Resistance Redux

Farmers' demand for MSP for all crops, among other assurances, remain unfulfilled

- Sharmita Kar

“THEY were using tear gas to disperse us. It made our eyes burn...That’s when some of them (the police) started firing pellets at us,” says Bikram Jeet Singh, 31, who was on the frontline of the farmers’ protest at Shambhu border at the Punjab-Haryana border on February 14. About 20-25 police personnel had toppled their barricades and rushed towards the farmers with their guns. “The pellets looked like small bombs. The flesh (on my arms) fell off completely,” says Singh who was hit on his arms and was admitted to a nearby hospital. Jaskarn Singh, 29, suffered a one-inch rubber bullet injury on his left leg. “It hurts a lot… We are farmers, we should not have been attacked this way,” he says. His friend, Ravinder Singh, was also injured. “A tear gas shell fell on my foot and burst open. It made my foot swell up,” he says, pointing at his toenails that are about to come apart.