Farmers Movement Archive

Sense of betrayal took me to farm protests at Delhi’s Singhu border: Gul Panag

NEW DELHI: There were tears of joy at Delhi's Singhu border as former Miss India and actor-activist Gul Panag on Tuesday joined protests in a solidarity with farmers's clarion call for Bharat Bandh. Panag, who spent nearly two hours at the protest site, was seen listening to grievances by a large section of women farmers but maintained that she visited the site as an agriculturalist from Punjab. Panag, whose original name is Gulkirat Kaur, had contested 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Chandigarh on an AAP ticket against Pawan Bansal from Congress and Kirron Kher of BJP.. "I hold agricultural land of about two acres in village Mahadian in Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab.. My father farmed after leaving army. I was there to lift the morale of women but I instead felt the women were lifting our morale. My father, his brother and family members have collectively done more than 100 years of service in the Indian Army and yet we are farmers...I went there with a sense of betrayal that laws have been pushed by legislative procedures but not through consensus with farmers from Punjab and Haryana," Panag told TOI. The actress said there is no pro-Khalistani sentiment in Punjab and its unfortunate that attempts were made to taint all farmers as anti-national. "Such people can keep making noises. It's a false narrative The pro-Khalistanis dont have iota have support and credibility either. The point is bonafide protests cant be subverted and demeaned because of certain people," she said. The actress said that its still debatable whether new private markets outside APMC can bring more benefits to agricultural produce. She also said that it was unfortunate that farmers were being divided along states. "I met women, so comfortable in their skins. The first question you ask is kede ind to. I met farmers from UP, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana. A lot of farmers were from Haryana. It's a wrong impression that only Punjab if fighting this cause. Women and men including from Karnal, from where mother in law comes and from Attari where my husband comes from I interacted with. And so many from Punjab's Malwa where I come from. They are speaking in unison," said Panag.

The Times of India

2020-12-09

Delhi