Farmers’ Protest: Foot March Call

After over a week in which farmers kept vigil on Shubhkaran Singh's body, the Panjab govt. agreed to a post-mortem which revealed what farmers alleged: an injury mark on the occipital region (the rearmost region of the skull) and his body bore no other injury marks. The Panjab police filed a zero First Information Report (FIR) without naming Haryana police as the aggressor. Zero FIR has no jurisdictional constraints. The Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) has asked Panjab and Haryana to place on record their orders suspending the internet and has sought Shubhkaran's post-mortem report. It had earlier asked under what rules the states have barricaded the roads. Finally, Shubhkaran's body was brought to Khanauri interstate border where farmers paid their respects and then taken for cremation to his village Balloh in Bathinda district. At the Shambhu border, farmers from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Adivasi farmers are collecting. Farmers from Panjab wonder, if India wants to place barricades, why don’t they head to nearby Lahore? Sarvan Singh Pandher from Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) — who had earlier provided documentation of his efforts to take Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) along — and Jagjit Singh Dallewal from SKM (Non-Political) gave the next call. Since the government has repeatedly said farmers must come to New Delhi by bus or train and not on tractors, now nationwide farmers should leave their tractors and trolleys behind to march to Delhi on foot, bus, and rail on 6 Mar. They have also called for a rail roko (stop all trains) nationwide on 10 Mar. It remains to be seen whether the government will even allow this march.

On 1 Mar, INC members of the Panjab assembly disrupted Governor Banwarilal Purohit’s address on the opening day of the budget session over farmer issues. As soon as the governor began delivering his address, Panjab INC chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring demanded homage be paid to Shubhkaran Singh, who died after Haryana Police action at Khanauri border on 21 Feb. Leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said that Haryana has sealed its borders with Panjab. ‘You have not been able to protect your farmers.’ The INC members questioned the zero First Information Report registered against unnamed police personnel. Since the protest has been unable to move beyond Panjab this time, unlike the 2020-21 protest which fanned anti-BJP sentiment, this time social media hounds BJP and AAP in the state. This has also adversely affected the BJP-SAD seat-sharing talks for the General Elections. On 26 Feb, Hindu group Aggarwal Kisan Mazdoor Ekta Zindabad reached the protest site near the Khanauri interstate border with a crew of mechanics that replaced the damaged tires and spare parts on the spot in response to those saying the protest was mostly by Sikh farmers. Their banner carried the images of the late Deep Sidhu and Sidhu Moose Wala. On 25 Feb, as Haryana farmers faced passport and Visa cancellation, CM Manohar Lal Khattar faced sloganeering at a public event at Rohtak. With barricades on Interstate borders, due to disruption in road connectivity with the rest of India, a major fuel crisis looms large in Panjab. Meanwhile, on 14 March, as planned, the SKM is going ahead with their Mahapanchayat (large gathering) at Ram Lila Maidan, Delhi. 400 unions across the nation have confirmed participation.

At the 13th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi last week, India submitted that farmer subsidies provided by some developed countries were up to 200 times that of developing countries. There is a strong case for establishing a level playing field for millions of low-income farmers by starting the reform process with finding a permanent solution to public stockholding (PSH) for food security. Proposing a sequential approach to the overall reform process in agriculture, India said a permanent solution to the PSH must be delivered as it already has a past mandate, recalling three mandates from the Bali Ministerial of 2013, the General Council decision of 2014, and the Nairobi Ministerial decision of 2015. At present, PSH subsidies given by developing nations, including for Minimum Support Price (MSP) programs, are subject to a cap of 10% of production value. India and other developing countries want a permanent solution incorporated in the Agreement on Agriculture that will give them the flexibility to expand their MSP and other PSH programs without the worry of breaching the cap and attracting legal action. The issue was so significant for developing countries that more than 80 countries representing over 61% of the world’s population, comprising the G33 group of countries, Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP), and the African Groups, have co-sponsored a proposal on a permanent solution. India’s position aligns with the farmers’ demand that they exit the current WTO Agreement on Agriculture (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 9, Story 4).

