is to ward off the evil eye of corporates and the ill wishes of the government,” said Meghraj Malik, a farmer from Meerut.
Peace lovers
“Farmers are peaceful by nature. The government does what it does best by pointing guns at us and we reply the only way we know how to – by tilling the soil. Our answer will become louder with every inch the crops grow,” said Om Prakash Awana from Kasna in Uttar Pradesh.
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As the noonday sun grows hotter by the day, efforts beyond rotational participation are being made to make the farmers feel as less inconvenienced as possible.
In addition to setting up more surface-level roadside tenements where the elderly can rest and increasing the number of bathing sites, water is being provided even at medical camps. Oranges too are being distributed to keep participants hydrated.
“It is not that farmers aren’t used to the heat. We face all kinds of weather head-on in the fields. But the elderly need to be taken proper care of wherever they are,” said Ishwarchand Bidhuri from Dasna as he proceeded to hammer a nail onto two bamboo stalks to prepare a resting camp.
“Days are getting hotter and summer is not even here yet; but no matter what happens, we will not cede an inch till the three black laws are repealed by the Centre,” he added.