Delhi has turned into ‘Protest Town’ for farmers again. In its intensity, the current gathering of ‘kisans’ on Delhi’s outskirts amid the Covid pandemic has been no less than what the national capital has seen in the past. Former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh had organised a peasants’ rally on India Gate lawns in December 1978, when he was Home Minister in the Janata Party Government. Then came western Uttar Pradesh farmers’ leader Mahendra Singh Tikait’s show of strength in 1988. During the Janata Dal regime, former Deputy Prime Minister and Haryana Jat leader Devi Lal held a big rally in 1989.
Each one of these rallies was meant to show its organiser’s massive power to mobilise followers. Tikait’s rally was different in one respect. He came with some demands to raise before the government. To press the Rajiv Gandhi Government to accept them, he brought lakhs of farmers from Western UP to India Gate lawns and declared the venue as their home till the demands were met. The current farmers’ convergence around Delhi is similar to Tikait’s rally.
The farmers’ first contingents came from Punjab and Haryana, travelling in their colourful tractors and trolleys, with equal determination to stay in Delhi, and if denied entry, around it, till their demands are met.
While the Charan Singh and Devi Lal rallies were day-long affairs, and lakhs of their followers dispersed after listening to their leaders from their Boat Club podiums, the Tikait followers had no plans to leave Delhi without gaining something.
They had their dry rations to keep them going under the sky in Delhi. The current agitation too has farmers equipped with all the necessities. They knew it would be a long haul and came prepared for it.
They have brought blankets and mattresses for Delhi’s winter nights, and food stocks to last up to six months. Known for inventing “jugaad,” the cheap innovations, the Punjab farmers have turned their tractors into comfortable bedrooms. Community kitchens have been set up for food requirements.
The farmers have brought large utensils and tawas to cook vegetables and chapatis. They are keeping themselves engaged watching videos on their mobiles, and singing songs of their struggle.
An enterprising young farmer brought a collection of books that could be of interest to the community. There are doctors for emergency situations. Unlike the previous rallies, the current farmers’ turnout is enjoying hospitality of locals too. Inspired by how citizens of different cities fed migrant workers walking back to their cities, residents of some localities in Delhi are providing food and other essentials to the farmers.
Besides, the rallies in Delhi have always attracted the city’s hawkers to offer cheap alternatives to food. While farmers wanting to hear their leaders Chaudhary Charan Singh and Chaudhary Devi Lal kept pouring in the capital even after they had finished speaking, the current agitation too is witnessing arrival of farmers, including women, on Delhi’s borders from different parts of the country every day.
Until recently, Delhi’s border points such as Singhu, Tikri, Chilla and Ghazipur were known to a few only; now everybody is familiar with these names. For Delhi’ites, farmers gatherings have been of much interest. They provide them rare opportunities to see and interact with rural folk from different parts of the country.
In a major departure from the earlier rallies, there is no central leader in command of the current gathering of farmers. The farmers are talking of their demands only. Their focus has remained the Centre’s controversial farm laws which they want to be withdrawn.
While the government has told them the laws would reform the Indian agriculture and empower farmers to sell their produce at their will, the farmers fear they will have nothing in it.