Jaswinder Kaur, 42, clad in a typical Punjabi-style salwar-kameez, has come to mark her presence on the daily attendance register. May 20 has dawned with an overcast morning and she is at a pucca morcha (permanent protest site) set up by farmers against the Centre’s controversial new farm laws at the Dhareri Jattan toll plaza in Punjab’s Patiala district. This has been her drill for the past six months. The threat from the resurgent pandemic has not dampened her spirits. She is in “chardi kala (high spirits),” she says.
Three days earlier, Jaswinder returned to her village, Daun Kalan in Patiala, after spending six days at different protest sites, including Singhu and Tikri on the Delhi-Haryana border and Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh. She says she participates in all events related to the farmers’ struggle, be it a protest rally, picketing at toll plazas, blocking roads or railway tracks, opposing political leaders who support the contentious laws, or visiting protest sites on the Delhi border.
A group of women protesting at Dhareri Jattan toll plaza in Punjab’s Patiala
“I returned from the Delhi border on May 17 along with a group of 250 women from my village. This was my 11th trip to Delhi in the past six months. I’ll keep going to the Delhi border till the black farm laws are withdrawn. All of us — men, women and children — have prepared ourselves to struggle even if it goes on till 2024, when the next Parliamentary elections are due or even beyond,” says Jaswinder, as she joins the group shouting slogans against the farm laws and the BJP government.
Tens of thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at Delhi’s borders for over six months now, demanding a repeal of the three laws enacted by the Centre last year. The government claims the laws will end farmers’ woes, but the farmers are far from convinced.
Permanent protest sites
It is that time of the year when the wheat harvest is almost over. And farmers are preparing their fields for paddy. But the air in the country’s grain bowl is rife with resistance.
In Punjab, farmers have been stationed at permanent protest sites at toll plazas since last October. They have not allowed the authorities to collect any charges from commuters. Likewise, at the Dhareri Jattan toll plaza, while the men continuously camp on-site, the women participing in the dharna ensure that the fire in the daily langar (community kitchen) keeps burning.
A group of women cooking food for ‘langar’ in Daun Kalan, Patiala
Surinder Kaur, 65, says she has lost faith in the government. “Farmers have been betrayed. I’ll keep fighting even if it costs me my life. We will together make them listen to us. If the government is under any illusion that the agitation will lose its momentum, then I must tell them that Punjabis, especially Punjabi women, are capable of fighting for their rights with all our strength,” she says. She pauses, then shouts “ Sadda haq aithe rakh (It’s our right, give it here)”.
The anguish against the government and the new laws is most palpable in Punjab, which has emerged as the battleground of the resistance. Even after losing her son recently, Jaswant Kaur, 65, stands firmly with the protesters. “My son went to Singhu to participate in the agitation. He died on March 18, two days after his return from the protest site. I am devastated by his death, but I’ll continue to fight as it will be a tribute to his sacrifice. I am ready to march to Delhi and participate in rallies there; whatever our leaders decide I am willing to obey,” says Jaswant, who owns two acres of land and whose other two sons are daily-wage workers.
Narender Kaur, 60, a cancer survivor, asserts that she will fight the government with the same zeal that she defeated cancer with, and that it’s time for her to “crush the ego of the Centre”. “I fought cancer with all my might. I am not afraid of COVID-19, in fact none of us are. We are all united in our fight and will continue the agitation till the laws are repealed,” she says.
From organising rallies, picketing at toll plazas and opposing political leaders to collecting funds and cooking the langar, tens of thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, are keeping up their protest against the new farm laws
“Autocratic” Centre
At the Dhareri Jattan toll plaza, Surinder Pal Singh has been participating in the pucca morcha for nearly eight months now and is irked by the “autocratic” attitude of the Centre. The gatherings at the toll plazas have thinned a bit since the agitation begun last year, but Surinder explains why. “The first reason,” says Surinder, “is COVID-19; as cases have started to rise, we have been taking precautions to keep everyone safe. We are following the guidelines of local administration. We have requested people in villages to come to the protest site in small numbers and sign the attendance register, spend a little time and then leave,” he says. Second, he says, the farmers were busy harvesting their wheat crop. Now that harvest is done, several batches are returning to Delhi’s borders.
