Farmers Movement Archive

Bharat Bandh: When all roads lead to hope…

Tribune News ServiceJalandhar, December 8The call for Bharat Bandh given by farmers protesting at the Delhi border over the demand for repealing three farm laws received full support in the entire Doaba region on Tuesday.All markets, food courts, hotels and government offices remained shut for the first half of the day. All sabzi mandis of the city also remained closed with barricading done by arhtiyas supporting farmers. The highways remained completely blocked.The movement of vehicles within the city also remained limited.Even as schools, colleges and universities were shut, most educational institutes did not even hold online classes.The members of Joint Association of Colleges (JAC) had asked all 1,650 colleges of Punjab to keep studies suspended for a day as a mark of protest in support offarmers. Announcements were made from several religious places on Monday urging communities to show solidarity with the ‘annadatas’ (farmers). Slogans and hoardings displaying messages such as ‘No farmers, no food’ and ‘We support farmers’ were put up all across the city.Even as there were a dozen odd demonstrations held in the city, the biggest show was held at PAP Chowk, which was jammed by farmers’ associations. At the dharna site, farmers honoured Aam Aadmi Party leader Dr Sanjiv Sharma, who had organised a free medical camp for them at the Singhu border a few days ago.At BMC Chowk, a demonstration was held organised by the members of the District Bar Association. The members announced to give all kind of legal support to farmers. The District Congress Committee led by DCC chief Baldev Singh Dev held a protest outside the District Administrative Complex, where they burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. District Congress women chief Jasleen Sethi, too, joined the protest with activists of the women wing. Congress MLA Sushil Rinku led a protest at Baba Budha Ji bridge in his Jalandhar West constituency and flayed the Centre for bringing in farm laws for the benefit of big corporates in the country.Aam Aadmi Party leaders, too, held protest wherein district chief Rajwinder Kaur said the attempt of the Modi government to linger on farmers’ protest would have very serious repercussions. She demanded that the state government immediately revoke the three farm laws and give a written assurance to farmers on retaining the MSP.In Phagwara, Congress MLA BS Dhaliwal thanked the market associations and general public for maintaining a peaceful bandh in support of protesting farmers. In Kartarpur, the members of Bhartiya Kisan Union and Pendu Mazdur Union blocked the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway.Slogans tailor-made for a cause‘Shehar vaale vi jaag jaao, kisan de sangharsh vich aao’ (city residents wake up and participate in farmers’ struggle), this is how Ashish Julaha, of Contractual Employees’ Union, motivated residents to come out of their homes and support farmers on Tuesday. Julaha said: “I want to sensitise urban people that whatever they eat, comes from farmers.” Other slogans that he prepared include ‘Kisan te kisani sada gehna, ede bina Punjab nahee rehna’ (farmers and their occupation is our ornament, we can’t do without it), ‘Roti khanda har ek insan, is layi zaruri hai saade kisan’ (farmers are important to sustain every person’s life as we all need food for existence), ‘Ugaave kanak, chawal te makka, kisan naal saada saath hai pakka’ (he who grows wheat, rice and maize has our full support). Already fighting for the regularisation of contractual employees for long, Julaha decided to gather support for farmers’ cause at BMC Chowk on Tuesday. Several residents came out in support of farmers. Although they did not go to Delhi, they lent support from the city by observing Bharat Bandh. Other members of Contractual Employees’ Union also protested in support of farmers by wearing masks prepared specially for the occasion. Julaha’s 7-year-old daughter, though completely unaware of what exactly is happening, too, drew a placard in support of farmers insisting people to join the movement. — Aakanksha N BhardwajSchoolchildren join in...Even as the youth wings of political parties and college-goers are organising demonstrations in favour of farmers, school-going children along with their parents also came out to protest at PPR Market. Most of the participants included wards of local leaders of Shiromani Akali Dal. Seemingly quite aware of the issue, they delivered speeches ridiculing the Centre and the mistreatment being meted out to farmers on the Haryana-Delhi border. They said they were watching the updates on TV as well as social media. Many of them said they prepared posters at home last night to join their parents in their demonstrations.D-Mart forced shutAs the entire market areas remained shut in view of Bharat Bandh call, D-Mart, a supermarket at Guru Nanak Mission Chowk, remained open on Tuesday. Youth activists aligned with farmer organisations reached the supermarket and forced them to close it. At the time, several families were busy shopping inside the mall. They were given little time to get the billing done with whatever they had picked from the counters. After everyone came out, farmers asked managers to lock the shutters.

The Tribune

2020-12-09