Stopped in their tracks at the Shambhu border during their planned march to the national capital in February, groups of farmers from Punjab and Haryana have dug in their heels. It’s 160-odd days and counting at the border that connects Haryana and Punjab, and while the Lok Sabha election has come and gone with the farmers’ issues barely getting a look-in, there’s another opportunity in sight: the Assembly election in Haryana, likely to be held in October.
Farmers have been protesting over various issues, including the demand for a statutory guarantee for minimum support price for crops. Their fight is with the Central government, but the BJP also happens to be the ruling party in the poll-bound State.
“Few leaders spoke for our cause [during the LS poll]. Why? Have we been forgotten? Now that Haryana elections are coming up, we will use this platform to raise our demands. We are not going anywhere,” says Sukhwinder Kaur, a 57-year-old farmer from Bathinda, huddled in a tent with five-six fellow protesters at Shambhu.
Calm amid the storm
A day after the Supreme Court acknowledged a “trust deficit” between agitating farmers and the government and suggested the constitution of a “neutral” panel to resolve the face-off, a relative calm pervaded Banur Road on the border on Thursday. There is a police post, and an ambulance and a fire department vehicle are on standby. But even as police personnel dot the entire stretch, the protesting farmers carry on with their parallel lives.
There are about 500 of them now, but more than a thousand tents [for protesters arriving and leaving in batches]. The tractors, lying idle, are covered with plastic sheets and have become a storeroom for the long fight – stuffed with clothes, polythene bags, large tiffins for food and water jars. The farmers have installed coolers and wall-mounted fans to stave off the summer heat, but access to electricity remains limited as only six transformers have been installed.
Farmers say Internet is restricted, and it is a struggle to communicate with their families and other members. “The fight is not against the lack of basic necessities any government should provide, the fight is for farmers to have their say,” says Sukhchain Singh, 37, who arrived here on February 13. The farmer from Ambala fears for the safety of his family of three — his father, wife, and 10-year-old son. “The police have visited my house more than 10 times asking about my whereabouts. I have received 20 notices from the police, but none of us are scared.”
As the official machinery moves for the constitution of a panel of eminent persons to reach out to all parties, Jagjeet Dallewal, president of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) and convener of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), finds the Supreme Court’s order assuring. “But not a word was said by the Prime Minister or Home Minister. We feel we have been let down by our country,” he says.
