Farmers Movement Archive

Fight against farm laws saw many lows too

Bathinda: While the nation witnessed the emergence of farmers as a pressure group which forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to concede to their demand, the sustained struggle against the three farm laws had its shares of lows too. Even before the unified battle was to be undertaken against the mighty central government, two of the big farm groups — BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) having a large presence in Malwa region and Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee which has a sizeable hold in Majha area — declined to be part of 32 farm groups. Only a few days into the struggle, the first feud surfaced when groups went against BKU (Lakhowal) for single-handedly approaching the Supreme Court against the farm laws on October 5, 2020. When BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) observed the International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2020 while waving pics of those facing charges under UAPA and Delhi riots cases, including Umar Khalid, Gautam Navlakha, the farmers were branded as Maoists and BKU (Ugrahan) had to single-handedly face the onslaught as other groups distanced from the event. The biggest low point during the farm struggle came on January 26 when many protesters reached the Red Fort and put up a farmers’ flag and Nishan Sahib on an empty flag post and a dome at the historical monument, prompting the authorities to dub farmers as Khalistanis. Farmers had to face the impact of this act for long and cases were registered and many had to stay in jails too. While on January 29, 2021, an attack was made at the camp of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee after January 26 violent happenings, other groups did not come forward to its rescue except for BKU (Ugrahan), which provided some support. The struggle had to face some anxious moments too when complaints of sexual harassment of West Bengal woman, killing of a man at Singhu border were reported.

The Times of India

2021-11-27

Chandigarh