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Journalism of Courage
As the Punjab farmer groups again hit the roads in a bid to march to Delhi to hold protests over their various demands, running into massive security force contingents – who have put up multi-layer barricades and used lathicharge and teargas shells to stop them – two new farmer leaders have come under spotlight: Sarwan Singh Pandher, the coordinator of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC), and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political) convener.
These two farmer leaders have been instrumental in their organisations’ call for “Dilli Chalo” to protest for a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) and loan waivers among other demands.
They were also the main representatives of the farmer unions when a group of Union Ministers, including Piyush Goyal and Arjun Munda, held two rounds of meetings with them in Chandigarh on February 8 and February 12, which remained inconclusive.
Although the KMM and the SKM (non-political) are umbrella bodies of farm unions from across the country, the Dilli Chalo agitation mainly involves farmer groups from Punjab and Haryana.
Pandher is an Amritsar-based farmer whose union KMSC operates in 16 districts of Punjab. Although the KMSC was part of the farmers’ agitation against the now-repealed farm laws in 2020-21, it was even then charting its own path.
In 2020, when 32 farmer unions of Punjab had given a rail roko call from October 1, 2020 to protest against the farm laws, the KMSC had given a similar call from September 24.
Later, when other farmer unions withdrew the rail roko stir on November 22, 2020, the KMSC rolled it back only on November 26 when farmers had started marching towards Delhi. On December 11 that year, the KMSC set out towards Delhi with a convoy of over 3,000 tractors.
On the Delhi borders then, the KMSC had set up its own separate stage at Kundli, even though most farmer unions of Punjab and several other states had formed the SKM to agitate under one platform at Singhu.
The KMSC was not part of the SKM, but it collaborated with them in various protests. Following the SKM’s tractor parade call, many farmers reached Red Fort on January 26, 2022 to hoist religious flags there.
Some KMSC leaders then took to Delhi’s ring road, but senior SKM leader Balbir Singh Rajewal still called them “traitors”. After the violence in Delhi, several KMSC members had been arrested, who were later released on bail.
After the year-long farmer movement was called off on December 9, 2021, the KMSC started holding its own programmes across Punjab, expanding its base across the state. From a group of 18 farm unions of North India in November 2023, the KMM under Pandher’s leadership grew to become a body of over 100 unions in January 2024.
The SKM (non-political)’s coordinator Dallewal is a Faridkot-based farmer, who is also the president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur) which operates in 19 districts of Punjab.
Only a few months ago, the KMM had started working in tandem with the SKM (non-political). They gave the Dilli Chalo call on January 2, 2024 in order to hold protest at Jantar Mantar, with both Dallewal and Pandher saying that they got a response form the central government only in early February.
The SKM (non-political) is an umbrella body of about 150 farm unions. It was formed in July 2022 by Dallewal along with several farmer leaders in protest against the SKM’s move to reinduct about 16 farm unions into its fold despite their plunge into the Punjab Assembly polls in February 2022 through their new outfit Samyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM).
In January this year, five farmer organisations under the leadership of Balbir Singh Rajewal also returned to the SKM, although Rajewal had floated the SSM besides contesting the polls.
To forge unity in their ranks, the SKM held a few meetings with the KMSC leaders but these talks failed. On the other hand, Dallewal never responded to the SKM’s outreach.
The differences between the SKM and the bodies led by Pandher and Dallewal could be gauged from the point that the latter went ahead with their Delhi march even though the SKM gave a call for February 16 Grameen Bharat Bandh regarding similar demands.
On February 3, the SKM leaders said they would have nothing to do with the Dilli Chalo call of some farmer organisations. However, following the security personnel’s crackdown on the members of the KMM and the SKM (non-political) on Tuesday, the SKM condemned it while writing to PM Modi to immediately withdraw the security forces and protect the farmers’ right to protest besides addressing their demands.
