November 29, 2020 11:46:41 am
Sidhu was also marching with the protesters, and his discussion with security personnel on the way to Delhi went viral on social media. (Twitter / Screenshot)
Deep Sidhu, a 1984 Punjabi actor from the Muktsar district, studied law and practiced for a brief period before leaving the Bar to work on films after winning the Kingfisher Model Hunt award. Although his first film was Ramta Jogi in 2015, Sidhu became a star with the 2018 film Jora Das Numbria, in which he played the title role of a young gangster. The success of the sequel to this film was affected by the lockdown.
Sidhu is considered close to Bollywood star and Bharatiya Janta Party deputy Gurdaspur, Sunny Deol. Indeed, Deep Sidhu entered politics when Deol got BJP’s ticket to the Gurdaspur content, previously represented by actor Vinod Khanna. Deol’s campaign relied heavily on a local team, which included Sidhu, to connect with the locals.
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Deep Sidhu’s political ‘awakening’
Sidhu Jora Das Numbria-Second Chapter’s film had just been released in March 2020 when the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed. Sidhu said that during the confinement he read extensively the works of Ajmer Singh, who wrote mainly about how the history of Punjab and Sikh had been manipulated.
Sidhu’s videos on different topics, from politics to history, economics and education, started getting more views on his Facebook page during the shutdown. When protests around the Bills farm began to gain traction in Punjab, Sidhu began attending these meetings. The September 25 bandh summoned by the farmers’ bodies became a turning point when he, along with other artists and activists, summoned a dharna on the Shambu border with Haryana. The unexpected turnout of the crowd overshadowed the spectacle of farmers’ unions in the rest of the state. 📣 Express Explained is now on Telegram
Excited by the response, Sidhu soon began a permanent roadside dharna in Shambu garnering widespread media attention despite his lack of political experience. He also launched a platform together with his team to invite important leaders from different areas to come together and fight for Punjab.
Punjabi actor and farmer Deep Sidhu very aptly expresses the concerns of his fellow farmers.
Farmers are well aware that their rights are being oppressed to appease @Narendra Modi‘s Cronies!
A great respect to this son of the earth and to all the farmers who fight for their rights! pic.twitter.com/vlsQSdiHxz
– Devender Yadav (@devendrayadvinc) November 28, 2020
Contradict the farmers’ unions
With his growing popularity, most farmers’ unions, especially the far-left Bhartiya Kisan Union Ugrahan body, saw Sidhu as a threat to their agenda and claimed that he was using his stardom to divert attention from the real issue.
As Sidhu repeatedly spoke about how the problem was not limited to MSP and had to be viewed in the context of the federal structure and the existence of Punjab, the farmers’ bodies showed their photos with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sunny Deol to claim a BJP-RSS hand in hand in your diary. Sidhu, however, denied these accusations and said he was fighting for a broader issue.
While most unions Deciding not to break through the barricades placed by the Haryana government to advance towards Delhi as part of the so-called ‘Delhi Chalo’, Sidhu joined the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur) to break through the barricades on the Shambu border. This forced other unions to move to Delhi as well. Sidhu was also marching with the protesters, and his discussion with security personnel on the way to Delhi went viral on social media.
Sidhu’s videos on different topics, from politics to history, economics and education, started getting more views on his Facebook page during the shutdown. (Source: Facebook / Deep Sidhu)
Not shy to quote Bhindranwale
In his public meetings, Deep Sidhu is known to often quote Martin Luther King and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. His speeches are oriented around the demand for more rights for the states to strengthen the federal structure under the Indian constitution. He has also claimed that while Punjab struggled to strengthen India’s federal structure in the 1970s and 1980s, the narrative of the state machinery misinterpreted this Punjab “struggle”.
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