Day 68

Toll 192

#FarmersProtest

Optics of Barricades

We all woke up to the story and pictures in The Telegraph of barricades coming up at the protest sites Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur. They are ominous. Right from Day 1, the protests have evoked in me memories of Operation Blue Star and the anti-Sikh pogrom in 1984. We know what blunders they were but they also showed us how the Sikhs were othered and isolated in this nation – barricaded. Naturally, these barricades reopen that memory.

However, we must notice that this time, as Singhu shook after January 26th, Ghazipur came up in much greater strength. We must note that Shahjahanpur has consolidated. We must know that Tikait averted an ’84 at Ghazipur on January 28th night. These are our gains, not only as Sikhs, but as farmers, as citizens. These are gains against an arrogant, authoritarian regime based not on democracy but populist dictatorship.

First time in 7 years, the protests are against the arrogance of the regime that remained unopposed when it enacted demonetization that knocked of the poor, GST that knocked off the traders, Kashmir that knocked off our moral compass, Citizenship Bill that knocked off our natural rights, Coronavirus lockdown that pushed more than 3 crore migrants workers to walk back home hundreds of kilometers from the cities which they built and where they lived, and much more. The farmers are not only fighting for their lands against corporate takeover. Through this fight the farmers are fighting to preserve the Constitution that the regime has upturned. It is a fight for India.

Coming back to barricades. I am reminded of June 1, 1984 when, a few days before Operation Blue Star, CRPF took position around Darbar Sahib and fired for 11 hours. Later, Lt Gen Brar, who led the Operation, wrote in his book that the intention was to assess the strength of the militants inside the Darbar Sahib Complex. What does that tell us about these barricades?

The role of a barricade is to isolate. But any barricade has two sides. In this case the protest sites and the people of Delhi. Notice, the backs of all these protest sites are open – Singhu to Murthal and beyond, Tikri to Pakoda Chowk and beyond, Ghazipur to UP. I just checked with people on ground. They tell me hundreds of tractors and trollies, carrying youth and women, are arriving at all sites. Many more from Haryana than Panjab. The josh, enthusiasm, on ground is high. No one is worried about barricades. In fact, there is a bit of a relief that Sanghi goons might not be able to enter easily.

That tells us that if the intention of barricades was to scare farmers, it has failed. If it was to prevent the people of Delhi from reaching the protest sites, it is now up to the people of Delhi. The government, which failed to asses the might of the protesters on January 26th, knows it cannot ever measure it, now wants to assess the might of the people of Delhi.

At the same time, Internet connections at sites are downed from time to time, twitter accounts of Tractor2Twitter, Caravan India, Kisan Ekta Morcha, and many others are suspended. As I said yesterday, would each of us, without up-to-date knowledge, remain resolute in pushing for repeal of Farm Laws and legalising MSP? That is what the optics of barricades are assessing.

This is flexing of muscles to check if we, the citizens of India, will get scared by trenches, concrete blocks, long nails, concertina wires. Keep your nerves. No one can say anything about an armed attack, but the question is: does the government want to earn infamy like the government in 1984? The farmers know what they are doing, do we know what we are doing?

Arijit Mukherjee is now translating some posts in Bengali. See here …

Day 67

#FarmersProtests

War of Nerves

The farmers executed their war of manoeuvre when they occupied Delhi’s borders. They settled in the war of position when talks with government began. The protests weathered the war of attrition when government started its propaganda and used its Enforcement Directorate and National Investigation Agency on leaders and volunteers. The January 26th flag fracas on Red Fort was engineered by deep state to unsettle the position the farmers had established and the moral high ground they had taken on the Farm Laws. Since the move failed, Ghazipur rising has panicked the establishment. Now propaganda is taking uglier turns.

If you can read this message, know that lakhs of farmers on protests sites cannot read it. Crores of Haryana people in 17 districts cannot read this message. Their internet is shut down. Along side this blackout, dastardly, absolutely condemnable events are being created and pictures of young Sikh men being crushed by police, heads broken, other injuries are circulating on social media. All such pictures, videos, text, statements by people and leaders are meant to provoke the Sikhs, the farmers, and those who care for them from the urban middle class. They are meant to Sikhs and the farmers so that they indulge in violence and government can unleash their forces on the protests.

