Day 346

Toll 661

Narnaund

The Haryana Samyukt Kisan Morcha has decided that Hisar district must file an FIR against BJP MP Ram Chander Jangra and his associates for seriously injuring a protestor Kuldeep Singh Rana yesterday. Rana is still in ICU and has not be declared out of danger. While the three farmers – Harshdeep Gill, Kailash and Sudhir – arrested by Haryana police were let go the day before, the farmers demand that the FIR against them be withdrawn.

Right now, thousands of farmers have been on a sit-in in front of the Narnaund police station and if the administration does not comply with their demands, they will gherao the Hisar Superintendent of Police tomorrow. Meanwhile, injured farmer Rana’s wife will shortly file a case against administration for grievously injuring her husband and MP Jangra for inciting violence.

While unseasonal rains and government’s callousness did affect paddy procurement, there is still a severe DAP fertiliser crises, many farmers are returning to the protest sites.

Meanwhile, at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, at Glasgow, Scotland hundreds marched against the Indian government’s draconian Farm Laws. British MP Claudia Webbe has been tweeting the farmers’ demands.

Day 345

Toll 659

Haryana

BJP-JJP might have won elections in Haryana but right now they are extremely unpopular on the ground. Their self-respect, if any, is in their own hands. Yet, they continue to invite humiliation.

On Diwali day, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala wanted to visit his party office in Jind. The administration set up 3 layers of police cordon and deployed 800 police personnel. Yet, irate farmers including a large number of women farmers held their black flag protest. Chautala was forced to cancel his visit. The 2-hour tense stand-off ended only after Dushyant Chautala left without being able to come to his office.

A few days back, Rajya Sabha BJP MP from Haryana Ram Chander Jangra called protestors ‘jobless alcoholics and drunkards’. On Diwali, when he came to take part in a Diwali event in a Gowshala in Meham, he faced a black flag protest on Meham-Julana Road. Jangra and associates had to reach the venue in an unidentifiable vehicle to avoid the wrath of the local farmers.

Yesterday, farmers assembled in Narnaund and at Mayyad Toll Plaza to protest against Jangra. In the ensuing lathi charge by police, 7 farmers were injured. The condition of one of the farmers Kuldeep Singh Rana in Jindal Hospital ICU is critical. The farmers gheraoed Narnaund Police Station in Hisar district demanding arrested protestors be released unconditionally. The stand off ended when farmers were released.

Yesterday, the PM went to Kedarnath. The event was being relayed live on TV. BJP leaders in Haryana decided to view the visit at a temple in Kiloi village of Rohtak district. Protesting farmers gheraoed these leaders. Stand off ended last night with farmers releasing the leaders.

BJP-JJP needs to realise the farmers will not relent. It is better if they stop provoking the farmers and actually conduct a dialogue as their state CM Khattar has suddenly started advocating.

Day 344

Toll 658

Light

As darkness spreads over India, the farmers hold on to light. Their protest has become part of everyday life and important rituals in north India. When my Bhua (father’s sister) passed away last February, at her daughter Minni Jaspreet Kaur’s home in village Chaklan, the Antim Ardas, final prayers, included supplication for the farmers on protest.

In Sikh families, actually other communities too, at weddings, there is a tradition of the groom carrying the sword. In the course of the protests – since they are avowedly non-violent – grooms carry the farmers’ flag. Earlier this year, we learnt, Gajjan Singh – the Indian Army sepoy who died in Poonch – had carried the farmers’ flag to his wedding. It has become customary for couples to marry with the flag, collect funds for the protests, and come to the Morchas to pay homage and offer the collected money. Two days back, Manpreet Kaur and Harjot Sangha, who got married on October 18, paid obeisance at the Singhu border and received blessings from the farmers.

The SKM had made a call to light lamps in memory of the slain farmers in the protest. My timeline is full of diyas and candles at farm wells and parapets of homes and open spaces. No one burst crackers. This is how the protests have now become part of people’s culture.

However, last night at Singhu there was a big fire incident. Hutments are inflammable and they caught fire quickly. Witnesses are testifying that it was a deliberate attempt to not only set fire to hutments but also a nearby temple and spark riots. So many arson incidents at the borders have now pushed farmers to be ready with hoses and fire extinguishers. The farmers controlled the fire. Luckily the huts were empty. Once again the dark designs of the conspirators failed.

While farmers have incorporated the protests into their way of life, the relentless forces of darkness do not cease. Instead of minister Teni resigning, two more farmers have been arrested in Lakhimpur Kheri. We can see in the tussle between light and darkness, who stands where. May there be light.

Day 341

Toll 655

Flanks

Ideally, home is a place that gives us a sense of security. We might not have our home fully secured but we trust the environment around the home, the system in place, to not transgress our privacy, to let us be. Fort is a home we have secured through moats and walls and defence systems because we know forts are under attack. The enemy will want to transgress and we will need to hold up.

The farmers on Delhi’s borders live in makeshift homes – tents, trolleys, straw huts. Since no permanent structures are allowed, and from the farmers’ side the struggle with the government is non-violent, they have not built forts. What they have are Morchas – Fronts. Over the last 11 months, these Morchas have been under immense attacks by both the weather and miscreants.

