‘The More Govt. Intimidates Us, the Stronger Movement Will Get,’ Says a Rejuvenated Tikri Border

Tikri Border: Convoys of trolley-laden tractors kept rolling in through Saturday at the Delhi-Haryana Tikri Border, galvanising the camping farmers who had found themselves at a rather subdued protest site after the Republic Day controversy.

Marching in primarily from nearby districts in Haryana, the protesters, including large numbers of women and the elderly, were committed to shift the focus back to the issues that mattered to them: repealing the controversial Farm Laws that they fear will destroy rural livelihoods.

Pouring in since last night, the farmers – mostly led by their khap leaders – brought back the exuberance with which the blockade at NH-9 was marked with since its beginning, back in November last year.

While some at the protest site maintained that the arrival of protesters was only “usual”, the ones who reached Tikri Border on Saturday said that it was the images on TV of peasant leader Rakesh Tikait sobbing which moved them.

A section among the new arrivals also claimed that they felt it was imperative to mark their presence at the border site to counter the narrative of a possible rift between the Punjab and Haryana protesters in the wake of recent events; a narrative being peddled by divisive forces, they said.

On Thursday, an eviction order an massive force deployment at the Ghazipur Border led to an emotional outburst by Tikait, the leader of Bharatiya Kisan Union’s Uttar Pradesh faction.

Among those who reached the Tikri Border were also women from Haryana villages. Image clicked by Ronak Chhabra

The attempt to clear the protest site by the Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) administration came two days after the incident at Red Fort where a wayward farmers’ contingent hoisted the Sikh’s sacred flag, the Nishan Sahib, alongside farmers’ union flags.

Events of the day provided room to the Centre and the BJP-ruled state governments to put an end to the agitation by intimidation or force.

“If the government would have been able to clear the Ghazipur protest site through force then Tikri and Singhu were only the next in line to receive similar treatment,” said Sukhbir, 64, from Jhajjar district’s Madana Kalan village.

Only a day later, on Friday, a group of alleged ‘locals’ also staged a protest at the Singhu and Tikri borders points demanding that the area be cleared while using the “Goli maaro…” chant, the one used last year by BJP leaders ahead of the Delhi elections.

Their demonstration had caused mayhem at the Singhu Border, with the police resorting to firing tear gas shells, even as things largely remained under control, though tense, at the Tikri Border.

Fortunately however, the attempts of the government were thwarted, Sukhbir boasted. “Thousands of farmers from Haryana and UP started from their villages to reach the protest site on Thursday night itself. In our own village a panchayat was called and it was decided that we would march towards Delhi to stand with the farmers protesting the kaale kaanoon,” Sukhbir said.

Inspired by similar sentiments, that farmers would throng the protest sites was also sensed by both, the UP and Haryana governments. The latter also suspended internet services in as many as 14 districts in the state till Saturday night – the move affected farmers camping at the Tikri Border as well.

Pargat Singh, state secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal), told NewsClick that in addition to the internet being down since Friday night, water supply to the protest site has also been affected for the last few days. “The cleaning work done by the municipal workers has been stopped; ration for our langars is not being allowed now to pass through the police barriers,” he said.

The Tikri Border has also been closed for entry to the general public, Singh added. “These are all pressure tactics by the government to terrify us. They are however, forgetting only one thing: the more they’ll intimidate the farmers, the stronger the movement will get.”

The sentiment reverberated across a protest site that stretches for more than 10 kms inside Haryana, with more protesters slated to join in the days to come. Ranbir Raja, 41, told NewsClick that “over a thousand” have already left their villages in the nearby Bahadurgarh to stand shoulder to shoulder with their farmer unions.

“Watching Tikait crying was enough. We told ourselves ek kisan ro raha hai, hum ghar par kaise baithe rahe,” Raja, from ‘Dalal’ khap, said. The farmers’ agitation have been ongoing in a peaceful manner for more than two months now, and it shall remain so even in the days to come, he added. “We won’t let this movement die.”

Similarly, farmers led by khap groups – ‘Ahlawat’, ‘Kadyan’, ‘Satrol’ and ‘Siwach’ were also present.

Farmers have also reached here from villages in Fatehabad and Jind distric. Gurpyar Singh, 41, from the former, who reached the Tikri border today, said: “The BJP government thinks that it can frighten us by sending its goons or by cutting the water and electricity supply. See for yourself how the farmers have reacted to it,” he said.

Among those who reached today were also women from Haryana’s villages. Jasbeer Kaur Nat, 60, from the Punjab Kisan Union, who were handling stage duties at the protest site, said that woman participation has only increased at here. “Many of them are also returning now because they feel the need for it, more so after what happened on January 26.”

The women are determined to not let the movement drift away from its objectives, she added.

Mandeep Singh, 32, from Jhajjar, said that the numbers pouring in from Haryana was a “fitting reply” to those who were trying to project the farmers’ agitation as one by those only from Punjab. The narrative was furthered by the hoisting of the Nishan Sahib at the Red Fort.

They have been proven wrong yet again, Singh claimed. “Look at how farmers from UP have turned up and so as from Haryana. Thousands from Rajasthan are sitting at Shahjahanpur. Nothing can break our unity.”

‘Sadbhavana Diwas’

On Saturday, the farmers along with Samyukt Kisan Morcha leaders, at Tikri Border also observed a fast to mark the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi. Similarly, farmers abstained from eating between 9 am and 5 pm at other protest sites as well.

Baldev Singh, district president, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Dakaunda) in Punjab’s Bathinda said that many farmers here had observed the fast today and remembered values espoused by Mahatma Gandhi. “Non-violence is our strength and we shall win this fight against the Modi government with it,” he said.