“We are fighting on two fronts: one against COVID-19 and the other against the government,” says Surinder. “Safety and struggle, both will carry on. The momentum of the agitation will never go down because people from different sections of society are supporting it. Everyone abides by the directions from Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM),” he says. SKM is an umbrella body of farmer unions, and it is spearheading the protest.
Disturbed that no discussions were held with farmer bodies before the laws were enacted, Jagwant Singh, 68, who retired from the Army as a Naik, questions the government’s intention behind its decision. “The government claims that the farmers are happy. I want to ask, why are they agitating then? Now, in the garb of COVID-19, the government is attempting to weaken our struggle. They should understand that the struggle is not just a dharna (sit-in), it’s a morcha (a front). Fronts are set up by soldiers, and they don’t retreat until the battle is won,” says Jagwant, who has travelled to Delhi protest sites on at least three occasions.
Farmer leader Gurmeet Singh Dittupur, of the Krantikari Kisan Union, says the agitation will surely be successful because it has now become a mass movement. “The agitation is being led by people and not by leaders. Every section of society is supporting our struggle, everyone has understood the government’s intention, which is to corporatise agriculture. It is because of the agitation that the implementation of the laws had to be stopped.”
Members of Bhartiya Kisan Union boil milk during their protest against Centre's farm reform laws, in Patiala
Farmers and others from the villages of Punjab are returning to the protest sites near Delhi in small groups. They stay for a week or more, then return, yielding place to a new batch. The protest follows a disciplined process of continuous rotation of numbers. “The key to our success is the people’s support and the peaceful nature of the movement,” says Gurmeet.
Fighting for the future
While the frontline is Delhi’s borders, the women, youth and children in Punjab are strongly holding on and passing the baton. Women from Dhareri Jattan toll plaza head to their village, Daun Kalan, in the afternoon, but their job is is far from done. “I usually get up at four in the morning and after I finish the household work, I head for the toll plaza with other women from the village to participate in the dharna . When we return, we get together in the evening. We divide our work — collecting funds, grains, vegetables, milk and other items from the village — and then prepare the food to be served at the protest site,” says Rajender Kaur. Rajender also works in her field, taking care of her crop — “which is what this entire struggle is about,” as she says.
Rajender’s son Jaskaran, who studies in Class XII, says that whenever his parents are at the protest, he takes care of the house. “They are fighting for my future, so I ought to stand firmly by their side,” he says.
As groups of farmers move towards the capital, Zohra Singh, 50, is on a solo trip on foot to the Singhu protest site. With a green turban wrapped around his head and a flag in his hand, Zohra says he started his journey from his village Dharamkot in Moga district on May 17, and it will take four or five days to reach the Singhu protest site. “The government says the agitation is losing steam, but I want people to know that the agitation is neither over nor is it losing momentum.” Zohra has visited the protest sites near Delhi five times on tractor-trolleys and buses, “but this time I planned to walk.”
On the Amritsar-Delhi National Highway, at the Shambhu border between Punjab and Haryana, a group of farmers heading to Singhu have gathered by the roadside for a break. They are part of a batch of farmers who started a ‘vehicle march’ from Tarn Taran district under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC), an outfit at the forefront of the agitation. “We started our march on tractor-trolleys, cars, vans, and buses to Delhi from Tarn Taran in the morning. We are a batch of around 185 vehicles with close to 1,700 people,” says Sukhwinder Singh Sabhra, a senior leader of KMSC.
“This is the country’s second freedom movement,” says Sukhwinder. “It is going to be tough but we are confident. We will see it through to the end.”
