Vishav Bharti

P. Sainath

Editor

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“They
had shut the gates of Delhi on us,” says
Bittu Malan, speaking at the edge of Buttar Sarinh village. “Now
the gates of every village in Punjab are closed to them.”

Bittu Malan is a five-acre farmer from
village Malan in Sri Muktsar Sahib district. The ‘they’ and
‘them’ he
refers to is the BJP, the ruling party at the Centre and a very lonely contender
in the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab. The ‘us’ to
whom Delhi denied entry was tens of thousands of farmers marching on the
national capital in November 2020.

Memories of the kisan
andolan and
its camp towns at the gates of the national capital run deep in Punjab. Tens of
thousands of farmers from this state had embarked, three summers ago, on a long
march of resistance and hope. Travelling hundreds of miles in their convoy of
tractors and trailers, they had converged on the capital with just one demand:
the repeal of the three farm laws that threatened their livelihoods. 

On reaching the gates of Delhi, they
encountered a Great Wall of indifference, erected by a government deaf to their
pleas. For nearly a year, as participants tell it, their nights were filled
with the chill of solitude and the heat of injustice, regardless of whether the
thermometer registered just 2 degrees Celsius, or soared to 45 C. The iron
trailers became their homes. 

Amidst the ebb and flow of 358 days,
over 700 bodies of farmers who died in the camps they set up around Delhi, made
their way back to Punjab, each one a silent testament to the price of their struggle.
But the andolan did
not waver. Their sacrifice and the larger struggle saw the government buckle at
the knees after a year of denial and a lot of bluster. The prime minister
announced the repeal of the laws on November 19, 2021.

Now
it’s
payback time in Punjab. And Bittu Malan and so many farmers like him seem
set on returning the treatment they had tasted at Delhi. On April 23, Bittu,
who seems to see it as his duty to settle the account of each fallen farmer,
boldly confronted Hans Raj Hans, the BJP candidate for the Faridkot Lok Sabha
constituency at Buttar Sarinh village.

Hans faced a barrage of questions and
comments from Bittu: “We
can&#39;t even think of running over animals, but in Lakhimpur Kheri, [Ajay Mishra]
Teni&#39;s son ruthlessly took the lives of farmers by running a
jeep over them, crushing their limbs. Bullets rained down in Khanauri and <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/farmers-protest-at-shambhu-border-haryana-police-uses-teargas-shells-and-water-cannons/articleshow/107707707.cms">Shambu</a>.
What was <a href="https://www.newslaundry.com/2024/02/24/farmers-protests-punjab-farmer-alleges-he-was-stuffed-in-sack-assaulted-by-haryana-cops">Pritpal&#39;s
crime</a>? His bones
shattered, his jaw fractured, all because he went to serve langar. He
lies in the PGI [hospital] Chandigarh; have you visited him? 

“A
40-year-old man from Patiala, father of two young children, lost his eyes to a
tear gas shell. He owns just three acres of land. Did you pay a visit to his
home? No. Did you venture to <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/delhi-protest-farmers-langar-food-ration-enough-for-a-year-singhu-border-1746180-2020-12-02">Singhu</a>?
No.&quot; Hans Raj Hans had no answers to the questions.

Across Punjab, a thousand Bittus eagerly
await the arrival of BJP candidates at the entry point of villages –
each of which seems to be another Buttar Sarinh. Punjab is to go to the polls
on June 1. The saffron party had first declared candidates for just nine out of 13
constituencies, but on May 17 named four others to fill its list. All of them
are being welcomed by farmers with black flags, slogans and questions and are
not being allowed to enter many villages. 

“We
won’t
allow Preneet Kaur to come into our village. We have even questioned the
families which have been loyal to her for decades,”
says Raghbir Singh, a four-acre farmer, from village Dakala in Patiala district.
Preneet Kaur is a four-time member of Parliament from Patiala and wife of
former Congress Chief Minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh. Both had left
the Congress in 2021 and joined the BJP last year. Like other BJP candidates, she
is being welcomed with black flags and slogans of murdabad in
many places.

It&#39;s
the same in Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Bathinda as candidates of her
party are learning the hard way. A month after his candidature was announced,
three-time Congress MP and now BJP candidate from Ludhiana, Ravneet Singh Bittu,
is finding it quite difficult to campaign in the villages.

In other parts of the country,
politicians may be ramping up anti-minority and ‘hurt
sentiments’
rhetoric. In Punjab, they are met by farmers with 11 questions (see below the
story). They are asked about legal guarantees for a Minimum Support Price (MSP);
about the farmers who died during the year-long struggle; about martyrs of
Lakhimpur; about <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/farmers-protest-who-was-shubhkaran-singh-how-did-he-die-during-khanauri-protest-101708569236478.html">Shubhkaran</a>,
who was killed at Khanauri with a bullet in his head; about the debt burden on
farmers. 

