Mohali: “Sannu saal ho chaleya, Modi da pit syapa kardey” (We’ve been crying against Modi for over a year now but we won’t stop), exclaimed Gurpreet Kaur, a woman in her late thirties who is the movement in-charge at Baras village in Patiala district. Her two children and her husband accompany her everywhere.

“We have just come back from Delhi. Right now I am at a morcha near my village and our next trip to Delhi will take place after May 30,” she spoke loudly over the phone even as a loudspeaker at the protest site was drowning her voice. 

Gurpreet leads a village-level committee for her union, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan). She mobilises over 100 women from the village. Gurpreet is among the many people in Punjab’s rural areas who have become full-timers. There has not been a day when Gurpreet has taken a break from her protest. She’s unafraid of the consequences the protest have against her or her family. 

There’s a person like Gurpreet in every village here. There’s deep sincerity among every protestor towards each of their responsibilities. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why this movement has become one of the largest protests against an elected government in India. 

This one-of-a-kind movement has been reeling under a health emergency, which too is a first. It is natural for a large, prolonged movement to have its low points – especially when the media and public look away from it. But, given the scale of the pandemic and its consequences in India, the movement is also fighting a natural and inevitable setback.

Shadow of COVID-19

Over 20 villages in Punjab became COVID-19 containment zones earlier this month. Shocking stories of death from rural parts of not just Punjab but Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have alarmed many.

Sandeep Singh, a young activist from Khamano village told The Wire that people are afraid to go out. “Hun COVID tan hai hi (There is COVID, you know),” he said. “Nothing can be done about it,” he added in a dispirited tone. “But when given protest calls by the leadership from Delhi, we do as much as we can.”

He was referring to the event of May 26 – the day the farmers’ protest completed six months in Delhi. Almost every village participated in it. Those who couldn’t go out of their homes tied the flags on their terrace and balconies. 

Protesters raise black flags on their homes to support the national black day call given by farmers’ unions on May 26. 

Last year, when the protest was gaining momentum in Punjab, many in rural Punjab shrugged off the coronavirus. There was hesitancy towards testing, and health teams were boycotted or driven away and masking was made fun of. But this year, several villages self-imposed lockdown-like restrictions and are now trying to get vaccinated as quickly as they can. 

Avtar Singh of Niamian village told The Wire that there aren’t any coronavirus cases in his village, but over 70% of the people there have inoculated themselves. The aim is to get vaccinated so that death and disease can be pushed over the fence and the protest against farm laws can get “back on track”. 

“See, most of us are back right now. But there’s always one person from this village at the border. There has to be. Yes, there’s COVID but we’re also back because we wanted to sell our wheat and sow our paddy. This is our livelihood. But, you see, after we’ve done the sowing, the numbers at the protest site will increase,” Jagroop Singh, another farmer from Fatehpur said. 

The support of artistes, youth

But it’s not just about the numbers. This agrarian uprising has made rural communities extremely conscious, especially the youth. Songs and pop culture on social media were major drivers of this last year.

Sandeep Singh of Khamanon accompanied many regional artists across Punjab during their rallies in the months of December and January. He told The Wire that some artists have been busy with their families and subsequently their work, so they don’t see most of them now. But “Jass Bajwa is among the few,” he said,  “who started campaigning once again a week ago. He has also toured a few villages talking to young people, telling them it’s alright and they shouldn’t lose hope in the movement.”

Bajwa is a famous Punjabi singer and quite influential. From Mohali, on May 19, he said that the farm laws must be fought to “save the existence” of farmers in India. He appealed to other artists to re-join the movement as soon as they can. He said this while announcing the release of his new song on farmers’ movement – Hokka. The catchphrase of the song – Dilli nu fer dovaara chaliye, dharney to hokka aaya hai can be loosely translated to ‘let’s go to Delhi again, the movement is calling us’. 

Speaking to The Wire, Amandeep Singh Bains, who is behind the Tractor2Twitter account on the social media networking site said that in the meetings with their cadre, in the last couple of months, they came to a clear conclusion that it wasn’t the right time to populate social media with content about the farmers movement, instead they took to creating COVID-19 resource kits for those in need. 

