Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers make villages out of bounds for politicians

Hathur (Jagraon): In a show of anger against three contentious farm laws, villagers have put up posters in several villagers, asking politicians of various political parties not to carry out any political activity in the villages. This comes at a time when elections in the state are just a few months away. TOI found many such posters in two villages of Jagraon area. The posters have symbols of all major political parties in Punjab with cross on those and text that loosely translates as ‘boycott political parties’. The message said for the past 74 years, those sucking the blood of people and making Punjab debt ridden, who have got five pensions, such politicians and “stray cattle” are strictly banned from entering the village.“Till the black laws are not scrapped, we will not let politician enter the village. If any political leader or his sidekick is found in the village, he will be responsible for his service (sewa),” read the message. The message is issued by Bhartiya Kisan Union and entire villagers of a particular village. General secretary of Inqualabi Kendra Punjab, Kanwaljit Khanna, whose group has been supporting farm movement, said such posters have been put up by villagers in around 35 to 40 villages, including Hathur, Kaunke, Manuke, Deherka, Ghalib Kalan, Sherpura, Johlan, Jalaldiwal, Rattowal and Toose, of Ludhiana district. He said mostly the posters have a message that till the time “black farm laws” are not scrapped, no political party should disturb them in villages, not to deflect their attention as people are struggling to get these laws repealed.Meanwhile, many villagers said the message to everyone is clear.“Our farmer brothers are sitting on the Delhi borders for months now and villagers think that if they protest in such a way, they can also show their support to them. Those who cannot go to Delhi borders, they do it this way. Mostly, the posters have been put up in bigger villages and that too on prominent places, including near gurdwaras or bus stops,” said a villager from Acharwal, where such posters have come up. He said such posters are there in Johlan village as well. Inderjit Singh from Kaunke village said that posters have been put up to mount pressure on politicians so that their demand of scrapping the three “black” farm laws is addressed. Sardara Singh Johal, a renowned agro-economist who has views on political happenings in the state, said farmers are there on the front and they have decided to fight. He said putting up posters is a reaction, which indicates that they are not happy with political class in the state.“They feel that every party is opposed to them. So, they are putting up pressure on the political class to get their grievances addressed. However, things are expected to become clear after elections are announced in the state,” Johal said.Box: Farm Unions speak:Inderjit Dhaliwal, district secretary of BKU (Dakonda), said the farmer unions have already decided that they will not allow BJP leaders to enter villages and will question other party leaders what they did to oppose such “black laws”. He said such posters are being put up by common villagers as a mark of anger. Dhaliwal said political leaders should refrain from election campaign till farmers’ struggle is on as it weakens the agitation. He said they will show black flags to politicians in future as well.

The Times of India

2021-08-30

Ludhiana