Farmers Movement Archive

Kaptan Singh, 4, fires up action, ‘josh’ at farm stir sites

Barnala: When Kaptan Singh, 4, takes stage at farm protest sites in Punjab and on Delhi borders, the crowd roars and even passersby get clicking. As the diminutive figure raises slogans integral to the struggle and quotes lines of revolutionary poets, he stirs admiration among the crowd and amps up the tempo of the stir. He is an unlikely crowd-puller for the agitation as his father Lakha Singh of Mehal Kalan in Barnala district has no agricultural land. This hasn’t stopped the family from joining the ongoing struggle. Kaptan, of course, can be found leading the action at the protest sites. A veteran of sorts at protest sites, Kaptan, a Class 1 student in a private school at Mehal Kalan, can be seen shouting slogans and rendering lines of songs played from stages to enthuse his fellow protesters. Thanks to his expertise in inspiring the crowd, he is a known face at the farm protest sites of Mehal Kalan toll plaza and Barnala railway station. He also made quite an impression when he visited the Singhu and Tikri borders, and plans to go there again in a fortnight. His father Lakha Singh is a carpenter by profession and mother Manjit Kaur used to work as a teacher till some time ago. Manjit Kaur tells how they became part of the ongoing struggle. “After the farmers had left for Delhi borders on November 26, 2020, we started thronging the Mehal Kalan toll plaza site some days later. As my husband used to work in his carpenter workshop near the toll plaza, my son Kaptan started accompanying me to the protests. Initially, he could not understand what the agitation was about, but a week later he had learnt the popular slogans and began demanding time to raise slogans from the stage. When he used to shout ‘‘Kale kanoon radd karo, kale kanoon vapas karva ke rahange, saade haq aethe rakh, kisan mazdoor ekta zindabad, bhagat singh teri soch te pahra diange thok ke’’, passersby used to stop and many would click his pictures with their mobile phones or make videos," says Manjit. Soon Kaptan even memorised some lines of revolutionary poet Sant Ram Udasi, which are read out at protests. His parents recount that when the family visited the farm protest sites on Delhi borders in June, Kaptan instantly gained popularity, becoming the favourite participant in the farmer movement. He was so sought-after that his parents got invites from many protest sites in nearby districts. "We have no land, but my parents had agricultural land and I used to support my father in farming before my marriage. So I have a soft corner for the interests of farmers and became a part of agitation along with Kaptan, said Manjit.

The Times of India

2021-07-06

Chandigarh