“We were bothered about decreasing media attention to the movement but soon enough we realised that social media was being used to cry for help. So religiously for two months, we stopped what we were doing, re-aligned and helped netizens with links to oxygen cylinders, ICU beds and everything else we could. Now that the situation is a bit under control, we will populate our channels differently.” 

Sikh diaspora and international support 

While there have been calls for the revival of the movement by artists, the cadre and the farmers’ union leaders, a large part of the Sikh diaspora feels the union leaders should ‘reach a settlement’ with the government.  Amaan Bali, a Sikh activist and author, believes that the protest has protracted for far too long. He was active in mobilising the diaspora on the internet and amplifying international support for the movement during the peak of the farmers’ agitation.  

“I am in close contact with many influential individuals from the Sikh diaspora all over the world. Some have lakhs of followers on social media and I can say on behalf of them that the diaspora feels the farmers should now reach a settlement with the government. This has gone for far too long. Most of us don’t expect the government to repeal the laws entirely. It has to be two steps forward and one step back. Some of us are citizens of progressive countries, we have families, old people back home and are genuinely concerned about the situation of coronavirus as well”. 

But in spite of this, incidents of January 26, Bali said, also reshaped the opinion of the Sikhs in the protest. 

Protestors at the Red Fort on January 26. 

“Sikhs have felt that the comrades (the farmer unions) did not give them their due in the participation of the movement. We are unapologetic about the hoisting of the Sikh flag at the Red Fort too. Having said this, there is definitely support for the cause, but most people don’t want to put their lives on the line,” he said. 

The said resentment among Sikh groups with the movement is a reflection of the diverse nature of this protest. But like Lacchman Singh Sewewala, the general secretary of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, which represents the cause of Dalit landless agricultural labourers told The Wire that this movement has given a platform to many to raise their demands, express their concerns but it must be understood by each stakeholder that the repeal of the three farm laws and the legal guarantee of a minimum support price are immediate causes. 

Dalit landless labourers

“We think this movement will let each person achieve what they’re here for. But it’s far from the truth,” said Sewewala. He believes that the repeal of the farm laws will not solve the fundamental issues of agrarian distress, especially those of landless agricultural labourers. 

“Old feuds with landowners and agricultural labourers haunt most of us. They are remembered. Many agricultural labourers have died fighting for their due, but this is the time to stand against the privatisation of agriculture and everything else can follow,” he said. 

The harvesting and sowing season coupled with the pandemic restrictions has decreased the already small support of Dalit agricultural labourers. As part of the revival of the protest, Sewewala said he is raising awareness among labourers in the fresh rounds of mobilisation. 

“We’re saying that if today they’re together with the landowners, tomorrow the landowners will speak out in favour of land rights, loan waivers and employment as well,” he said.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha has given a call for a Sampoorna Kranti or total revolution on June 5. Farmers will burn the copies of the farm bills and remember Indian independence activist Jayprakash Narayan’s similar call for total revolution against the Central government in 1974. 

“It is with spaced out events like this, the movement will gain momentum again,” said Abhimanyu Kohar, a leader of the SKM

Talks with government and ‘political damage’ 

Kohar said that the farmers are willing to talk with the government about their demands. But with a deadlock this strong, there isn’t much left to talk between the two sides. 

“It is unfortunate that the government has been putting conditions on us for talks. But at least from our side, we are open to the invitation”, he said. 

Meanwhile, farmers’ unions and many across Punjab feel that it’s not the talks but the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh that will determine the fate of this protest. Especially after the loss of the BJP in the panchayat elections – a strong marker of rural and agrarian sentiments in the state. 

“We have already announced ‘Mission UP’, where we will mobilise rural communities against the BJP’s failure in reviving the economy, a grim failure of managing the COVID-19 crisis in the state, and will definitely raise awareness on minimum support price,” he said. 

Citing the victories in breaking the alliance of SAD and BJP in Punjab, deep hostility against the Khattar government in Haryana and the loss of BJP in West Bengal elections, Kohar believes that UP will be too big a loss for the Modi government. A situation where rural communities are pacified by a guarantee in MSP will be a win-win for both sides.