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.