Last night a journalist was picked up. Cases are being filed against journalists for saying their truth: young Navdeep on tractor was shot and he lost control and crashed and died. Cases are filed against farmer leaders. Since most urban India is now learning about rural India, you may also want to acquaint yourselves with various section of India Penal Code. They will help you learn the spectrum from which police levies changes and their relative gravity. It will help you process what is going on with greater clarity. Sangh goons attacked Singhu with full police protection. Sangh goons tried to attack Ghazipur under BJP leaders. There are no arrests, no charges, the intention is clear: wear down the protesters.

As the icy, chilly winter the farmers endured turns to spring, the government is now engaged in a war of nerves wit the whole state machinery at its disposal. Going forward, the attacks will increase and because of no internet, a pliant lapdog media, we not even know about them. A lack of connection, lack of news, can make us feel lonely. We could feel bereft and clutching at not even straws.

Ask yourself are you in this for a reason which is bigger than what leaders tell you, your self-preserving mind tells you? Or are you in this because your conscience won’t let you rest unless you belong to the protests? If that is the case, then know, when your feel lonely, we are all with you. Each of us at the protests, articulating the protests, in solidarity with the protests, needs to keep our calm, hold our nerves and most of all keep the voice of our conscience alive.

In such a scenario, as we all focus, try to amplify the protests, I have decided to no longer engage with the right wing eco-system. Simply because, one engages with anyone, converses with anyone, on the assumption that the other side is listening, is willing to change. I know the right wing does not want to learn. It just wants to wear me down, exhaust me. I know closing the door to right wing means I end up in a silo. I vastly prefer to belong to a silo of protests than to any longer an effort to bridge the divide. I know that now there is enough ground momentum. Whatever the government does, events after 26th January shows me, the protest is seeded. It will continue to grow. It may change forms and shapes, but there is no stopping it. Now it is upon the right wing to bridge the divide with us.

Okay, to confess, I am not even engaging with the fence-sitters, the good-hearted but still illiterate about the protests, middle class. That time has passed. It is a war of nerves, to keep it non-violent from our side, we need to first hold our nerves, keep our sanity.

We will win.

Dear Friends,

I feel touched that one and a half year after PANJAB Journeys Through Fault Lines appeared, it keeps getting reviewed. Also, in these farmers protests, so many references to the book in news items quoting me. Humbled.

Thank you Ashutosh Takhur.

Please read here …

Day 66

Toll 182

#FarmersProtest

Lota Nun Oath

Completely unreported in media, yesterday, lakhs of farmers from 36 Biradaris came together at the Muzzaffarnagar mahapanchyat and took the oath of Lota Nun for a social boycott – hukka paani bandh – of the Bhartiya Janata Party. Friends tell me this oath of salt (nun) in Ganga water in a spouted vessel (lota) signifies that each oath taker’s individual view is now subsumed in the community’s view and can never be separated.

The historical antecedents of this oath are yet to be established, they are not covered in textbooks. Very rarely in history have the Biradaris taken this oath. Most likely, its first occurrence was with Timur’s invasion of Delhi, 1398. It was taken in 1857, Meerut Uprising against British. Today is the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination by RSS/Hindu Mahasabha. Gandhi had administered the Salt Pledge before Dandi March, not the same as Lota Nun, but similar idea.

I feel this oath, or the way Panjab and Haryana created Singhu and Tikri in the manner of how in the 18th century Sikh Misls advanced (military term: divisions, confederacy states) to establish encampments, as significant. Simply because people are ancient and our cultural history and memory in many ways define us, just like modernity defines us. If ancient practices have to be questioned on many occasions, which they must be, we also need to see how they are invoked to create unity – in this case against the Hindutva regime. The Lota Nun pledge has led to Ghazipur site swelling many times from the night of January 27, thousands upon thousands are still arriving.

This is a great mobilization and takes the battle of India to where it should always have been fought: the Hindi heartland. The need for this came about because of the Red Fort flag fracas the Hindutva forces enacted with complicity of some people and by firing the gun from the shoulder of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee. Hindutva was looking for an opening to create a gap between Hindus and Sikhs, isolating Panjab once again. It did not succeed. One call for ‘water from my village’ has led to this huge solidarity.

In fact, the heartland views the hoisting of Kissan flags, Nishan Sahib, some Union flags, not as insult to the Tricolour (for the national flag was not even touched) but a claiming of our nation’s historic building, the Red Fort, from the corporates to which the government has leased it out. This is exactly why the farmers are protesting – to prevent corporate takeover of agriculture. The heartland knows there is no established Khalistan flag, there is no Khalistan movement. Something that drove urban, middle-class India into paroxysms. Social media, take a break!

