‘We hope for the best but are prepared for the worst’

On June 5, the day these black ordinances were promulgated, the farmers burnt copies at 5,000 places across the country. In the subsequent weeks and months, thousands of memoranda, appeals and requests for revoking the ordinances were made but there was no response from the Centre. Throughout August, there were protests and we kept urging the government to put the ordinance on hold. On September 1, there was countrywide protest by the farmers but the government pressed on. The Bills were pushed through in Parliament without any debate or discussion. The farmers were frustrated and scaled up the protests. On September 25, more than one crore farmers hit the streets. It was only then that we decided to come to Delhi and ask the government to listen to us. They have ignored us for seven months and only when lakhs of us are sitting at Delhi’s doorstep that they are feigning some kind of humility and calling us for talks. I thought with Home Minister Amit Shah’s intervention, there would be a genuine attempt to address our concerns, but what they call is a promise in writing to the farmers is a power-point presentation scribbled down in a hurry. They are not serious.

Look, they are calling us so that they do not look entirely unreasonable after having pushed these laws without any discussion while a pandemic was raging. But these are unstructured talks without any agenda being set or minutes being recorded. Just because we are sitting on the road, do not presume that we do not understand administrative and legal processes. You call us and repeat the same rhetoric again and again. The cosmetic changes that they have suggested do not change the character of these laws. They have shown no willingness to understand the gravity of the situation.

And you’re saying they did not stop us! They dug trenches several feet deep on the highways, hit us with water cannons, tear gas shells and pitted boulders and barricades on the roads to stop us from coming to our own capital to ask the government. For the first time in Independent India, the border of Haryana was sealed for the farmers of Punjab. But our brothers in Haryana helped us and we paved the roads together for the Punjab farmers to come. There is absolute unity and solidarity among farmers. They wanted to shove us into Burari where nobody would have noticed even if they turned it into another Jallianwalah Bagh. This is an insensitive and obdurate government. It is more than 33 days, there are elderly people, women, infants in the protest and the BJP called them Khalistanis. People are watching everything. It will not be forgiven.

We are hoping for the best but are prepared for the worst. From Delhi, the movement will now go to other States. The capitals of seven - eight major States will see relentless struggles now. We are talking to farmers of those States. Farmers will continue to participate in Delhi protests.

Since December 9, when the last dialogue happened, they have sent two almost identical letters. There has been no other movement. We do not see any seriousness on the government’s part. But the talks have to go on. We are not against it. We have told them in our letter what we want. If this was a genuine exercise in building trust, there would not have been a simultaneous propaganda to paint the farmers as agents of political parties or khalistanis. How can there be any trust in such an atmosphere? If political parties support us, we can’t stop them. But farmers do not carry anyone’s agenda.

There are two dimensions for these protests. First against the policies of the Centre and the second against the beneficiaries of these policies. We are not against reforms. But the reforms should stop farmers’ suicide. It should provide them better remuneration. Here, the reforms are for the corporates. The government must understand that people are angry and frustrated.

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