Not just farmers but agricultural
labourers too, are troubling the candidates of the ruling party at the Centre. “BJP
has killed MGNREGA by reducing the budget. They are not just dangerous for
farmers but for agriculture labourers too,”
says Sher Singh Pharwahi, president of MNREGA Mazdoor Union, Punjab.



And so the ‘treatment’
continues. The farm laws were repealed 18 months ago but the wounds are yet to
heal. Those laws were: the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/the-farmers-empowerment-and-protection-agreement-on-price-assurance-and-farm-services-act-2020/">Farmers
(Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services
Act, 2020</a>; the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/the-farmers-produce-trade-and-commerce-promotion-and-facilitation-act-2020/">Farmers’
Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020</a>; and the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/the-essential-commodities-amendment-act-2020/">Essential
Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020</a>. Farmers remain sceptical, saying that
they are being reintroduced by the backdoor.

With
just a few days left for voting, campaigning is still gaining steam in Punjab
and so is farmer resistance. On May 4, a farmer named Surinderpal Singh died in
Sehra village of Patiala when he and other peasants were protesting against the
entry of BJP candidate Preneet Kaur. Farmers allege that he died when Preneet
Kaur’s
security tried to clear the road, however she has vehemently denied the
allegations.



Having
just wound up wheat harvesting operations, farmers are now relatively free, and
the coming days will likely see more acts in this drama. Especially in bastions
like Sangrur, where the soil is steeped in epochs of resistance. And where
children are raised on the epic tales of militant peasant leaders such as Teja
Singh Swatantar, Dharam Singh Fakkar and Jagir Singh Joga.

Labani Jangi

More trouble looms ahead. Bharatiya
Kisan Union (BKU Ekta Ugrahan)
leader Jhanda Singh Jethuke recently announced in Barnala: &quot;Just wait for
a week and you&#39;ll witness them being chased out not only from villages but also
from Punjab&#39;s towns. Remember how they blocked our path from Delhi with walls
and nails? We won&#39;t retaliate with barriers or nails but with human walls. They
may drive over us as in Lakhimpur, but we are ready to bar their entry to our
villages with our bodies.&quot;

Still, they must be thankful to the justice
loving farmers, says Bikram Singh Majithia, a leader of the Shiromani Akali
Dal. “They
have just blocked their entry to the villages. They are not welcoming BJP
leaders with tear gas shells and rubber bullets as they did to the farmers in
Delhi.”    

Memories
of resistance and popular action, both old and recent ones, run deep in Punjab. It was just 28 months ago, that people in this state stopped Prime
Minister Narendra Modi at a flyover in Ferozepur. Today, they block his party’s
candidates at the villages. Satyapal Malik –
twice appointed Governor of different states by the Modi government –
had this to say to the party that gave him those posts: “Punjabis
don’t
forget their enemies easily.”

As voting nears, it’s payback time in Punjab

حساب برابر کرنے کے موڈ میں ہیں پنجاب کے کسان

వోటింగ్ సమీపిస్తుండగా పంజాబ్ రైతులకిది లెక్కలు తేల్చుకోవాల్సిన సమయం

பதிலடி கொடுக்கத் தயாராக இருக்கும் பஞ்சாப்

ଭୋଟଗ୍ରହଣ ପାଖେଇ ଆସୁଥିବା ବେଳେ ପଞ୍ଜାବରେ ଏବେ ହିସାବନିକାଶର ବେଳ

पंजाबात मतदानापूर्वीच परतफेड!

തിരഞ്ഞെടുപ്പടുക്കുമ്പോൾ, പഞ്ചാബിൽ തിരിച്ചടിക്കുള്ള സമയമാകുന്നു

ಪಂಜಾಬಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇದು ಮರಳಿ ಕೊಡುವ ಕಾಲ

हिसाब चुकता करने के मूड में हैं पंजाब के किसान

પંજાબમાં મતદાનનો સમય: હાથના કર્યાં હૈયે વાગ્યાં

‘पंजाबी अपन बैरी ला आसानी ले नइ बिसोरय’

‘कीलबंदी’ के जवाब भाजपा के खिलाफ नाकाबंदी से

আসন্ন ভোটে সুদে-আসলে অন্যায়ের শোধ তুলবে পঞ্জাব

ভোটদানৰ দিন চমু চাপি অহা মানে এতিয়া পাঞ্জাৱৰ প্ৰতিদানৰ পাল

ਵੋਟਾਂ ਦਾ ਸਮਾਂ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿੱਚ ਭਾਜੀ ਮੋੜਨ ਦਾ ਵੇਲ਼ਾ ਹੈ

Buttar Sarinh, Faridkot District, Punjab, India

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As voting nears, it’s payback time in Punjab

In 2020, the nation watched rivetted as protesting farmers were denied entry into Delhi with the use of brute force. In Punjab’s poll campaign for General Elections 2024, farmers are repaying that debt – non-violently

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