However, watching the Samyukth Kisan Morcha leadership fumble at Singhu for last few days over this amuses me. My posts are meant to inform not comment but I want to state: What is SKM’s great need to be defensive? Isn’t it time SKM reflects, bridges gaps with youth cadre, shakes hands with KMSC? At this critical juncture, SKM should refrain from publicly blaming KMSC for incidents of Republic Day Tractor March. It is anyway the past, it has gifted us a vastly reinforced Ghazipur.

In fact, yesterday, there was a Sanghi attack at Singhu. Godi media, of course, describes it as locals who attacked. There is clear footage of police standing by for a long time as the attackers started pelting stones at farmers. Police gets into action only when farmers group up, that too to teargas them, even Molotov Cocktails were used. Thankfully the tent towards which they were hurled did not catch fire. Some thirty to forty farmers sustained injuries. After that the police escorted the attackers as if they were state guests. No arrests were made.

It is clear that the state is down to dirty tricks. However, all sites are standing tall. Lota Nun means this is going to be a long year ahead. Remember, after 1857 it took us 90 years to get rid of the British.

A website chose to publish the post. Please see here …

Tags: Biradari. Mahapanchayat, Jats

Day 65

#FarmersProtest

What a come back!

Any call to change status quo, any pushback against injustice of a regime, is a dynamic time-space. A lot can change overnight like we saw at Ghazipur. Let this be a lesson in history for times to come.

I slept 3 am, a bit assured with the night vigil, people out on roads with blankets, it is cold still. People from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were trickling in. When you talk to these protesters, you learn that many of their earlier protests were ended by television not relaying them. I am so glad that did not happen this time. The television will not dictate our lives.

I woke up 5.30 am to see news pouring in. Thousands upon thousands came on the call of a senior farmer leader. Electricity was restored, tankers brought water, langars were on. The josh was back. This solidarity and our unity has rejuvenated the protests.

Police has started retreating, for now at least.

What this teaches us is there is a great need for vigilance. Even at Singhu and Tikri. There are reports that people evicted from smaller protests sites in Haryana are back at the sites. Langars have started.

The government can no longer use armed force or pliant media against us. It has to talk, it has to repeal bad Farm Laws, it has to legalise MSP.

Thank you Bharat!

Jan 28, 2021

So thankful to anonymous who put up the translation of my post in Hindi on twitter.

Please see here …

Jan 28, 2021, late evening

Dear Nation,

#FarmersProtest is not a circus, a spectacle for all to go ooh! ah! at a leader of Rakesh Tikait stature to be crying on national media. He is not crying for himself. He is crying because he has taken a stand: support the Sikhs, support the farmers of the nation.

In the 1980s, the narrative was twisted so much that the whole nation believed Sikhs were wrong. After the 1990s, the nation moved at such a breath taking speed that urban India forgot the rural India.

Tikait is crying because he stands with his brothers, with his land. This means so much to me who was growing up in the 1980s and saw the discourse on Sikhs turn from soldiers and farmers to traitors and terrorists. I find a warm embrace in his tears.

Would the nation give this warm embrace to its Sikhs, to its farmers? You know I have been active from Day 1 of the protests, just so we do not have a repeat of the 1980s. Just that much. I was a little boy then, an adult now. Would my understanding of India then and now be the same? Then what is the use of my life? Is it too much to ask? Is it too much to ask that we stand up against injustice and live in this nation?

Ask yourself: what you can do? Amplify the protests, reject the Hindutva propaganda machinery. Why does Tikait have to wait for his village to get him water? He has come to your home Dilli.

Dilli, we saw your big heart to January 26. Now once again please, get out on the streets to preserve the Ghazipur protest site. Get them water. Get them electricity.

Do it! Please.

June 28, 2021

Dear friends,

In spite of my personally alerting a lot of regular media – not even lapdog media – on the evening of January 25th, almost no one reached Mukarba Chowk, Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar on 26th morning. This is where the Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Committee had already announced they will enter the Outer Ring Road. See 1st comment.

Later, upon the march, the same media claimed innocence, ‘intelligence failure, lack of prior knowledge’. Media showed lathi charge and skirmishes but none of them, not a single one, mentioned that police had blocked even the approved routes for Tractor March. For example, The police tear gassed farmers at Ghazipur who sought to go down Akshardam to take a U-turn to march on approved roads. Or turn towards Geeta Colony. The police sent farmers to Red Fort and ITO, where they lathi-charged them. This in spite of prior knowledge. This is the hypocrisy of our media.

