Updated: December 3, 2020 9:47:18 pm
Demonstrators with banners at the Singhu border on December 2 (Express photo: Yashee)
The first thing that strikes you at the Singhu border of New Delhi, where farmers have gathered in protest, is the large number of people. About 300 are sitting in one place, listening to a speech, their colorful turbans and loose beards ensure that they do not melt into a mass but stand out as hundreds of people. Follow LIVE updates from the farmers’ protest
There are rows and rows of langar that are served. Tall and older men walk around, serving rotis and daal. There are flags around, from agricultural unions, leftist unions and the Tricolor. Very often, there are slogans of “Inquilaab zindaabad, kisaan ekta zindabad, kisaan majdoor chhatra ekta zindabaad. “
This is the crowd in just one section of the protest site. (Express photo: Yashee)
Dozens of tractors are parked, serving as temporary homes, where people doze, chat, drink tea. In one corner there are piles of potatoes, cauliflowers, tomatoes. There is even a horse, standing proudly beside the crowd of humanity.
“Does it seem like a group that will be going home in a few days?” asks Baljeet Singh, a farmer from Khanna in Punjab. “We are here for the long term. We will stay here as long as it takes for this government to realize that it cannot ignore the voices it does not like. “
The protest against agricultural laws on the Singhu border and other Delhi borders comes months after a similar indefinite protest within the national capital: Shaheen Bagh revolts against CAA-NRC, which made headlines around the world and finally broke after almost three months due to Covid-19. There are similarities – and very crucial differences – about the atmosphere at the two protest sites.
The tractors serve as temporary homes for the protesters. (Express photo: Yashee)
As in Shaheen Bagh, in Singhu, people are emphatic that they love the country, respect the Constitution, and protest just because they feel their constitutional rights are being violated. But if Shaheen Bagh had the grim determination of one last stand, Singhu’s farmers are more optimistic.
Kuljit Singh Bhinder, owner of agricultural land in Moga in Punjab, sums it up when he says: “The central government believes that it can move forward with any movement it wants. This time, he has faced the farmers. We will not violate any laws, we will continue to be non-violent, but we will show them that we are not easy prey. “
Also common in Shaheen Bagh is anger that the government seems to think that people are “cheated” and “don’t understand” the laws.
Gurjot Singh, a Khanna university professor whose family are farmers, says: “The BJP really needs to stop assuming that we are all gullible enough to be fooled by their political opponents. They say that farmers do not understand how the laws will affect them. In Punjab, nothing but these laws has been discussed for the past two months. This protest in New Delhi did not arise overnight. People have had time to read and understand the laws and also to study the reaction of the government. It is the central government that did not understand how upset the farmers were when we protested only in Punjab. “
Read also | Talks with the Center: When the wheat planting is finished, the farmers have free time to continue the agitation
Suroop Singh, a farmer from Patiala, agrees. “The activists from the farmers’ unions have been going from town to town for months, explaining these laws to the people. We are not stupid. We would not leave our homes and families behind if we were not convinced. ” Jai Singh, another farmer from Jind in Haryana, adds: “Now they are talking about explaining these laws to us, when we have turned up by the thousands on the borders of the capital. Haryana has a BJP government. Why didn’t the BJP and MLA leaders enlighten us earlier? “
A volunteer-run field of medicine. While farmers didn’t complain, volunteers said many have developed coughs, colds and joint pains. (Express photo: Yashee)
Another common characteristic of Shaheen Bhag and Singhu is the feeling that what the government says cannot be trusted, because their actions speak differently.
In Shaheen Bagh, protesters would agree that the text of the law sought to grant citizenship to minorities, but his fears arose from other statements made by all the top BJP leaders. In Singhu, Uday Pratap Singh, an advocate for the Punjab and Haryana High Court, says: “If the laws are really as beneficial to farmers as the Center claims, why did they rush to pass Parliament in such a clever way? Why mention an ordinance first and then pass it in Rajya Sabha by voice vote? How can we trust the government’s belated assurances on farm laws when it outright favors large corporations? “
Daljeet Singh, a farmer from Moga, says: “The whole country saw how the central government tried to paralyze Punjab by blocking the trains. Now do you want us to trust them? The president does not agree with the agricultural laws of Punjab. The BJP’s own ally, SAD, could not get them to listen. How can we ordinary people trust them? “
They are aware of the negative things that are said about them. Union Minister VK Singh has said that not all those protesting “appear to be farmers”. Social media was in an uproar for days by an “English-speaking farmer.”
In the langars, people who are not participating in the protest can also join. Away from the langar, people walk around distributing jaggery and bananas to everyone. (Express photo: Yashee)
“The ecosystem on the right seems to think of people as stick figures, cartoons,” says Simranjeet Singh, a farmer from Fatehgarh Sahib. “How exactly is a farmer supposed to be? No one, Muslims, farmers, farm laborers, is the narrowest one-dimensional definition of their identity. Maybe the warriors of social media need to go out and meet some protesters, so they understand the many things that an individual can be, all at once. “
And this is where the main difference with Shaheen Bagh comes into play. In Singhu, farmers can afford to be more frivolous than Shaheen Bagh about the criticism they receive. And they are aware of it. Simranjeet continues: “I have friends in Jamia. They were at Shaheen Bhagh. Shaheen Bhagh had the pressure of being a lesson in civics and morals at the same time. The right wing will have to work harder to turn us into villains. We are aware of the privilege that it is. We have people with kirpaans, armed nihangs walking around. No armed person could have roamed Shaheen Bagh … “
Nihangs of Jathedar Baba Maan Singh 96 crori Baba Budha Dal at the protest site. (Express photo: Yashee)
Therefore, the atmosphere here is more relaxed, less pressed against the wall. “People listen to songs in Punjabi at night. They play with cards. If Shaheen Bagh did the same, they would be labeled hikers who commute to work because they like to create problems, ”says Gurpreet Kaur, a student at the University of Delhi who did not travel here with farmers, but visits to express solidarity. “I also visited Shaheen Bagh. Here the Center is already talking to farmers. In Shaheen Bagh, all the government did was kill them at noon at night. The people there had the anguish of a land they suddenly loved and tried to be something else that farmers don’t have, ”he says. “However,” he adds.
Says Simranjeet: “While identity in Singhu is not the complicated minefield that it was in Shaheen Bagh, I believe that both protest sites have the same message: we the people have brains and voice, and a democratic government must respect both. “.
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