Chandigarh couple camps at Singhu with infant

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, January 15

Gurpreet Singh (28) and Gurpreet Kaur (22), residents of Sector 47, Chandigarh, are camping with their eight-month-old son Ashmeet Singh at the Singhu border for over a month now.

They had reached Singhu border on December 13 by boarding a tractor-trailer from Rajpura town in Patiala district. Speaking over the phone, cab driver and theatre artist Gurpreet Singh said, “Saade kol zameen nahi, par zameer hai (We don’t own land, but we have conscience). We are followers of Guru Gobind Singh. We have come here to create history. Initially, my wife and some relatives had some fear in their minds, but now, they are proud of my decision. We have celebrated my son’s first Lohri here and my birthday as well. Initially, we stayed in a trailer, but later got a waterproof tent. We clean other tents here as sewa.”

He added, “My mother is 76 years old and a widow. She is staying alone in Chandigarh. Though some neighbours daily tell her to call us back home due to the prevailing cold weather, she says we should come back only after the black laws are repealed.”

About his earnings, Gurpreet said, “I used to drive a cab and earn Rs 20,000 a month. I am not working presently, but I think that if the farmers won’t be able to survive, how will we survive? This is the protest for everyone’s survival.”

His wife Gurpreet Kaur said, “We are here to show Prime Minister Narendra Modi that we are Punjabis and know very well how to fight for our rights and win.”

Meanwhile, some people are giving them ‘shagun’ to keep their spirits up. “The protest has created history as from 95-year-olds to eight-month-old kids are present here for the past two months. I go to meet Ashmeet daily to know about his well-being, which infuses a positive energy in me,” said Ravneet Brar, spokesperson, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Kadian).

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