Farmers in Their Millions Valiantly Continue Their Fight for the Repeal of Neo-Liberal Farm Laws
- J. Singh and Meera Kaur - 
January 26, 2021.
Farmers welcomed by the people of Delhi with a shower of flower petals
as they enter the city for the Republic Day Tractor march.
On January 26, Republic Day in India, the attention of the world was
not on the usual pomp and ceremony at Delhi's Red Fort, but on the
tractor march by hundreds of thousands of farmers on the roads of
Delhi, declaring that they are the Public in the Indian Republic. They
also declared that they are the real patriots because they feed the
whole country. Despite this, representatives of the ruling elite and
their media, keep calling them "anti-national," " terrorists,"
"Maoists," "Khalistanis" and other epithets which they use to justify
treating them as criminals. The tractor march featured floats depicting
the life of farmers and toilers from all over India. "It is definitely
memorable. The farmers and workers are making history," one person said
of it. Thousands of farmers in other capitals and cities throughout
India also held tractor marches and protests for the repeal of the
anti-social farm laws that the central government has brought in.
In Uttar Pradesh, police had issued notices under section 149
-- a colonial provision -- to farmers who owned tractors, to not take
their tractors on the road from January 23 to 26 in order to "safeguard
children on the road." But the farmers in their thousands defied these
notices and went to Delhi. The government had also ordered the diesel
dealers to not sell diesel to the farmers. The farmers responded by
setting up their own diesel supplies. Rallies, demonstrations and
protests took place all over the world in front of Indian missions in
support of the farmers and their just demands. Every
attempt is being made to discredit the farmers. At the tractor march on
Republic Day the police staged a provocation with what appeared to be a
small group of farmers who left the main march, breaking through
barricades and reaching the Red Fort where they hoisted the flag of the
farmers and the Sikh gurus. Not surprisingly, the government
immediately seized on the incident as a pretext to unleash further
police measures on the farmers and their supporters. Leaders of the
farmers condemned the action saying it was led by agents provocateurs
closely connected to the governing party, the BJP. One of them was seen
in a photo op with Prime Minister Modi. It is also reported that a
farmer was shot dead by the police. There are reports of some policemen
also getting injured in clashes at the Red Fort. The corporate media
screamed overtime to demonize the farmers' march using the few
scattered incidents to detract attention from the justice of the
farmers' cause and the millions upon millions who espouse it.
To stop the farmers from gathering in Delhi, trains headed
there have been either short stopped or diverted, citing operational
pretexts. Cement walls and cement barricades have been built on orders
of the central government. The latest measure of the central government
is to order the Delhi police and government to prevent the supply of
water, food, sanitation and essential items sent by people of nearby
states from reaching the farmers who are in the midst of this heroic
unprecedented protest. The farmers responded that these illegal
measures would not deter them from achieving the repeal of the
anti-social neo-liberal farm laws. Farmers also
marched on foot to the Lok Sabha, the parliament, during the budget
session that got underway on January 29. Farmers' unions announced a
countrywide 'Chakka Jam' to be held February 6 to block
national and state highways for three hours in protest against the
internet ban in areas near their agitation sites, harassment by
authorities, and other issues. At the Ghazipur
border, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said the
police barricading could not stop the farmers and they were ready to
continue their protests as long as needed. "Talks with the government
will continue, this taarbandi (barricading) will
also continue. We have been told that no one will be able to leap over
these barriers. This movement is of the poor. The king is fortifying
this place, but we are prepared till October-November. This protest
will not end any time soon," Tikait said. "Repealing the laws is the
only way out." The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an
umbrella body of protesting unions, informed that the Twitter accounts
of Kisan Ekta Morcha and a user named 'Tractor2Twitter' have been
restricted. Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav said the action
against the Twitter account was taken on the "request of government
authorities." He also decried that the government's Union Budget 2021,
reduces the allocation to the agriculture sector.
In a statement, the SKM said, "Increased barricading including
trench-digging, fixing nails on the roads, barbed wire fencing, closing
off of even internal roads, stopping internet services, orchestrating
protests and facilitating the same through BJP-RSS [Bharatiya Janata
Party -- Rashtriya Swayannsevak Sangh] workers, diversion of trains and
stopping them before destination stations are all part of multiple
attacks being organized by the government, its police and
administration against the protesting farmers."
