Farmers Movement Archive

Lohri mood is alive & kicking at Delhi's Singhu Border

NEW DELHI: With disinfection of the surroundings with lime, fumigation of trolleys and langar pandals and fresh heaps of firewood being unloaded along the Delhi-Chandigarh highway, the preparations for Lohri and Makar Sankranti have already started at Singhu border. Both winter folk festivals are popular in Punjab and Haryana. For the protesters at Singhu border, this year’s Lohri will be celebrated away from their families. Sarabjeet Singh, an elderly farmer from Nabha who had come to the spot around two weeks ago, said he was protesting for the rights of his future generations. “I don’t have any problems staying away from my family because at the end we are doing this for them,” he added. The harvest festival is associated with bonfire and sharing jaggery, peanuts and gajak with a traditional meal of sarson ka saag and makke di roti. Langars distributing the eatables had started functioning at many points on Tuesday, while the firewood stockpile was being replenished. Karnail Singh from Hoshiarpur in Punjab said he would celebrate the festival with as much fervour as his fellow protesters. “Collection drives for eatables were held in our villages to replenish our reserves. Many protesters are being rotated so that work back home does not get affected. The festival tomorrow will be celebrated with burning effigies of the black laws,” he added. After their initial clash with police on November 27, farmers have spent over 47 days camping right outside the capital with eight rounds of discussions with the Centre, which have so far not yielded any results. During this period, the farmer groups adopted several innovative ways to highlight their issues. Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee has announced that before the next round of discussions with the central government, copies of the three farm laws would be burnt on Lohri and Makar Sankranti to highlight their demand of repealing the controversial Acts. Basant Singh, who arrived at Singhu border just two days ago, said this would be a rare Lohri celebration away from home. He and Naresh Kumar, his neighbour in a trolley “house”, could be seen disinfecting the area with lime powder. “This will take care of the germs and mosquitoes,” Kumar said, while splashing another fistful of white lime powder. On Tuesday, activist Medha Patkar joined the farmers at Singhu border to express her solidarity with the movement.

The Times of India

2021-01-13

Delhi