Farmers’ Protest: One Dies in Preneet Kaur Protest, Khattar Faces Wrath

On 4 May, farmers were protesting against the sitting MP and BJP candidate from Patiala, Preneet Kaur, at Sehra village near Rajpura. In the melee, 50-year-old Surinderpal Sigh of Akkri village collapsed. Farmers took him to a nearby building and tried to revive him, but he died. According to farmer leader Tejveer Singh Toor, no effort was made either by the police or by the MP’s supporters to rush the farmer to the hospital. Toor said that the post-mortem examination would not be performed till the police record the statement of the victim’s family. Preneet Kaur expressed condolences and stopped her campaign for 48 hours. In Haryana, former CM Manohar Lal Khattar, the BJP candidate from Karnal, was at the receiving end of the farmers’ ire on 30 Apr. He faced protests in at least five places during the campaign. Bhartiya Kisan Union (Sir Chhotu Ram) president Jagdeep Singh Aulakh said: ‘The farmers wanted to ask questions from Khattar in connection with the injustice meted out to them during the past nearly five years. When police did not allow them to meet Khattar, the farmers staged protests and showed him black flags.’ It has been 84 days since protests began and as the weather turns hot, the Shambhu border dwellings have become semi-permanent structures. As the rail blockade at Shambhu railway station completes 20 days, the Panjab industry is unhappy with over 200 trains being affected and 65 trains being canceled daily. The stalemate is an acute instance of national and state govt. and administration’s apathy towards farmers.