Yet, bravely, deserves my respect, independent film makers such as my friend Nakul Singh Sawhney, Kartik Nijhawan and others reached the spot that morning. ScoopWhoop ground reports in comments below. Nakul, unfortunately lost his phone during the day. Yet, he sent this dispatch:

I will probably write about everything that happened yesterday in greater detail later. But for now, one small note.

Before you get carried away by all those media ‘reports’ on the ‘violence’ by farmers and ‘indisciplined’ protesters, just try and remember one thing: there were easily 7-10 lakh people on the streets of Delhi yesterday. It’ll be safe to assume that over 90% of them were men. From possibly some of the most hyper masculine parts of the country.

And yet, there isn’t a single report about common civilians of Delhi being attacked or harassed or their properties being vandalised. Not a single report about common women on Delhi’s streets being harassed in any way. The only reports of ‘violence’ and ‘clashes’ was that against the police and RAF, basically the state apparatus.

As someone who saw a lot of the ‘violence’ I can assure you that most of it was provoked by the police. Not one civilian casualty (except of farmers themselves) have been reported.

So, breathe easy if you are so perturbed about the ‘violence’, because none of it was targeted against you.

A Very Happy Belated Republic Day!

—

My message to media outlets January 25, evening.

This is the message I sent out:

At the Farmers Protests, the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee has declared that it does not abide by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha new route for the Tractor Parade. KMSC is independent of SKM.

KSMC has declared it will follow the generally declared plan on January 17 – Tractor March on Delhi’s Outer Ring Road. This would mean, 10 kms from Singhu, at Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar, Mubarka Chowk (sic), where SKM wants the rally to proceed right towards Bawana, KMSC will ask its union and those who act on their call to turn left towards Azadpur/ISBT.

This could be a point of conflict because the police will barricade the route to Azadpur/ISBT. KMSC has declared their march will be peaceful and disciplined and if the state exerts violence, they will not retaliate. Instead, they will take the blows or bullets but they want to exert the right of the nation’s citizens to celebrate the Republic Day.

I feel you may want this covered by your reporters.

Day 64

#FarmersProtest

Makhad Jaal – Spider’s Web

1. Yesterday, was a day of great morale recovery. Leaders addressed farmers all day at Singhu and Tikri. It helped people process their emotions.

2. Ghazipur was in mourning over loss of a life, in confusion over what happened on Republic Day at Red Fort and ITO – lathi-charge and teargassing. By last afternoon it was clear the police had played mischief. It had blocked the approved route for the Tractor March, pushed farmers towards Red Fort and ITO. ‘Dilli eik Makhad Jaal hai’ says Tikait – Spider’s Web. Once you see the game, you find your bearings. Morale is high again.

3. Late last night, current was cut at Ghazipur. Farmers were on high alert all night to avert any adverse police action. They had learnt from what had happened on January 25th night – thousands of undesired infiltrators had entered the site for the Tractor March on 26th. The night remained free of incident.

4. Government is tightening screws: it has filed FIRs on farmer leaders blaming them for the disruption during Tractor March, evicted those who were sitting on Haryana toll plazas. Many from Shahjahanpur Morcha had already gone back home, police trying to evict the rest. Police also evicted the Baghpat site on Delhi-Saharanpur highway.

5. There is enough evidence now that the Red Fort fracas was a planned stunt. Though it did distract on the day of the Tractor March, I normally give a new twist 48 hours to assess if it sticks. This distraction has also paled. But yes, it has given the government a handle to trouble the protestors. Let us see how it plays out.

By and large, in terms of emotions and numbers, the protests are back at where they were on Jan 20th. They are going strong. Yes, the government and administration is getting rougher. It is time to weather their many actions.

Personally, unions decision to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination day as ‘Praschit Diwas – Day of Atonement’ is a great reminder to all of us of what we have made this nation over the last 72 years. Would just like to add, atonement need not only be observed, but it should lead to actions that help us stitch the tears in our society. We should all commit ourselves to it.

Stay collected, focus on real issue: Farm Laws and MSP. Any farmer weathers many sudden adversities: untimely rains, diseases, crop failure, prices crashes. Yet, the farmer, tied to land, continues to stand by his khet – land. That is the farmer’s nature.