"On one hand, the Prime Minister says that the solution is only one
call away, but on the other hand the government is doing its best to
block off the protest sites, cut off facilities and inconvenience the
public," the statement said.
At the Singhu border, farmer leaders demanded the release of the 122
people arrested by the Delhi Police, blaming them for violence in
connection with Republic Day events. SKM's Darshan Pal said: "The Delhi
Police have released the list of 122 agitators (activists) who were
taken into police custody. We demand their immediate release. We also
condemn the attacks on and arrests of journalists who are covering the
movement." Questioning the police tactics, Pal said, "To ensure that
more people do not join (the protests), to cut off the coordinated
functioning of the Morcha, to project images of violence so that
ordinary people stay away, and to crack down on protesters through
fabricated charges and arrests, while the real criminal elements go
scot-free without any arrests and concrete police action so far,
reveals the fact that the government is very scared of the increasing
support for the movement." Organizers are concerned that many
people at the protest sites had gone "missing," he added. Balbir
Singh Rajewal, a farmer leader from Punjab, and part of the SKM, told
reporters that the modalities of the February 6 'Chakka Jam' were to be
decided after discussion with various unions collectively, including
those protesting at Ghazipur border site, the new focal point of the
farmers movement against the new farm laws. Rajewal claimed
during
the press conference that scores of people have been "detained by the
police" and First Information Reports (FIRs) have been filed
against many, including a journalist. "Our February 6 protest would
also be against this harassment faced by journalists who are trying to
report the truth from the ground, and the Twitter restrictions," he
said. Thus far, the farmers are developing many
other forms of protest to show they are undeterred. They stand united
in their demand for the repeal of the farm laws: the Farmers' Produce Trade and
Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers (Empowerment
and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020;
and the Essential
Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. An
Explosion of Songs, Poems, Plays,
Paintings and Other Art
Forms 
Another
prominent feature of the historic protest is the explosion of songs,
poems, plays, paintings and other arts inspired by the farmers movement
all across India and both East and West Punjab. Many of them talk about
Sidak --
Fidelity to the cause; Sabar
-- Discipline, Patience and Ekta
-- Unity. One of the songs that has become very popular is: Asin
Padhange Kisan Mazdoor Ekta
Tera Honna Chhutkara Zindabad
Bolke
(We uphold the unity of farmers and workers
You can only save yourself by shouting Long Live!)
Asin
Izaatan De Rakhayan Di Qom Hakima
Tainun Sharam Na Ayee
Atwadi Bolke
(We are defenders of dignity
Listen you rulers -- You have no shame in calling us extremists)
Zindabad,
Zindabad,Zindabad
Tainun Dilliye Ekath Eh Preshan Karuga
Faslan De Faisle Kisan Karuga
(Listen Delhi! Our
unity is trouble for you
The Farmer will decide about his
crops) A seven-year-old boy sang it on the stage
with great flair and passion and thousands of men and women joined him
with both their arms up in the air shouting Zindabad,
Zindabad, Zindabad. (Long Live, Long Live, Long Live).
Another song declares: Sade
Layi Kile Ban gayian ,Sadkan Ne Patshah
Barse Koi Noor Ilahi
Dilli De border Te
Ose Hi Rah Te Tur Paye Put Tegh Bahadur De
Barse Koi Noor Ilahi Dilli De Border Te
(For us the
roads and highways have become forts
A divine light shines at
our encampment at the border of Delhi
Sons of Tegh Bahadur
are marching on the same path) The song invokes
memories of Guru Tegh Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh, his four sons and
mother who became martyrs while fighting tyranny. Hundreds of songs,
poems and plays are depicting the struggles of farmers and all toilers.
Many of them are invoking the struggle against the British. Punjabi
songs and poems are evoking memories of the centuries-long fight of
Punjab against Delhi.
 
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 2 - February 7, 2021
Article Link:
Farmers in Their Millions Valiantly Continue Their Fight for the
Repeal of Neo-Liberal Farm Laws
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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