On 4 Jun 2017, with the arrest of Gurdial Singh, Jagroop Singh, and Satwinder Singh, the Panjab Police claimed to have busted a terror module with links to the ISI-backed banned outfit International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF). In 2019, during the Kartarpur Corridor talks, this case made it to the 23-page dossier on alleged terror activity from Pakistan against India. The accused were allegedly linked to Pakistan-based Lakhbir Singh Rode and Harmeet Singh alias Happy, both now supposedly dead. The trio was charged under Sections 15, 16, 17 & 18 of the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). On 26 Feb, a court in Panjab’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district acquitted them. Since two weapons, a .32-bore pistol and .38-bore revolver, were also seized from them, Gurdial Singh and Jagroop Singh have been convicted under Section 25 of the Arms Act. On the UAPA charges, the court order reads, ‘Not even an iota of evidence had come on record that the accused ever raised any funds from a foreign country for committing any terrorist activity in India. No transaction was received from abroad in their bank accounts. The magazines Gurmukh Parkash and Vangar seized from them were not prohibited by the Government of India. Their visit to Pakistan Gurdwaras was not illegal and not a crime. There is no evidence that they conspired to wage war against India or states of India.’ In 2020, Indian Ministry of Home Affairs data showed that from 2016-18, over 3,000 UAPA cases were registered but only 821 charges were filed within a stipulated period of 180 days.

On 27 Feb, the priest at a Shiv Temple in Sahnewal near Ludhiana found fourteen idols defaced and vandalized. Hindu organizations threatened that if the accused were not arrested within four days, they would stage protests and hand over the damaged idols to the commissioner of police and deputy commissioner to mark their protest. Shiv Sena Punjab chairman Rajiv Tandon said as the Mahashivratri festival is around the corner, anti-social elements have vandalized the idols deliberately to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and to instigate them to disturb the law and order situation in the city. On 2 Mar the police arrested Sonu Kumar (24), a resident of Pava village who hails from Bihar for having vandalized the idols. The reason was his disgruntlement over a donation he had made to the temple. Since the accused was from within the Hindu community, the matter has been laid to rest. Meanwhile, various Sikh organizations, including Sikh Sadbhavna Dal, Khalra Mission Organization, and Alliance of Sikh Organisation took out a march in Nakodar seeking justice for the killings of four youths at Nakodar on 4 Feb 1986. The protesters demanded justice for the families over extra-judicial killings now denied for 38 years. Similar to the 2015 sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari and the killing of two young men, on 2 Feb 1986, at Nakodar, a group of Sikhs were protesting when on 4 Feb the police allegedly fired 300 rounds on them. In the last four decades, three political parties have formed government in Panjab, but justice over the Nakodar killings eludes the people and families.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) recently ordered the governments of Panjab and Haryana to constitute High-Powered Committees to inquire into the management of muafi (revenue-free) lands assigned to Sikh and Hindu communities for building Gurdwaras and Temples. The judgment was on the case titled Mandir Shri Satya Narayan v. State of Punjab and Others. A Bench of Justices Sureshwar Thakur and Lalit Batra ordered the Committees to see whether there is a well-established system for the appointment of Mohatmims/Shehbits (managers acting on behalf of the idol inside the Temples) or Granthis (custodians of the Guru Granth Sahib) at such religious places. The custodians are to ensure the performance of daily rituals inside Sikh Gurdwaras or Hindu Temples and proper maintenance of the properties and their incomes, stressed the Court. The Court observed there was no ‘well-formed government machinery’ to streamline the workings of muafi lands or such properties that have been assigned to religious communities. Meanwhile, the High Court held the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee's president Harmeet Singh Kalka and general secretary Jagdeep Singh Khalon in contempt of court over non-payment of teachers' salaries. The court deemed the officials guilty of intentionally not complying with a 2021 ruling that ordered payment of arrears of salaries to teachers and staff of Guru Harkrishan Public School, according to the 6th and 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC). In 2021, the Court had directed the committee that arrears under the 6th CPC shall be paid with interest at the rate of 6% per annum whereas the arrears of the 7th CPC would not carry any interest.

The Indian govt. has issued instructions to states to start procurement of wheat at minimum support prices from 1 Mar, earlier than usual. A top official said on 26 Feb, that the payments for the procured wheat would be transferred to farmers’ accounts within 48 hours. The govt. statement says the move is prompted due to early sowing in many regions and cool conducive weather which has prompted the govt. to estimate a bumper harvest of the grain. The center estimates this year the wheat stocks to set to be a record 112MT, compared to last year’s 110MT. The timing of wheat procurement must be seen alongside the farmers’ protest on inter-state borders. Early procurement will mean farmers will have to go home, harvest the crop, and sell it. The govt. is using this tactic to reduce the number of farmers at protest sites. Ironically, since 2 Mar, rains and hailstorms have wreaked havoc in Panjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and north Madhya Pradesh. In Panjab, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Nurmahal near Jalandhar was the wettest, receiving 46 mm rain till the morning of 3 Mar, followed by Gurdaspur with 34.8 mm and Ropar with 26 mm. While the wheat is still ripening, the strong gusts of wind at 60-80 kmph are flattening the wheat, maize, and sugarcane crops, rendering them useless for harvest. ‘Damage to crops, mainly wheat and mustard, is spread over 1500K hectares,’ said Punjab Agriculture and Farmer Welfare director Jaswant Singh. 