Where there have been chilly winter, icy winter rains, there have also been scorching summers and monsoon floods. The farmers have dealt with them, constantly reconfiguring their dwellings. There have also been many cases of infiltration, of miscreants setting farmer tents on fire, of them found at the protest sites with propaganda material, and so on. The government, which is supposed to provide a secure environment, has been assaulting the farmers all these months.

Now, with the opening of barricades, entire flanks of the Morchas are fully exposed. As the roads run in Singhu and Ghazipur, as two wheelers and small ambulances are allowed at Tikri, 24/7, we can only dread the potential increase on the number of attacks. The incidents of arson. The assault by the government’s miscreants.

Do you see what I see?

When farmers came last November, Delhi folks flocked to the protest sites. Many partook lovely langars and gifts of almonds and glasses of hot thick milk. Then when government dug nails in the roads, Delhi folks stopped coming. Now the nails are off, barricades are removed, will people flock again?

It is through people expressing solidarity, that the protests will succeed. The government games have been to isolate protests, the peoples’ move should be to stand with them, secure them. Will Delhi stand by the protests?

How many are planning visits please? Welcome!

Day 340

Toll 655

Lines

When there is a line – which either someone has drawn or we ourselves have drawn – we engage with the line. We either confirm to the line, let it regulate us, or we push the line, try to break the line. But the real challenge begins when there is no line. For a few days now, with the police removing the barricades at the protest sites, the line that in many ways regulated the farmers protest has all but vanished. This brings the protest into a new phase.

On November 9th, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha is going to hold a meeting to assess how to deal with the new status quo. Meanwhile, there are other lines, life lines, that the government is bent on breaking. These are lines of support from the international diaspora. Other nation states, even if they disagree, have to comply with international protocols. All this under the guise that the protests are anti-India.

The state has now started moving against the protests by targeting the supporters from the Diaspora. Recently, the government has started cancelling NRI supporters’ Overseas Indian Citizen (OIC) cards and long-term visas. In the last few days, two prominent NRIs were sent back from Delhi airport. There are possibilities of students who want to migrate for studies – a preferred way because of the nearly absolute lack of opportunities in Panjab – being blocked from leaving.

For Panjab, this method by the government is a reminder of the infamous Black Lists the government prepared after Operation Blue Star. Many NRIs were put on these Black Lists and were barred from coming to India. It took decades to get names removed from the Black Lists. Now the government has started another Black List.

The question really is: what is India? Is it the land, the people, or the government? The infinitely powerful state assumes it is the government. That is its mistake.

Actually, Diaspora support to the protests has come down since the events of January 26th. No doubt whatever support comes is critical but the fact is most of the protest is being sustained locally, through the resolve and resourcefulness of the protesters and support lines from their villages. How will the government snap those lines?

Once again, the government shows that it only knows high-handedness, not humility. History is witness: powerful, arrogant states, who believe too much in their own powers, do fall.

Day 338

Toll 650

Demolishing Barricades

Yesterday morning news that police was demolishing barricades at Tikri-Bahadurgarh, Ghazipur, Singhu, gave rise to some questions in my mind. Why now? Why at this point? Is it solely on Supreme Court orders? Each of the three morchas, and Shahjahanpur as well, are very different from each other in character, formation and even physical organisation. How wise is it for administration to carry out the same move at all places? Finally, what is hidden here because, you see, with this government and its administration there is always an ulterior move.

To recap: barricades on the protest sites came up last November 27 when farmers were advancing towards Delhi. Farmers had broken barricades in Haryana and reached Delhi to go to Ramlila grounds. When government had instead offered the Burari ground, the farmers had refused it because it was an enclosure. They knew para-military could surround them and snap their life lines to Haryana, Panjab, west Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and so on. They decided to camp on the roads to Delhi.

In the absence of conscience in the government, the only way a non-violent protest can succeed is if it cuts the government life lines. The farmers occupied one side of the roads at all sites. The locals at all sites cooperated. Of course, no one imagined the protests will last 11 months. Plus, after January 26th, the police reinforced the barricades with concrete walls, concertina wires, even nails on ground. The question is who was the barricades for? Farmers were camped. Delhi folks used to visit, which they stopped. Farmers had kept roads open for locals but now locals were blocked.

The locals have been cooperating throughout these 11 months. Some random folks, from Noida, have been petitioning the courts. Notice, Noida route is not even blocked. Courts have held that farmers have a right to protest but road blocks are not right. Farmers understand this and have maintained that it is police, not them, who has barricaded the whole road. Once up, the barricades have served as a line between farmers and administration. While on the state site police is reinforced; on the other side of the barricades, the farmers have set up their tents, langars and so on. The barricades also serve as a no mans land. While all protests are manned day and night by volunteers against miscreants, the barricades serve as a bit of an assurance that unless it is administration’s design, police won’t allow miscreants to infiltrate.

