Farmers Movement Archive

Eviction threat: Unions ‘fortify’ protest sites

Thousands of farmers from across Punjab have once again started moving towards Tikri and Singhu borders as the threat of forcible eviction of protesters, who have been agitating on the borders of the national capital for almost 145 days, looms large.As part of “Operation Shakti”, the rural hinterland in the state is abuzz with renewed zeal to send “reinforcements” to the border and counter the narrative that the number of protesters at the morchas in Delhi is waning. Mandeep Singh, a farmer from Sangatpura village of Sangrur, said, “I sold my wheat on the night of April 11 and marched with others to Delhi. It isour responsibility to ensure that the government’splan to create an alternate narrative of the protest dying out is not successful.”Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary, BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) said: “The villages are abuzz with talks of forcible eviction of protesters under the garb of Covid-19 spread. We immediately got into action. Today, 15,000 persons from the three borders at Dabwali, Khanauri and Sardoolgadh reached the protest sites.”Confirming this, Rajinder Singh Deepsinghwala, vice president, Kirti Kisan Union, said he came back two days ago and had been holding meetings with the members of his union, urging those who were free from the harvest and the sale of wheat to go to Delhi.Baldev Singh, a marginal farmer from Bhairupa, who has been at the protest site since November last year, said for the past two days thousands of farmers had returned for fear that the government could forcibly evict the morcha leaders.“We think the deadlock with the Centre will end if the BJP does not do well in the elections, especially in West Bengal... it is all the more important to strengthen our cadres at the protest site,” he said.With many of them having sold their harvested wheat, they are free for a little while before they plant the next crop, and are now going back to the border in droves. Almost 50 percent of these are women. Gurpreet Kaur, from Brass village, today led a group of 46 from her village to the protest sites, which include 37 women. “Our village took a conscious decision that since the men are still in mandis, the women should move to Delhi in high numbers.

The Tribune

2021-04-22

Chandigarh