Six months on, farmers protest still going strong

Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, February 26

Farmers have been protesting against the three farm laws for over six months now.

The protests remain strong and united, but since the January 26 R-Day violence, a resentment between a section of leftists and Sikhs was noticed, which if not controlled, could create trouble in the long run. 

During the R-Day violence protest, it was witnessed that people with left ideology, and Sikhs were seen sharing space, but after the protests, Kisan Unions labelled Deep Sidhu and Lakha Sidhana as traitors.

Apart from this, they also failed to come out in support of Navreet Singh, who died during R-Day violence, and other Punjabis who were arrested by the Delhi police.   

There are several Sikh youth bodies in Punjab, that took youngsters into the protest, and several of them got NIA notices in January, but they weren’t “happy with farmer unions” for allegedly not supporting them.

This led to a section of Sikhs and youths coming out in support of Deep Sidhu, Lakha Sidhana, and other Sikhs arrested by Delhi police.

In a rally at Mehraj, they also appealed to Kisan Unions to be united, and take youth along if they want to win this battle against the union government.

However, farmers present at Tikri and Singhu borders said that the government is only on social media platforms which is nothing like the ground level. Everyone is standing united to fight against the three farm laws, they said.  

Moreover, this spur between Sikhs and leftist has the potential to damage the farmers' movement.

A low point was witnessed on January 26, but farmers have handled it well and the protests are still going on with full support.

This was evident from the mahapanchayats organised by the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Even the rally organised by Lakha Sidhana at Mehraj village on February 23 in Bathinda also evoked good response.

Lakha Sidhana, in his recent video, said: “I want to tell farmer unions, that we are with you, and urged farmer leaders to hold a programme at the Delhi borders in the coming days, and asked the youth to join the protest sites in large numbers”.

BKU Ekta Ugrahan state secretary, Shingara Singh Mann, said: “This protest will go long, and they are ready for it. It is totally wrong if anyone tries to portray this agitation as left versus Sikhs as this protest is above all, and is being run by Sanyukt Kisan Morcha against the farm laws”.

He added further that anyone could come forward to support farmers’ agitation, but in case anyone tries to run its own agenda on the name of the farmers, they would not allow it.

Dal Khalsa leader, Baba Hardeep Singh Mehraj, said: “They are standing against the people, who have been booked by the Delhi or Haryana police in their fight against the farm laws, and they want these cases to be cancelled against them”.

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