In a suspected hate crime, a 29-year-old musician with a Sikh kirtan (devotional singing) group was shot dead by unidentified assailants in front of a Gurdwara in Alabama on 2 Mar night. Raj Singh aka Goldy was in the US for the past one and a half years and hailed from Tanda Sahuwala village in Bijnor district in UP. Singh, the sole provider for his family after his father's death, leaves behind his mother, two sisters, and a younger brother. His family has written to the government, requesting his body be brought back to India for cremation. In the UK, Member of Parliament Preet Gill raised concerns about transnational repression against British Sikhs by individuals connected to India. Gill orally questioned Tom Tugendhat in the Parliament, ‘Given reports of British Sikhs facing similar threats, what steps is the government taking to secure their safety and will the minister show the same strength as our partners to publicly defend their democratic rights?’ Tugendhat responded, ‘The government is continually assessing potential threats to individual rights, freedoms and safety in the UK and uses its intelligence services to mitigate any threats to individuals.’ Gill, however, did not mention the Sikh activist Avtar Singh Khanda who died in June 2023 in Birmingham. Officially Khanda died from leukemia but Sikhs allege he was poisoned at the behest of India. Recently, Michael Polak, the lawyer Khanda’s family has engaged, wrote to UK Home Secretary James Cleverly demanding a full investigation into Khanda’s sudden death. Polak believes Khanda’s death has echoes of the poisoning of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 5, Story 2).

45 years after construction began, the Shahpur Kandi barrage is now ready to be commissioned. The barrage is located 11 km south of the Ranjit Sagar Dam and 15 km north of Pathankot. Announced in 1979, its foundation stone was laid in 1982, but the it was held up by a domestic dispute between the states of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Panjab. The barrage, 55.5 meters high, is part of a multi-purpose river valley project that includes two hydel power projects with a total installed capacity of 206 MW. 1,150 cusecs of water will now irrigate 32,000 hectares of land in two districts – Kathua and Samba – in J&K. Another 5,000 hectares of land in Panjab will also benefit. J&K will be able to get 20% of the hydel power generated from the barrage, which will also act as a balancing reservoir for the Ranjit Sagar Dam project whose storage capacity, guided by the power-generation considerations, is wreaking havoc with the Upper Bari Doab Canal System. According to the Indus Water Treaty (1960) between India and Pakistan, signed under the supervision of the World Bank, India has full rights over the waters of rivers Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas, while Pakistan has rights over the waters of Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab. India is within its rights to utilize the Ravi waters and is now doing that. Politically, the project serves as propaganda for the BJP in the Hindi belt over India stopping water to Pakistan.

According to the latest bird survey in north India’s largest wetland, Harike Wildlife Sanctuary, 50,529 migratory birds were spotted this year. The Harike sanctuary spreads over 86 square kilometers in the Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, and Kapurthala districts of Panjab. The wetland is located on the confluence of the Satluj and Beas rivers. Every year, migratory birds from Siberia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Russia, and other parts of the world arrive after water bodies get frozen at their native places in winter. The birds stay at Harike till March or April. Last year, the number was 65,624. A total of 114 species of migratory and resident water birds visited the wetlands this season as compared to 107 species last year. In 2021, the number was 74,869 migratory birds of 88 species had arrived. In 2020, the number was 91,025 from 90 species. The survey was conducted by Punjab State Forest and Wildlife Department and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The reasons for the 22% decrease in avian visitors are climatic conditions, less snowfall in Europe, and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war. It is encouraging that there were rare sightings of water birds and raptors, such as crested serpent eagle and great and black-necked grebe, this year. Lesser birds but more species of birds point to distress in the native habitats of the avian visitors. Apart from the Harike wetland, Panjab has five more protected wetlands: Keshopur Miani, Nangal, Ropar, Kanjli, and Beas river. Besides these, the Ranjit Sagar Dam conservation reserve has also been recognized as a national wetland.