Protest sites were like home, will be lifelong memory, say farmers

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ After spending over a year agitating against the three farm laws at three Delhi border points, many farmers became nostalgic as Samyukta Kisan Morcha announced that thousands of protestors would start vacating the protest sites from December 11.

Amrik Singh, aged around 65, from Patiala said he felt at home in his tent at Singhu border and thought of the possibility of leaving it with a heavy heart. “I don’t feel like leaving it all behind and all those memories of struggle, moments of joy and friendships we have formed,” he said. “It often occurs to me that I should rent a house here if the protest ends,” Singh added in a lighter vein.

Riding hundreds of tractors and other vehicles, farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in the last week of November 2020 moved towards Delhi demanding repeal of three farm laws of the Narendra Modi government.

Since November 26 last year, the farmers have laid siege at highways at Delhi’s border points at Singhi, Ghazipur and Tikari setting up makeshift accom­odation and arrangements of daily life. Saudagar Singh, a middle-aged farmer from Ludhiana, reminisced his struggles during the yearlong protests, narrating the bonds he forged and how many new friends he found at the protest site.