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Journalism of Courage
Almost four years after their protests forced the Narendra Modi government to repeal the three contentious farm laws, farmers at Shambu and Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border prepare to mark a year of their protest seeking the implementation of 14 demands, including a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP).
Even as the farmers seem prepared for the long haul like 2020, the latest protest, which began on February 13, 2024, is having its share of issues.
Not only are there cracks among farmer unions but the frequent disruptions caused by their protests mean the industry stakeholders and common people, especially in the urban areas of Punjab, are increasingly cold to their demands.
For instance, while the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), seen to be the parent farmer body, which was behind the 2020-21 protest, has extended its support to the ongoing agitation, none of its members have been present at Khanauri or Shambu. The agitation has also not drawn much support from beyond Punjab, with Haryana having earlier this year stunned the Congress by overwhelmingly voting for the BJP.
As of Wednesday, the protesters under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) and SKM (Non-Political) had been camped at the protest sites for 322 days, with farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal’s hunger strike entering its 37th day at Khanauri.
Monday’s nine-hour Punjab bandh called by the farm bodies, the latest, brought 174 trains to a halt and affected 232 in total. Railway sources said that every such blockade causes running into crores of rupees. While no official overall figures are available, Monday’s bandh resulted in loss of Rs 6.4 lakh through ticket refunds for the Ferozepur division alone.
Moreover, for many, the bandh brought back memories of when the farmers resorted to a 33-day rail roko between April 18 and May 20, 2023, demanding the release of three youths arrested by the Haryana Police. A total of 170 trains were affected while 70 trains cancelled on a daily basis during this period, while premium trains such as the Shatabdi Express and Vande Bharat took thrice their usual time to reach their destinations.
All three youths were later released on bail.
Apart from hitting the railway network, the road blockades have also increased commute time on NH-44 and NH-52 by an hour. Taxis on the Ludhiana-Delhi route are costing up to Rs 1,000 more.
Among the supporters of the farm protests, the state’s industry has lately come out in the open, saying they have “had enough”. “All industries are feeling the heat. It is just that only a few express their agitation on record,” Badish Jindal, the convenor of the All Industries and Trade Forum, told The Indian Express.
Pegging Monday’s losses alone at over Rs 500 crore, the president of the Association of Trade and Industrial Undertakings, Pankaj Sharma, said, “Members of many (farmer) unions forcibly entered the premises of industrial units and shut them. They can call for bandh but cannot shut them down forcibly. The prolonged protests are hitting industries hard. We do not want Punjab getting the tag of being a ‘protest state’,” he said.
Terming the “forcible” closure of industries as a “new kind of terrorism where the industry is being deprived of their right to do business”, Jindal claimed many of his clients had “shifted” to Haryana during the April-May rail roko even as the state government remained a “mute spectator”. “They (investors) fear that protests can break out any time in Punjab and are moving their base. Punjab’s loss is Haryana’s gain,” he said.
Punjab imports 90% of the scrap for steel-related products and sells 90% of its manufactured goods to other states. It also exports rice worth over Rs 8,000 crore, woollen and cotton clothes worth Rs 7,500 crore, meat worth nearly Rs 2,000 crore, auto parts worth around Rs 2,500 crore, yarn worth Rs 2,000 crore, cloth and linen worth Rs 3,500 crore, scaffolding worth Rs 1,300 crore, tools, medicines and other chemicals worth Rs 1,800 crore, tractors and agricultural implements worth Rs 800 crore, fasteners, flanges and other products worth Rs 1,200 crore.
Many of these industries fear they have not seen the last of such bandhs.
Vice-President, Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, Anil Bansal also echoed Jindal’s views. “There are over 40 farmer unions. Should we consider each call for a bandh? This way, we will never be able to work. Sometimes, I feel farmer unions are running a parallel government. Protests outside banks and stores even over related issues like loans are not common,” he said.
Upkar Singh, president of the Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings, said he supported the farmers but their way of registering protests is hurting the industry, and he urged them to “rethink their ways”.
Jindal said the state’s industries would be further hit if anything untoward happened to Dallewal. “The farmers’ actions are hurting Punjab and this time they do not have the support that they had in 2020,” he said.
The protesting farmers have found support from the Federation of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings with its general secretary Manjinder Singh Sachdeva expressing concerns over Dallewal’s health. “It is not correct that the Union government is not bothered about the farmers and is not hearing out their concerns. It seems like they have an ego clash with some farmer leaders,” he said.
The more the protest continues, there is increasing disenchantment with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party. In the recently held local body polls, the party managed to win only three of the 11 seats in the Khanauri panchayat, with urban residents accusing the AAP government of being “silent spectators” to their problems.
Even in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s home turf, the AAP managed to win only seven of the 29 seats and is now extending support to Independents to cobble up a majority and “save face”.
KMM coordinator Sarwan Singh Pandher puts the blame squarely on the Centre, calling it “responsible for the losses”. “They (the Centre) are not hearing us out and not even allowing us to go to Delhi on foot,” he said.
AAP spokesperson and Anandpur Sahib MP Manwinder Singh Kang, echoed Pandher’s views, urging the Centre to “let go off its stubbornness” and talk to the farmers. “Dallewal has risked his life for the farmers’ demands, yet the heartless Centre remains unmoved. All demands concern the Central government. Only a dialogue will end farmers’ struggles and put an end to the hardships faced by the general public,” he said.
However, on the ground, the heat is being felt as much by the AAP.
The SKM recently asked the Punjab government to pass a resolution in the Assembly in support of their demands and also sought the scrapping of the proposed National Framework Policy for Agricultural Marketing by the Centre.
The Congress has also come out in favour of the MSP demand, with Jalandhar MP and former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi, who is also the chairman of the Standing Committee on Agriculture, submitting a report in its favour to Parliament.
BJP state president Sunil Jakhar, while admitting that farmers required support, said their demand for a legal guarantee of MSP had its issues. “It (MSP) will harm Punjab. I can sit and explain it to them,” he said.
