As farmers’ Shambhu border protest turns 100 days tomorrow, a look at ‘mini-villages’ set up on highway

“It is like an exhibition hall that we see at many exhibitions. Now from here the agitation will be run. Morcha lamba chalega…garmi bohot hai..is karke intzaam vadaye hai (The agitation will run for a long time. It is too hot. So a few arrangements have been spruced up.),” Sarwan Singh Pandher, coordinator of the KMM, said as he supervised the setting up of the shed.

As protesting farmers living in trolleys , some of them used empty water bottels to decorat their sitting place in between the trolleys at highway near Shambhu border where dharna will complete 100 days on May 22. Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh

Asked about the ongoing polls in Punjab, Balraj Singh from Kabarwala village in Muktsar district, said, “We will continue camping at the site and not go home to vote. For whom should we vote? We have no hope in any political party? For us there are no polls.”

The temporary shed has been specially set up as the agitation at both Shambhu and Khanauri will complete 100 days on Wednesday, when a protest rally has also been planned at Shambhu.

As the agitation is nearing 100 days, farmers camping on the roads have set up almost entire houses on the highway. Krishan Singh Balian, a 65-year-old farmer from Balian in Sangrur district, said, “In order to survive on the road, one has to make it a ‘mini-village’.”

A group of six farmers were sitting in this hutment with a desert cooler on. Two cots were seen lying under the sun. “We sleep in the open at night. We make tea on a gas stove here itself. A langar comes from nearby villages every day.”

Not only utensils, clothes, cots, LPG cylinders and gas stoves but also small plants can be seen here.

A little ahead is the trolley of Balpurian village of Gurdaspur district, where Amarjeet Singh, Sukhwant Singh—farmers in their early 60s—are sitting quietly and reading a Punjabi newspaper. They have brought a small refrigerator and a wooden sofa besides cots. Water tankers come along this highway daily and villagers fill their drums with water, which is used for washing utensils and clothes, bathing and also for other uses.

Anger not only at BJP but also at AAP

Charanjit Singh from Ghabdan village in Sangrur said, “Not only the BJP, but we are also angry with the AAP because their government allowed Haryana to fire tear gas shells on us. They did not even take strict action against the Haryana police. They sat quietly after lodging a zero FIR and that too after eight days of a death. We will remember this in the polls.”

Asked from where they were taking electricity for running their gadgets, the farmers said in unison, “Sometimes from the transformer and at times we use a generator set as well.”

Close to the Shambhu border is a big tent set up for a langar, where villagers are on duty to serve food. Sewa is also being done to clean utensils at another corner. Dal, roti and pudina chutney is available along with tea.

“Coffee can also be made. We daily get over a quintal of milk from Haryana and Punjab villages voluntarily. They are doing this sewa selflessly. Babe Nanak da langar chal raha hai…” said Tejveer Singh, spokesperson of the BKU Shaheed Bhagat Singh Haryana.

Two chillers have also been brought to keep milk so that it can be used throughout the day. “All the work is going on quietly. Everyone is voluntarily doing their duties. This clearly indicates how peaceful this dharna is,” said Harjit Singh from Mangwal in Sangrur.

Several langars could be seen on the 3 km-stretch “On routine days, we sit in our trolleys or in the huts and the agitation is run on special days. Now a temporary shed has been made,” said Gurmail Singh, a farmer from Behrampur village who participated in the sit-in at the Shambhu railway station till Monday evening, when it was called off.

More farmers coming

Two tractor-trolleys with air conditioners could also be seen near the railway station.

As the agitation is nearing 100 days, farmers camping on the roads have set up almost entire houses on the highway. Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh

There were only a few hundreds of protesters on Monday and Tuesday at the highway. But an appeal has been made to farmers to come in large numbers on Wednesday to mark the completion of the 100 days of the agitation. “Women will be coming on Wednesday,” said Amarjit Singh.

Trolleys from Sultani and Dorangla in Gurdaspur as well as a temporary hut by villagers from Pola in Fatehgarh Sahib and many other villages could also be seen on the highway. A few buses are also parked on the highway.

Most of the villagers in the trolleys are above 60 years old. Asked about 22 people who died during the agitation, Kashmir Singh, 75, from Muktsar district, said, “Ghar baithe vi marna hi hai…maut kade vi aa sakdi hai…par morcha nahi chhadange. (One can die while sitting at home as well…death keeps no calendar…but we will not give up on the agitation).”

“Till the time our demands are not met, we will not go. You can see how peacefully we all are sitting here. They shelled tear gas on us. They made the walls, not us,” he added.

Farmers under the banners of the KMM and the SKM (non-political) had given a Dilli Chalo call for February 13. But they were stopped from marching to Delhi by security forces from Haryana.

The walls erected by the Haryana police at Shambhu are still in place and paramilitary forces can be seen guarding them from the other side of the border. Farmers call for minimum support prices for all crops and the calculation of the MSP by following Dr Swaminathan’s formula, among many other demands.