Now suddenly, after a ghastly accident two days back in which three women were crushed by a dumper truck, yesterday the police suddenly decided to demolish the barricades. Ghazipur welcomed the move to open the road under the flyover. Singhu welcomed the move because they had earlier also opened one side of the road during the pandemic oxygen crises. At Tikri-Bahadurgarh the farmer leaders asked for some time from administration to cooperate with administration and vacate the side of the road they want to open. In a meeting, yesterday afternoon, administration agreed to wait until after a farmers’ meeting on November 6th.

Yet, last night, around 8.35 pm, administration suddenly pressed JCBs into action to fully demolish the multi-level barricades at Tikri. BKU Dakaunda leader Buta Singh Burj Gill was on the spot. He and some other farmers lay down on the road to stop the JCBs. Soon, more farmers came and the administration move failed. The farmers held a night vigil.

Even demolishing barricades has turned into a nasty game. The government’s intention has turned suspicious. Certainly, the government and its administration is not interested in the locals. What psychological game does it intend to play by removing barricades? Does it want to provoke protesters? Does it want to incite and stir the protests so cadre starts demanding a march to Delhi? Then use that as an alibi for armed action.

Pictures: Internet and Kisan Morcha

Posted on October 28, 2021

Day 336

Toll 647

Accident

Tragically, this morning at Tikri border, 3 ladies were crushed to death by a speeding truck. The ladies were sitting on the road divider waiting for an auto to take them to the Bahadurgarh railway station. They had been at Tikri for a few days and were returning to their village Dyalu Wala Khiwa in Mansa district.

The deceased are:

Amarjeet Kaur w/o Harjeet Singh
Gurmel Kaur w/o Bhola Singh
Sukhwinder Kaur w/o Bhan Singh

Injured:

Gurmel Kaur w/o Mehar Singh
Harmeet Kaur w/o Gurtej Singh

Age of all of them is around 50-55.

Driver is absconding. The irony of cow feeding calf on the truck.

Picture: Gurpreet Kotli

Day 335

Toll 644

Asthi Kalash

The greatest disservice to anyone who dies is that the state does not acknowledge the death. This apathy is almost endemic in India – farmer labour suicides, those killed in armed actions, now-a-days those who even died due to lack of medical support in the pandemic. Our turning away from death has become so casual but it is in this denial that I see the erosion of the nation.

That is why, when at the final rights of the four farmers and one journalist mowed down by BJP minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son Ashish Mishra Monu, SKM decided that the remains of dead will travel to distant parts of the country for immersion, I wondered about the move – was it to lend a certain sanctity to the 11 month long farmers protest?

Over the last few days, the Asthi Kalash have reached different parts of the country: Saharanpur, Chennai, Sonepat, Vedaranyam, Mansa, Paonta Sahib, Jalandhar, Khatkar Kalan, Ullundurpet, Bathinda, Deoria, Gorakhpur, Virudhunagar, Dindigul, Angul, Haldibari, Vijayawada, Prakasam, Guntur, Vishakapatnam, Bhubaneswar, and many other towns away from mainstream and even social media.

These urns carry not only the ashes of those slain in the dastardly act but also the embers that singe the police system, the judicial system, and the political system of the nation. Everyone who sees the urns sees that not only Teni is still minister, the SIT in charge has been transferred, Monu is now in hospital, some arrests have been made but darkly ironically two farmers Bachitar Singh and Gurvinder Singh have also been arrested. Why are these farmers arrested? For the crime of being on the road on which Monu drove recklessly?

The Asthi Kalash is becoming the thread that strings the whole country in their disenchantment with the regime. Nothing the regime can do will turn back the tide now. This is the curse of the dead.

Pictures: SKM and AJ Singh

Posted October 25, 2021

Day 333

Toll 641

Fertiliser

In the method of farming glorified as Green Revolution, farmers have become increasingly dependent on fertilisers. Recently a newspaper reported that India has a huge shortage of fertilisers. Especially, DAP – Diammonium phosphate. Last year India needed 5023 thousand tonnes, this year only 2075 thousand tonnes is available. It is the same for Urea, NPKS, MOP.

Modi government, on October 12, approved an increase in the subsidy on DAP from Rs 24,231 to Rs 33,000 per tonne, besides that on three NPKS complexes. The decision was taken to make it viable for fertiliser firms to import and also stop them from raising maximum retail prices (MRP) too sharply, especially given the upcoming state elections. But what do we do when we still do not have supplies?

Two days back, in Lalitpur, UP a farmer Bhogilal Pal died because he had been standing in queue for two days and fell from exertion, later heart attack. The district has around 3 lakh hectares of cultivable land. Last year, in the month of October and November, around 32,000 metric tonnes of fertilisers were consumed in Lalitpur. Sources said the district had stocks of 19,000 metric tonnes, but was struggling to meet demand following the rain last week. Out of the total 270 shops in the district, just around 150 are functional.

Two days back, facing acute shortage, in Ateli market, Mahendergarh district, desperate farmers looted fertilisers from the government godowns. The idea is: make the farming conditions so bad that farmers just quit the profession. This is what this government has done to self-respecting, seemingly sovereign farmers.

Video: Kisan Morcha