At the Singhu border, farmers remain undeterred even as the temperatures drop, with several of the those protesting at the site for over a month now re-asserting that they are ready for the long haul and are even prepared to spend Lohri at the border itself with the “extended family”.
With Lohri being a much celebrated festival among farmers, those camping at the capital’s borders said that “fighting for their rights” was the need of the hour.
Sukhwinder Singh, a farmer from Punjab’s Jalandhar district, said, “In the past month, I have visited my wife and daughters just twice. Even a new year has now started with us sitting in the same place where we were a month back. If the Prime Minister does not accept our demands then we’ll celebrate here, at the border itself.”
“All these people over here are our brothers. So why not celebrate with this new family that we have made out here?” said Mr. Singh.
Accompanying Mr. Singh, another farmer Manjeet Singh added, “We trust god and definitely much more than the PM. We have enough reinforcements to last us a year if need be. So we are in no rush. Whenever he [the PM] agrees to our demands we’ll leave.”
While there is “sadness” among the farmers, one will not find “despair”, said Kulwinder Singh, a farmer from Punjab’s Rupnagar district.
“Even though we are sad and worried, you won’t see despair on any face out of the thousands that are present here. The women folk back home are experts in operating tractors, tending to the fields, and so our farms are very well taken care of in this period. The government is getting all the more bothered due to this because we are happily standing on our ground. Now that we’ve endured so much, we’ll show them how we can celebrate our festivals here itself. When the issue is about what we deserve, we can go to any extent to fight for it,” said Mr. Singh.
Kesar Singh, a farmer from Fatehgarh Sahib, added, “We are not moving from here unless the black laws are removed and we are ready to last it out for as long as it takes. Now that a festival is also around the corner, we will see what to do. Either spend it apart from family members or maybe ask them to join us over here. But there’s no going back.”
