Farmers rally: Ready for long haul, they had came with rations for a month and cooks in tow
The farmers, under the banner of BKU, ended their 10-day march after being allowed to enter Delhi shortly after midnight on Tuesday and had left by 6am on Wednesday. But they had come prepared for a long standoff with the government.
Thousands of farmers who ended their 10-day Kisan Kranti Yatra early on Wednesday morning after being allowed to enter the national capital, were fully stocked and came prepared for a long standoff with the government.
Till Tuesday evening, nearly 20,000 farmers from across Uttar Pradesh and other states were camping Vaishali, Ghaziabad in their tractors with rations for over a month, gas stoves and cylinders, utensils, mattresses, clothes and even the best cooks from each village.
About two kilometres of Madan Mohan Malviya Marg — from NH-24 to Vaishali Metro station — in Ghaziabad was taken over by tractors; they stood parked on one side of the road.
Following a violent exchange between the police and the protesters on Tuesday morning — police resorted to lathicharge and tear gas shells to keep the protesters from entering Delhi — the Union government asked for some time to decide on the farmers’ demands. This reporter caught up with a few farmers during a break in the standoff as they retreated to their base camps—the tractors.
Every tractor was turned to a mini kitchen and dressing room between 1pm and 2pm. Urad dal, rice, ghee and jaggery was on the menu of most tractors. Others also had aloo puri and chhach (potato, puri and buttermilk) on offer. The day, farmers said, started with bananas, tea and pakoras.
“We have rations for over a month and will camp here till all our demands are met. The whole group gathered in Haridwar on September 23 and started the march towards Delhi. We have been using our ration and sleeping on our tractors since then,” Dharmendra Rana, a farmer from Meerapur Khurd village in Muzaffarnagar, said.
While the front of the protest was all male, women could also be seen on several of the tractors. Most of them were cooks brought from the villages. Food, it seems, is as important as the protest for rights. The menus are decided to ensure that it is different in taste from the last one. The food they farm is also what fuels their protests, literally.
Two women from Karnal had no idea what the farmers were demanding.
“We are here to cook for the others. I make good rotis and all these boys like my food. I don’t know what they are doing up ahead with the police, but they only want our family income to increase. I hope that the police don’t hurt them much,” Kamla Devi from Karnal said.
“We cover the sides of the tractor with clothes and help each other change clothes. We rented rooms at some places where we could use washrooms. We spent Monday night in Vasundhara before gathering in Vaishali,” Roshni Devi, another woman from Karnal, said.
While women used the tractors, men were seen bathing on the roads in Vaishali, using the water from trankers provided by the Ghaziabad administration.
The farmers know how to fight for their rights, said some of the elders as they played cards under the shade of trees lining the road. They, too, were in a rush, wanting to finish the round of cards before it got disturbed by updates or further violence. The smell of hookah and bidi smoke dominated the air. So did gossip over the upcoming elections and who would the farmers vote for.
“In 1987, we camped in Meerut for 40 days. There were thousands of protesters and we camped on our tractors, just as we are doing today,” Ajaybir Singh, a village elder from Meerut, said while recalling protests of the past.
Farmers said successive governments have disappointed the agrarian sector. Farmers also said delay in payments has been a regular complaint over the years and they would prefer choosing NOTA over any leader in the upcoming 2019 elections.
“None of the governments remember us farmers when they come to power. We have been exploited over the years. It is better to chose NOTA this time, than vote for any of the leaders we have,” Ompal Sahrawat, from Muzaffarnagar, said.
As leaders decided strategies for the protest, the supporters wanted something else — paneer pakora with the evening tea. Halwa was added to the menu after the government agreed to most of their demands.