It was farmers' fear of losing their lands that made them continue their struggle

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 19

A farmer can slay his real brother but he can't let an inch of land go, the old saying goes in Punjab's countryside. The fear of losing land that came with the three farm laws proved turning point in making the farmers' agitation a true people's movement in Punjab.    

"The corporates will snatch your lands one day, we had been trying to tell people for the past three decades," recounts Shingara Singh Mann, state committee member of BKU (Ugrahan). But the current movement centred on the question of land was a dream come true for many leaders who had been active for several decades.

Last year, Punjab was in the grip of Covid and curfews were on, when the Union government pushed three bills through ordinances on June 5. On the evening of June 5, Darshan Pal of Krantikari Kisan Union and Jagmohan Singh of BKU (Dakunda) organised a Zoom meeting from Patiala with other constituents of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Commitee (AIKSCC) and gave a call to burn effigies of the Modi government. That was the first action. "It was decided to tell people that their lands would be taken away by corporate houses if Contract Farming Act came into existence."

At the same time, one of the biggest farmer organisations, BKU (Ugrahan), was also worried about the ordinances but was not part of AIKSCC. On June 13, they called an emergency meeting of their state committee at Machhike village in Moga and decided to make villages centre of the struggle. "Let's take this to every hearth," that was the slogan.

Most of leadership of the organisation which was in mid-seventies decided that now we must choose, whether we should die of coronavirus or while fighting the government.  "The choice was obviously second," says Shingara Singh Mann, state committee member of BKU (Ugrahan).   

"In the following days, our leaders tried to tell people that how the corporate houses have arrived to take away their lands," says  Mann. Soon the organisations realised that the response from the villages is beyond imagination. The movement spread to around 1,000 villages. "So we decided to take the movement beyond villages." 

It was followed by giving memoranda to SDMs and DCs ad also to the President. On June 30, protests were held in front of the SDM and DC offices across the state. The months of July and August were marked with tractor marches, banning entry of SAD-BJP leaders in villages.

In September, from tractor to motorcycle marches, from mega protest rallies to street corner meetings, Punjab witnessed so much. But the biggest turning point was brought by BKU (Ugrahan)'s call to start protest at Badal village demanding that the SAD end its alliance with the BJP. On the first day, around 10,000 people were present. The protest kept swelling and on the last day on September 22, the number was 45,000. But before that it had forced the SAD to break alliance with the BJP and Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned. "It infused a new life into the movement," says Mann.       

When the movement was picking up momentum across the state, the constituents of AIKSCC in Punjab were trying to bring the remaining organisations into the fold. "We had realised that it is not easy to defeat the government onslaught by individual oragnsiations. So we invited Rajewal, Ugrahan and other organisations for joint meeting in Moga on September 23," says Jagmohan Singh. Thus, the 32 farmer organisations' umbrella platform came into existence.  

By then several popular Punjabi singers started showing solidarity with the movement. "Their new songs regarding Punjabi farmer's love for land and his history of struggle against Delhi, simply swayed the masses," says Manjit Dhaner of BKU (Dakunda).   

Soon, it became Punjab vs Delhi. And a call for march for Delhi was jointly given for November 26 and 27. "Now it will go as a true Long March, which not just saved the lands of Punjab but of India," says Rajinder Singh Deep Singhwala of Kirti Kisan Union.  

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