Parvesh sharma
Tribune news service
Sangrur, November 30
Farmers fight Central’s farm laws not only on the ground, but also in the virtual world, and that too with equal success. They are using social media tools quite efficiently and have been able to neutralize attempts made online to smear them and their protest.
“Most of the farmers are illiterate, but we have trained them to go live, hit the Like and Share buttons on Facebook. We have 1.13 lakh followers on our Facebook page, of which 65,000 were added during the turmoil. Every time someone tries to defame us, we post our message on the WhatsApp group of our organizations and the farmers start working. In a matter of minutes, the message reaches everyone, “said Parminder Singh, who runs the Facebook page of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan).
Like other organizations, the BKU (Ugrahan) has also created a special social media team. Whenever there is a negative campaign against protesting farmers, the response goes viral from individual farmers’ users on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp groups. Farmers also set out to counter the narrative. All this is done without a laptop, but with smartphones.
“We are using Facebook and WhatsApp for the first time. We continue to check for updates even as we listen to our leaders’ speeches, ”Harjeet Singh, a farmer from the Tikri border, said by phone.
Farm organizations have created district and state WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages where they constantly upload speeches by their leaders, news clippings and stories that are broadcast on television channels.
“Whenever our agitation is made fun of, the online reaction of farmers crushes those nefarious designs. Lakhs of farmers here and in Punjab are ready to give more adequate answers, ”says Manjit Gharachon, BKU Ugrahan leader from the Tikri border.
Many more farmers are quickly learning skills online. “I learned to use WhatsApp and YouTube and now I am learning to use Facebook. It’s a great way to spread the word and be heard, ”says Niranjan Singh Dohla, Secretary of State, BKU (Rajewal) of the New Delhi border.
