ON FURY ROAD

Will the planning and patience of the protesting farmers spoil the Centre’s game plan?

- PRATUL SHARMA

Mohinder Singh’s enthusiasm belies his age. His weather-beaten face speaks of the struggles he has gone through—from surviving crop failure to participating in various movements Punjab has seen over the decades. This one, he hopes to win.

The 78-year-old farmer from Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib district is camping near the Singhu border, Delhi’s main gateway to Haryana and Punjab. He wants the Union government to withdraw the three agriculture reform laws it had passed in September. “The Central government wants to take away our land and destroy us. The laws must be withdrawn,” said Singh, as he sat with his friends near a tractor trolley, peeling garlic cloves for an evening meal.

On both sides of the six-lane Grand Trunk Road are seemingly endless rows of tractors and trolleys blocking the Singhu border. For every five tractors, there is a trolley full of ration and essential supplies. The farmers have set up makeshift street-kitchens for anyone who cares to join them. Delhi’s powerful gurdwara body has pitched in with its own langar (community kitchen), and so have other organisations like Khalsa Aid. People from Haryana are supplying bottled water, milk, gas cylinders, mattresses and blankets.

The scene resembles a mini city built by a caravan of migrants, or an army division waiting for its next order. The farmers have already travelled more than 300km, crossing barriers put up by the police in Haryana and Delhi, and braving tear gas and water cannons. The Punjab peasantry’s cultural history of resistance against those in power in Delhi has provided energy to the movement.